Both teams have been less than impressive, but I'll tip the 36ers by 5 due to the boost of Randle's inclusion and having home court advantage. Plus they're coming off a loss.

And.... I'll go hide in a bomb shelter after making this comment, but, Ebi's really due. It has to come sooner or later.

Craig is only played half a game. We cain't help it if we're lucky. So we should win at home. New Import just off a plane but pretty to watch.

It's crunch time for the Sixers. A win tonight will stabilise the ship and build momentum for the game against the Kings.

Big game with the inclusion of the new import replacing the injured import. He knows the microscope will be on him do I expect he will be out to impress.

Taipans may be Trigger Happy, but lets not forget Sixer's Crowd favourite Stevie Weigh loves to play at the Arena and loves it when the crowd cheers each time he misses a basket, not. Let's not forget perennial pest Wortho. He is a pest because he doesn't know how to behave. He thinks its OK to stroll into the Arena like a Uni student without a care in the world and then just drop a double-double, then expects that's OK. No matter what colours he wears, he also seems to have a good one at the Arena.

There plenty of reasons for and against both teams tonight. I just think the cards are falling the Sixers way at the moment and its their game to lose. They need to watch the third quarter, but Sixers by 2

Surely the 36ers can win this one at home. And surely Ebe will have a better game he must know the pressure is on. Randle will be fun to watch, not expecting alot this early but he looks like a pro.

Those stats are easily mistaken for 2 teams playing completely different tempos of basketball. 36ers wanna run, Cairns want more of a half court set. Will make for a solid contest tonight.

Cant remember a time when both 36er imports come off the bench... ever.

Nice start by JR

2 nice soft calls against Randle.

Welcome to Australia

Cairns could be so good offensively. Their offence can be painful. Would just love to see them play with freedom and with free range.

Walker signing was really bad.

"Ah who should we sign to add to our roster"

"I know! Let's get Walker."

"Isn't he the exact same player as Creek?"

"Yeah but YOLO".

Hate how the commentators refer to Gibson as Gibbo.

It sounds unprofessional and amateurish.

Rucker is great though.

Randle is a stud thus far.

Randle legit and looks like a real spark. Ebe having his best 2minutes of the season just before the half!

Gibbo to Sobey one of the plays of the season!

Randle is real.

Randle looks like he will be very good.

Gibbo with 13 and 6 assists to the half as well. Now needs to carry that on for four quarters.

Walker is decent for his role. Him and Creek do play a similar style of game, it'll take a while to see if they can work together on the court. Randle is exactly what this team needed, now people might see why I was so pissed off with the initial picks! The talent is around the the place, talk about a great recovery!

Good old floppy Gliddon up to his old tricks.
And Sobey. smh

Yeah Like you said, body type, both athletic big bodies that run the lanes and like to finish above the rim. Thats similar enough for me.. not sure what the issue is really. Walker isnt exactly holding there 36ers down or anything...

65-52 randle goes out before you know it 65-60 and Ebe airballs a 3.... enough said.

Has Joey even considered a timeout.... this is a horrible effort to give up 13-0.

Completely piss-poor coaching. What is Joey doing? Or, not doing. That's among the worst four-minute stretch I've ever seen without a coach actually making a right move. Just horrible.

Yeah really odd stuff that. Uncomfortable to watch!

Jerome Randle simply killing it, its his team right now, game breaker performance.

He's good to watch

Yeah, Randle is legit.

Weigh banks some shots in and doesn't to others.

Feel like he has developed that really bad habit whereby on those midrange shots he doesn't know whether to use the bank or not. Hence the result is a halfway shot that misses badly. Happens at least 4 times a game.

Can we trade Starks for Randle?

Nah but you can have Ebe, doesnt look like Joey plans on using him down the stretch! Im not a huge fan of his but at the same time, surely he needs to be on the court to attempt to make an impact. 18min...

Nah Kobe, go with what's getting it done.

In the half court set it looks like Cairns only really have a Loughton, Trigger, Wortho post up or a 3 point shot.

Fearne's strict srructure has created that.

There's no inbetween attacking off the dribble and taking it to the rack

Randle is legit

Who calls a timeout with 1 second left? Seriously?

Yeah true that snooch, thats a nice win. Tomorrow in Sydney now becomes a massive game for the 36ers.

Oh here we go with Taipans fans and ref bashing. As predictable as the sun coming up each day.

Cairns didn't exactly attack the rim settled for the outside shot a lot. And anon if the league is so uncompetitive thats fine, there are plenty of other leagues to watch. Good luck to you.

Randle walks in and becomes the go-to-guy in the team before the first half has even ended.

Now if they could just replace Ebi...

Incredible first up game from Randle. Perfect player for Wright's style. 36ers, like Hawks and United will pile on the points this season. I still doubt they'll make the playoffs but will regularly nail teams with hot games like tonight.

On the other hand...

How long will Starks last?

With Holt and Randle playing like this, then Beal, Lisch and Cedric in the league, Cairns can't afford this. They won't make the playoffs with this team.

How'd you think he looked tonight, seems just so slow, the 3 he hit at the start of the 4th was big, but not much else that a fresh import younger fitter couldn't give you. Im just happy with Randle for right now.

How long will Starks last?

With Holt and Randle playing like this, then Beal, Lisch and Cedric in the league, Cairns can't afford this. They won't make the playoffs with this team.


Agreed. Mind you, Torrey Craig isn't exactly setting the world on fire. I wonder how much he really benefitted from having Wilbekin running the show for him last year.

If Torrey Craig is a budget import, he is fine. If he is making decent money, I think it is reasonable to expect more of him by now. He is not a new player to the league, and if he is getting 100 G's, he aint earning it.

As for Markel Starks, he kind of reminds me of Farakhan when he came down here. He is 'okay', but he is not up to the NBL's current breed of point guards. Markel will get burned by almost any starting guard in the league and by atleast half of the bench point guards. I would be arranging his tickets home along with Ebi.

While many have been critical of Jordair Jett, he has started to come into his own and I think is NBL level. Is he the mature head the team needs, though?

Other than that you can't fault the NBL's imports right now.

Randle is the most exciting looking import we have had in a long, long time. Someone who might find himself in the 'best imports in league' conversation by seasons end. Don't jump down my throat, I said 'might'.

I was thinking there was about 4000 out there and Weigh looked the most conceited of them all ,and that we wouldn't have won without Randle.

"3895 attendance when a star import arrives who by the way put it on for the team the crowd and Mitch who was pretty pumped with his new playmate, is a really poor attendance. Thursday night, out of town stadium, united soccer on, workers doing the late night shopping shift and crowd number as low as the Marty era.... Take note NBL, this is Adelaide and we do not want week nights and definitely not a Thursday here in SA. Exhibit A..."

NBL has less competition on TV during the week.

However many showed up tonight, I think the important thing is that is the 6ers keep playing that style of basketball, the crowd numbers should trend in the upward direction.

Yeah with 15 minutes to go before tip off i was really worried about that crowd. Thursdays and 7pm just sucks as a time slot, fri/sat night is what you need for the best attendance. Mid week games might give you less competition on TV but you will end up losing more money at the clubs.

That aside, liked Randle. Seemed in control and with a nice pace for the most part. Tried to force the dribble and get the gap a few times but looks sure of himself. Gibbo was great as well. Just looked at the schedule again and boy its pretty tough.

Randle just needs to get used to the refs, and the defense that the NBL brings. Once that happens I cant see him playing much worse than how he played tonight.

I'm going to estimate that he will average a nice 17 points and 3 assists per game.

Programming needs a swift kick from behind at NBL HQ.
Airing a game on Fox is fine, but less than 4000 in Adelaide suggests trouble. Wake up, this isnt NBA.

On a positive, I seldom see Joey ever get it wrong.
Randle is gold. Not fools gold, but real gold.
First shot....3! Then drops a 3 outside from 2 1/2 feet outside.

Downside was allowing the snakes back in, but give credit where credit is due, the 3/4 time break sorted things out.

Nice games from a myriad of players.
Hell, didnt know Sobey could leap that high with the jam!!!!

Also need to consider there is also junior basketball on, on Thursday nights

Only thursday night game for the season for Adelaide, not a big deal imo. Most others team will have more than 1 this season

Your newest, new import looks like a difference maker guys, well done, just what the league needs!

Great game to watch. Loved the style of both teams and the standard was high which Randle helped to lift. Exciting stuff!

Really fun game. Russell and Rucker really added to that too, they do a great job.

Geez, if Randle and Gibson play like they did last night they'll challenge Jackson and Webster for best backcourt in the league. Of course, you never know whether Gibbo will bring that offensive energy, nor how good Randle will consistently be, but he lived up to his resume last night.

Adelaide always needed a quality guard import ala the past two years (though now they seem to have one with a genuine jumper), and it's no surprise Ere played much better with a pair of good guards running the show.

I thought a lot of other 36ers bobbed up and did their bit when needed, whereas too much was left to Gliddon and Tragardh for Cairns, with Starks showing what he's capable of late.

Two good teams though, looking forward to Sixers v Sydney and Melbourne v Cairns this weekend.

Anyone got a link to the Sobey dunk?

Oh man oh man oh man. Randle. Nice debut!

Gibson needs to be playing with the offensive aggression of last night more regularly. He put up more shots than he usually does, he has to keep it up.

Had a laugh seeing Dwayne Russell giving The Advertiser the headline on TV and then actually reading it in the newspaper this morning

Most likely 5000 crowd is break even

Randle was if anything better than advertised.

I can't recall anyone who has come in straight off a plane and had such an instant impact - Hodge maybe?

Hodge scored like 7 points in his first game. Farley had a big first game.

But Farley had a pre-season and was "settled in" with the team?

Creek had a pretty average night. Peach did some decent things but hasn't been as serviceable as usual lately. Want to see Hodgson and Sobey remain aggressive as they were the first game against NZ

Big fan of Randle last night for the most part. Only concern was that the ball stuck with him for about 10 plays in a row in the last qtr. legitimately no one else touched the ball except creek on an O board. Hopefully that was by design, letting him get comfortable. If not, he has to keep the other guys involved. Besides that looks the goods.

That's reportedly his game Dave, and certainly in Europe it's not unusual for a PG to control the ball for large chunks of the possession. That's the job for Joey, to mesh the individual skills into the team system, something he did well with Ervin and Wilson, so no reason think it won't happen here.

I thought Peach played his best game of the season. That's about par for him, I'd expect him to get 10 points and 7 or 8 boards a night, and he did that well last night. He's a rock, not a superstar. Love his work.

Just my opinion on this but I think where Creek is concerned he still relies on the coach's instructions and team structure, where a guy like Randle comes in and has lots of freedom to play the way he does.

Would have been hard for Creek to adjust, but when they work it out I think he will benefit...

Any news on Teys injury?

If Randle was troubling Cairns by scoring at a reasonable percentage or getting to the line at will, and his FT% is strong enough, then might as well keep pushing it through him. If they adjust and stop him, then mix it up.

Don't get me wrong, I was happy with what he did, and he did well. That was just the only negative I saw.

Dave another negative I saw was that he will need to adjust to the umpiring here otherwise he will keep getting called for arm checking fouls. We need him in the game

True. I thought they were more lenient on him than I expected. They were warning him about it a fair bit in the stoppages.