Should be the 36ers all the way, especially given Brisbane's injury woes, but a bit of complacency and Torrey Craig dropping 50 points on his favourite court might make things interesting. You never know in this league!

I just keep going into these games expecting us to lose given most teams have more depth and if we win go away happy. Given the way the league is this year I don't think you can have a clear favourite each night or overall. Just enjoy the game and hope we win.

The way this season is going, Bullets will win because bottom beats top more than top beats bottom

Brisbane is garbage. Adelaide will win by 20.

I hope it is the coaching influence, but I am prepared to admit to be totally astounded by the largest "head case" turnarounds I can think off, and they are one example each of the two major headcase
diseases, which I have almost always seen to be permanent and essentially untreatable conditions until retirement .

1) "terrible twos" petulant whining + consistent but sporadic under-performance under pressure

2) chook with head cut off , or "I'm too talented for this game to have to worry about thinking"

IMHO DJ was a poster child for 11 above and Sobey seemed destined to be the same for 2. Both are now a shadow of their previous frustrating selves.

Credit to Joey or just maturity ? If its both just maturity then they are the only two NBL examples i can think of ATM.

Thursday night action and this should have any Sixers fan salivating.

Brisbane have been struck by injuries and their season is over. The only hope they have is to be that stone in the shoe and annoy other teams with a surprise upset win. That's the danger for the Sixers in this game.

Sixers on the other hand have been doing nothing wrong and have the confidence of an underage girl sneaking into a club with a fake ID.

The only real variable here is how hard Joey will go. If he goes too hard he risks an injury and if he gives the bench too much time it could be a loss he laments.

I suspect the development players should get a run this week, but only if they work hard at training of course. Joey would want to play the first half straight up and then maybe clear the bench. I'm thinking Brisbane will be going hard from go to woe, but if I was Nelson Larkins grandpa, I'll be bringing one of those thinga me jiggies called a video recorder to the game.

I'll rest Randal and sobey, they will finish on top. Try rest a few if possible, the championship is there's to lose.

How many ownership changes will that make it in recent years?

A good read here - attempting to explain why Adelaide is so good:

https://pickandroll.com.au/36ers-make-no-sense/

Bullet's will win both games this weekend and become this week's Sixers, and last week's Wildcats, and the previous week's United etc

Bullets to be the team to beat after the weekend Ricky? ;)

It would be disappointing if this season reverted to being normal, so on the basis of keeping the weird..well..weird, I say Bullets by 5 points.

This 36ers-Bullets game is tonight. The one tweet from the 36ers account referencing it is retweeting an account with 3 followers. Nothing talking about their players, about the visiting team or about ticket sales.

Isaac not making excuses for them but maybe they have identified their target market doesn't use twitter? Most of the people I know that go to games or interested in the team don't use twitter. They seem to advertise lots on facebook on their wall and players walls.

They've got 14k followers on there. It takes seconds and is absolutely free to write a tweet. They've just tweeted:

"Tag us in a tweet during or prior to the game and you could see ur message on the BIG SCREEN! #36ersFamily"

But still yet to tell anyone which actual game! In the few days leading up to a game, they should have tweeted 3-4 times. Are they trying to sell tickets or not?

They'll live tweet a game (which I suspect is largely pointless, to be honest) but drop the ball when it matters, which is when people are making decisions on what to do with their Thursday evening.

My guess is that whoever is doing it, just doesn't like/use Twitter much. Their preference is Facebook or whatever else. That shouldn't matter if you have any professional responsibility doing social media. If it's too much for that one person, get them some help.

You're not going to find many cheaper ways of hitting an interested audience than Twitter. The followers voluntarily followed you. Your "creative" can be a five second, text only message. You can link directly to your ticket sales.

I've given up tipping against 36ers this season. They should get this one easy.

They've tweeted again but still yet to actually tell people that there is a game on tonight and how/where to buy tickets.

"Anyone remeber when @the2kferguson took flight in Brisbane? Who wants to see that again?"

I can't remember how many times they reminded us via twitter the date Matt Hodgson was returning from his off season. And then another ten times after that.

They seem to make a lot of lazy errors in both social media and media releases. They were especially good at misspelling the names of recently arrived players this pre season. And not just small forgivable errors, but one's that made them seem completely oblivious. I wish i still had a link to a match report or media release from last season. It was almost laughable.

Everything hinges on "Can Brisbane get enough points". Can't see it..
Kickert on song but Torrey Craig is very up and down. Beal is in a real slump.
Maybe Kendle can get going. I didn't see him shoot the 3 ball, last game so he is just easing into things. He might have to go" Sydney or the bush' in this one because there is no one else.Hope they can make a game of it for 3/4.

36ers don't know how to manage their social media

There's no excuses for not using social media as much as possible. It costs nothing and takes bugger all time. Their current fans might not use twitter but they still a potential to reach 1000's of new fans and viewers.

.. craigs favorite court .. will be interesting..
(they give some tickets away on radio sports shows.. pretty good advetising... nevertheless , these are not very friendly people , of course..)

They've come alive on Twitter. Better late than never!

Any risk of complacency on court for the 36ers? They've shown strong resolve to date, so hopefully not.

Bullets had leads against Hawks, Cats and Breakers at 3/4 time. They have shown they can still be competitive even with their injuries.

'well . no prizes for guessing who's gonna take the most rebounds
and randle 'only' 17 and 19 points last 2 games is due to get 30 points here tonite...

They've been doing a bit on Instagram.
Usually 1-2 a day.

Perth were going HAM on instagram but then suddenly went totally quiet like a week later and not a peep was heard since.
Oh wait sorry nevermind that was ingram.

. I meant the player , craig to get most rebounds and randle 30points .. law of averages...

This is getting ugly rather early for the Bullets!

Going to the script so far ... unfortunately.
I was hoping the Bullets might surprise us and compete.

good start .. better if drmic could shoot freethrows...

This is sad and boring

The body language of Beal, and even Craig, doesn't bode well for the Bullets. Craig's a little bit better but nowhere near earlier part of the season. Both looks to have lost the aggressiveness and desire to stand out as the designated go-to imports. It would be a more competitive game if they show the same effort as Kickert and Jervis.

Kendle is eager to contribute but looks significantly slower and less bouncy than his usual self. Looks like the calf is still hampering him.

Who's that commentator saying last few games could cost Randle the MVP?

Randle is the clearest and easiest MVP in the history of the league. He could sit out all remaining games and still win it as far as im concerned.

looks like randle made 22 points in 20 minutes shooting at 100 percent.. wow ...

As if Beal didnt get the Ladbrokes?

Gee, Joey doesn't think much of Andrej, does he?
After the last game he only offered his left hand to shake, this time he barely grazed Lemanis's offering hand, and certainly didn't look at him, then gave CJ a big hug!

Who's that commentator saying last few games could cost Randle the MVP?

Randle is the clearest and easiest MVP in the history of the league. He could sit out all remaining games and still win it as far as im concerned.

most effective player at this game

Ricky, did Joey coach CJ in Brisbane?

Joey certainly coached CJ Isaac. IIRC, CJ joined the loaded Bullets with Bradtke, McKinnon and Rychart. They went on a 21 game winning streak (I think its still the NBL record) and won the championship with Joey winning Coach of the Year. No surprise about the hug.

koberulz, then who? He is leading a young and 'sub par team on paper' to top of the league.

I'm not surprised about the hug... it was more the super cold handshake with Lemanis

"Don't mind Beal over 11.5 points @1.88.

Lines been brought down after a few average games. Fell just short of that with 10 last round against the Hawks but Gibson was playing and scored 17. Then he only scored 7 against NZ a couple of days later but put up a fair few shots. Adelaide aren't the best defensive side. Very inconsistent player but probably due for a good one and will need to step up this game."

Do you get your money back for him scoring 0? :P

Yeah while unlikely, it's still mathematically possible for Adelaide to lose all remaining games while others, bar Taipans and Bullets, win all of theirs. In this situation, most likely challenger would be Casper Ware, particularly if he wins the scoring title as well.

^^ Sorry Taipan fans, didn't realise your team still only has 11 losses so scratch that. :)

No way Ware is any chance at MVP.

MACDUB, Randle might be out in front at the moment but there are still guys who'd challenge him if he gets pulled for the rest of the season (which won't happen anyway).

Afaik still the same with the coaches voting for MVP each game and player with the most at end of regular wins it.

Liked Torrey Craig in Cairns but could see that Cairns' system wasn't the best suited to him. Had hoped he'd find some consistency under a new coach and in a new team. Unfortunately doesn't seem to have worked out, at least not yet.

I guess with such a big win there's not much to discuss about the actual game...

Thought it was a very athletic game considering the conditions.

How has Beal gone from all star to all mud? He had trouble shining in a game where he had nothing to lose and he could play freely. Brisbane have him for another year? Whatever they are paying this year. Halve it next year.
I liked the look of Kendle, he looked like he could create a little. His shot deserted him but that is a confidence thing.

Thought the same about Beal. Here was a freebie game for anyone who wanted to take over, and Beal, Craig and Young all dropped the ball to varying degrees. Young, for example, could've worked on his hook shot moves in the paint any time down the floor. The Bullets seemed sapped of energy.

It seemed quite a sloppy game for most parts I saw. The Adelaide second unit can be pretty sketchy. Amazing really that they still racked up the points they did.

After all the talk about the slight deflection off Sobey being missed last week, it was funny to see Shaun Bruce through it out straight off an Adelaide player last night, right in front of Michael Aylen, and the call go the wrong way.

It's gone completely under the radar which just shows, it's not the bad call you make but when you make it and how high-pitched the protest from the oppo coach is!

From Boti's write-up:

Adelaide now has won its past five games by an average of 24.2 points, the last team to win five straight by double figures Wright's Gold Coast in 2012.

That's correct Isaac

He said it bounced out of bounds before hitting the Adelaide player, but it hit him high on the leg on the way towards the floor! They're human, even the best refs, but that is right up there for worst call of the year for mine.

Time for a full investigation!

Just another example of how Adelaide are cheaters!

"Either the air conditioning was turned on too late or it simply doesnt work."

Is it evaporative air conditioning? That would've struggled in the conditions last night.

paul, did he say it "bounced" or that it was out of bounds. e.g., maybe Bruce had his foot out when he touched the ball? They didn't reply it much or at all, but that was my guess at the time.

No he said it bounced first. The look on Bruce's face was priceless. It was just a mistake, they happen, unfortunately some of them get blown out of proportion.

I thought the call was wrong, but I thought what the umpire gestured was that Bruce had his foot on the line. I am not sure he was correct on that point though.

The Fox commentators (who can be wrong) said the ref called Bruce for having his foot on the line when he threw it off the 36er.

I don't know if it was as apparent on the telecast, but Beal's attitude and body language was stinking up the place last night. No wonder he got a big donut. At one point he was sitting waiting to be subbed on and when the ref called the sub he didn't even bother getting up, another ref had to re-call the sub and he lethargically pulled himself up and wandered on to the court. I dunno if there's something else going on there but he was pathetic in his commitment for most of the night. If they had enough healthy players I'd guess the coach would have sat him for most of the game. Contributed nothing. Big winning margins can be fun, but as a fan of basketball I'd really prefer the Beal's and Craig's had a good game and made it more interesting.

Aylen's words were: "Bounced out first. I thought it bounced outside first and then came up."

Well this will be sure to stir the controversy, another 36ers win as a result of the refs.

There was probably a Sobey flop during that play too.

No doubt. I think Joey may have abused someone too.

It's gone completely under the radar which just shows, it's not the bad call you make but when you make it and how high-pitched the protest from the oppo coach is!

Anyone know why Tueta didn't play last night?