Wanted to place some $$$ with the Tab on this one, but they won't tell me who the refs are...

Hey Loco it does matter who the refs are cause there all shit bar two in Aylan and Maybrey and if you are thinking like me there are certain refs that hate(cheat) certain teams.The refs are deciding games.

Taipans praying the refs are Hogan, Townsend and Reed. :D

Stevek2... negative on all 3

This may change the odds... on Ten news tonight - J Randle will only play a few minutes due to knee soreness, and needing rest.
Joey is protecting him, and rightly so.

TM, Twitter is saying that he's in doubt. Did Joey explicitly say that he WILL (is guaranteed to) play only a few minutes. Can you fill us in any further?

Punters' ears prick up around the country ...
;)

I get that these 2 games don't really affect our season, but I really don't want to see us carry a 4 game losing streak into the Playoffs. We need to win at least 1 game this weekend.
I mean, if we're going to throw some games to give a team a Playoff berth, Cairns are the team I'd want to do it for, but I'd rather see us prepare for Playoffs by playing our best basketball this weekend.
If our players have genuine injuries that would realistically improve by having a game off, then sure, rest them. But don't just rest our guys and take it easy this weekend, just because we can.

They interviewed Joey, he said he may play a 'few plays' to try some different defences and offence set plays but that's about all.
Additional vision showed Jerome standing under the basket simply passing out to shooters.

Suspect that Cairns are going to get absolutely caned. It's the hope that kills you folks...

Thanks TM, appreciate it mate.

Wish we could just skip ahead 20 odd hours. Too pumped for this.

Nate's gonna go nuts again, I can feel it. Mitchell to carve up too. Will be shocked if either he or Trice don't have 20.

Taipans to win both games....

I wouldn't bring Randle up to Cairns if his playing limited minutes and have him ready to go for return clash in Adelaide.Townsend and Reed are the worst refs by far.

Johnson - I try not to talk about the refs, as I blatantly hate all of them 99% of the time.

Hogan and Haynes are on my all time shit list. I'm swallowing rage as I type this :p

In any case, back to the game at hand. I'd rather Randle sit completely if he has any soreness. Good opportunity to try different looks etc. Sobey is more than capable at point IMO.

Also agree that carrying a 4 game losing streak into the finals isn't a good look.

They'd likely put more emphasis on Saturday's game than tonight's.

Let's go Sixers.

Tab has Cairns at 1.95 and Adelaide at 1.85.

Mitchell has impressed with his confidence (not sure if he can hit the three yet) and decisiveness. He won't die wondering.
Everything Trice is not. Take risks, backs himself.
If he came up big tonight, the rest of the Cairns team can fill their roles, they might be a chance.
Otherwise they will get blown out, even if Randle plays limited minutes.
Their guards do a terrible job of feeding Jawai, and they need Worthington or Loughton in the high post to get him the ball under the hoop. Jawai should dominate every game.

Can't understand why Cairns aren't favourites at home with the bookies. Not only are they at home, they will be desperate to win, Adelaide may not be fussed about losing (if it keeps other teams out of the four), and the 36ers could well underplay key players.

Take away key players and I think the 36ers often look very disorganised with their second unit if Randle/Sobey aren't out there helping.

Very concerned with the possibility of the Sixers playing silly buggers tonight and then expecting everything to come together in our last game before the playoffs.

@Isaac, Cairns have been incredibly inconsistent this year, and Adelaide have owned us. I guess the bookies are not convinced that Randle won't be playing much (I'm not, either) and think id he does play, he's likely to tear us apart again.

@Zodiac, I'd be concerned about the same thing. If Cairns win tonight because (or partly because) Adelaide don't field their full strength side, and then somehow pull off an away win on Sunday, the 6ers are in a big hole, mentally, heading into the playoffs. If they do have to face Cairns in the finals, they're also then facing a team that have beaten them twice in the last round.

I think it's crazy to go half-hearted in the final week of regular season.

Agreed mate anything can happen in one game, you get cute tonight lose and then on Saturday night a Taipans player goes off or Randle/Sobey go down injured and you go into the playoffs on a 4 game losing streak no momentum whatsoever and like you said the possibility of playing the same opponent in the SF'S.

If anything they should be going hard tonight and if the Sixers win then maybe take it a bit easier in the second game.

6ers fans would be hoping Joey watched what DD did last year to Uniteds momentum...

If only we can bet on team fouls,lock in Snakes to be stiffed at home as usual!

Everyone watch the taipans bench every time they score they wave their towels like it's a party it's sooo annoying.

Sad how Weighs game never got to where it could have been potentially.

I thought he was going to be an absolute star after this stint at the Cats. Seemed to have all the tools.

A.Drmic shelling peas...

Not sure if Washington Generals or Adelaide 36ers :)

I don't get it?
Randle playing limited minutes. Supposedly due to sore knees?? Why put him on the plane at all?
The dry, low pressure, low oxygen air, is not good for soft tissue injuries.

Is Joey just going to play him enough to ensure a win?

Jarrad weeks flop has changed the momentum of this game.

Joey obviously resting/tanking. I can't be mad at home because I would do the same in his situation but dammit as a Perth fan and from a NBL dream team perspective I'm massively angry lol. I hope they lose form and exit in the semis ;)

*cant be mad at him

Oh my, Adam Doyle, nothing more you can do. Just let Trice lay it up.

Hope Adelaide lose in straight sets and Joey is sacked. Cairns benefitting from trash coaching.

Cairns could barely beat a second string Adelaide.

Yeah probably unlikely Joey is going to be sacked.

I know he won't get sacked, just like Gleeson...but I can dream

If Joey was serious about winning tonight, we would not have seen anything like as much of Doyle. Joey barely even waved his arms at a ref, he was so disinterested.

Adelaide's best tonight we're the four supporters behind the scorers' bench whohad too much to drink and took on Joe Blake.

Pretty sure Joe Blake put you in your place at the end there. As did the guy behind who you thought you were going to get a bit tasty with until you realised he was far bigger than you.

Lets put this into perspective

Cairns had a playoff spot and Mark Worthington's last home game to play for and beat Adelaide's bench by three points.
If I was any other team in the league that would make me nervous.
Adelaide are getting much-needed playing time into their bench which will be needed to stand up during the playoffs.

@Carl

Weigh, McCarron and Jawai played only around the same minutes as Randall and co. Loughton, Weeks and Mitchell not much more. Wortho played about 2/3 of his normal game.

The only two big guns who played normal(ish) minutes were Trice and Gliddon, who both needed a good run to work into some sort of form.

Who knows what games the coaches were playing :)

Smart coaching from Joey.

Beating Cairns does nothing for us. Focus on finals. Nothing else matters.

Tanking is a flog!

Good to see Worthington already walking in to retirement. never seen a bloke take so many steps without bouncing the ball.