Jack Toft
Years ago
Sixers v Cats Fri Nov 15
Joey says the gap between the Sixers and the Kings is about $4M, well perhaps the gap between the Sixers and the Cats is about $3.5M. "That's Preposterous" said Trevor G as he drove his Mercedes Benz convertible out of his Peppermint Grove mansion "We play one game at a time" said a player, dressed in his golden budgie smugglers, as he dived Scrooge McDuck style into a pile of cash. While having deeper pockets can get you better imports, they are only one player on a team.
The Sixers season is not over, but they do need to start beating teams above them on the ladder if they want to see action in the major round. So far this season everything south has been good, but north has been bad:
Sydney: L, L(OT)
SEM: L
Perth?
Mel: L
Bullets: W
Breakers:?
Taipans: W
Hawks: W
It's no use scraping into finals on a 50% win record and relied on others % to get in, you need to be lethal in finals. To do that, you gotta beat teams above and below you. Can the Sixers beat the Cats? They've done it before and they do it again.
Cotton/White/Kay is the backbone of the team with Damo the spine and Hunt the braun. The likely matchups with the Sixers are interesting. Hunt-Griffen, Kay-Johnson, White-Moore, Drmic-Cotton, Martin-Randle. But, it's the benches that make it more interesting and show how these teams operate. The Sixers have McVeigh and Froling as the main bench players followed by Kyei. The effervescent duo of Teys and White offer some defensive skill but the scoreboard is not challenged as thoroughly as it could be when that guard combo in on. It is the young and the old with most of the game experience captured in two players. Perth, would have a similar total game experience, but more evenly spread over the bench. The experienced Wagstaff has engineered himself as a bench player these days and is probably the most cunning player out of both benches.
You would think that the Perth bench are a little more skilled beyond the arc. Norton, Steindl and Wagstaff put up an average of 6.67 3PA per game, with 2.01 dropping (30%) however when this is compared to McVeigh, Froling and Kyei, their average is 5.72, making 2.43 (42%) I think in the battle of the benches, the Sixers have the slight edge looking at the average returns from the benches. Rebounds: 12.1 to 11.2, steals 1.72 to 1.33, but assists 3.4 to 4.66. The assists tell the story of how the Cats play. Positioning themselves well and then making a (sensible) extra pass to that open player. BUT... the stat that tells the greater story though is turnovers. The Sixers bench averages 3.94 per game, the Cats a mere 1.66 per game. That tells me the Sixers are taking too many un-necessary risks, or are just not executing the plays as well.
This will be a good game, but you guys know I can't tip against the Sixers, especially not in the favour of the Pussycats.
