Can someone tell the nuffy owner to sit down and stop carrying on like someone from a cheer squad!

Illi pushed his leg, got lucky.

Sixers seem locked in and aggressive. Davis cooking early.

Good start for the 36ers, glad to see the effort on D carried over from last game. Davis on fire and Humphries has been active getting steals at the other end.

Harrell seems slightly more engaged with everyone else out there before the game too.

So Wells has notes, tighter rotations, using Cadee more for stability, more effort on defense and using Humphries rolling to the basket where he is finishing.

I hope this can be sustained

Humphries is a gentleman, comes over so genuine. Come on Sixers.

How often are Melbourne missing like 7 wide open threes in a row though, at some point some of those threes will go in as stats go back to the mean

Davis and Harrell been superb. United bench really struggling. Love what Mayern has done. Sixers got to finish the job in the last.

Announced 9558 as the biggest crowd ever at AEC.

I'm not going to complain about the home cooking, united certainly get there fair share but refs certainly get swayed by noisy fans.

Mayerns length and timing on grabbing steals has been A+ tonight.

That'll end up on the blooper reel for Humphries.

Don't think he will care much. He's been solid in this good win.

Great to see Adelaide buy into playing defence tonight. Anything's possible if they do that because there's no lack of talent.

I might be a bit behind the times here but ... does FIBA still have a tunnelling foul? A quick Google search suggests a lot of associations still clamp down hard on it.

When Marcus Lee launched himself to miss DJV but block his shot and then DJV stepped across and under Lee, to me that's a tunnelling foul. (At one stage it was a disqualifying foul.)

Haha, Ili smiling and waving to the crowd as he headed back through the tunnel.

Delly was actually making those open threes at one point. That time is over!

That intensity on D really paid off for the Sixers, if they can keep improving on that, they're gonna be dangerous!!

Right now, it's never been harder to answer the question 'who's the best team in the NBL'

When did we start caring for the offence moving into the defenders space?

If we called that consistently a lot of NBL stars would be in trouble, especially Goulding and Cotton lol

I think it should be called for sure but then do it consistently

United falling apart at the seams. This season is wide open. If Perth can play even average defence with their offence they can win it. If tassie get healthy . Kings.. hawks are starting to look mortal. Kings are to hot and cold. Phoenix have the talent

@KET We should always care about it. It is a dog act!

I agree but then you'd be including the kick out too which clearly goes into the defenders space and suddenly you’re fouling Goulding and Cotton out of every game lol

@KET Agreed.

@KET agreed.

Amazing that we haven't had any bad injuries yet - fingers crossed it stays that way.

@ KET, I also agree. I watch a fair bit of European basketball, sometimes I think I'm watching a different game to nbl. The lack of travel calls in the nbl as well, it’s a hybrid nba, I’m not complaining it’s entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, in what has become an increasingly family driven NBL, I kind of appreciate the f-you nature of this Summer Shootout.

It'll take some work for the NBL to communicate it beyond us basketball sickos but I like how it lays down the gauntlet on teams

Is Davis our best import since Randle? Lock this guy up!

Agreed yes please

Its been a while since a 36ers team has had so many affective deflections, let alone deflections as a single count.. such a massive change from recent home games.

Just a question, has our front office become USA obsessed? Have we just paid Disney and/or The WWE for John Cena's intro, was that the first time we used it tonight?
It’s a cool word grab and sound byte, very catchy, would have been nice though if we had got something more local... and I am sure it wasn’t cheap.

If Perth can play even average defence

Fantastic game ,record crowd ,so loud ,Melbourne star players couldn't shoot ,great to see Trez and Davis combo doing it again .First Sydney now Melbourne,next stop Tasmania if we can continue winning,but bottom line we need keep winning and hoping for teams above adelaide to lose in order to make finals .Great game to watch ,atmosphere was so good ,the crowd today helped the Sixers .Beat tassie and Illawarra give the league abit of a shake .

Really disappointed by this thread

Came to hear the 36ers fans again whining that United has the refs in their pockets?

Shea Ili, the only United player with positive +/- tonight with +3

In fact United's best +/- all year (is he #1 in NBL?)

Mightve got a better game if he hadn't been reffed out of it. Good example of crowd influence

"Is Davis our best import since Randle? Lock this guy up!"

I think Davis is better than Randle Master Chief. He sets his team-mates up, passes better, shoots the three better and defends better. The kid could possibly win MVP if the Sixers can reel off a winning streak and make the playoffs!

Adelaide are an interesting proposition because they're 9-11 but most of those losses came while missing key players.

It feels like if they're relatively healthy- ie with the big 3, Humphries and Martin- they're a smoky

Adelaide are done IMO, they're something like 87 points in deficit with 9 games to go just to break even. If it comes down to % they’re stuffed.

"Came to hear the 36ers fans again whining that United has the refs in their pockets?"

What on earth are you talking about?

All I see in this thread is Dunkman saying there’s some home cooking and Hoopie wondering why the offensive tunnel is never called which *should* have been called in Melbournes favour.

To which literally all of us agreed, but we also agreed it wasn’t called because the NBL never cares about the defenders space on the perimeter and it would have far reaching consequences if called which would hurt the leagues stars.

Looking at the ladder 14 wins will prob get you play in and 15 definitely will.

Adelaide need minimum 5/9 which is achievable and to make up percentage. Need to play out every possession including 2 for 1's at end of game etc.

Winning 5 out of 9 won't make up the percentage required IMO. Even winning all 9 games by 10 pts they’d probably still be the lowest % of the prevailing 6 teams.

Honestly they probably won’t finish with a better % than Brissy unless Brisbane loses the plot completely.

I’m guessing Adelaide would then need to be 15-14 which would be 6-3 to finish and SEM would have to be the one to drop making that matchup on Feb 2nd or whatever absolutely crucial.

One to most definitely NOT drop***

Impressive win again. Shortening the rotation has helped. Davis and Trez back in from. Shame their indiscretions against MU.last time derailed the season. Very expensive roster to miss the play-offs again. Hope they can continue this form and make a run.
LV, always enjoy your posts, so biased!
Another cracking NBL season.

With Brisbane losing last night, its all there to play for. Sixers tied at 9-11 with Brisbane and one game back from SE. Percentage is a problem, but with games against both Brisbane and SE Melb near the end of the season, they have every opportunity to make it. Only three home games left now, so its time to start showing they can win on the road!

[What on earth are you talking about?]

Is a reference to the Adelaide little city syndrome, which was on full display after the Harrell debacle with Adelaide fans whining about the NBL's supposed pro- United bias, even though Adelaide shot about 73 free throws that day (and Harrell and Davis ended up with slaps on the wrist!)

"Adelaide little city syndrome"

Eh, Adelaide and Melbourne populations have VERY similar personality, they both have it and both deny it en masse.

Few observations

Matt weston trying to hide this week behind the coach in club polo at least , get in the stands mate


Nick Marshall no court time last 2 weeks after averaging just under 20 for the season even when team at full strength, player influence maybe

Wells continuing to say they won't make excuses for losses and then quickly blames injuries and suspensions every week , ahh isn’t that an excuse

Some good wins though , not sure KD is the future when a few weeks ago he said the coach made him cry at half time , come on mate

Marshall has been very average, if they want to try qualifying, his time should be cut.

Marshall will he gone now at end of year.
Cos guys who represent Australia grow on trees.

Agreed Dunkman, Marshall hasn't progressed much this season. I feel he is mostly holding himself back though. He’s too eager to defer to others instead of attacking with intent every time he gets the ball. He should take note of the way Rasmussen has backed himself since he got an opportunity with KD out.

Good call, Beantown.

It would be easy to be intimidated by some of the bigger personalities around him - he'd be nervous about trying anything that might not come off, when a pass to a star is a safer bet.

Shame, really, as I like seeing players develop.

The first way to get more action with a team of stars is get rock solid on D, I haven't seen that from Marshall, and yes it’s tuff on young guys. Play good D and the O follows. Next star at SEM, Lewis is a good example.

Wells/Adelaide should be relieved with the last two results but certainly not pleased with the position they're in. Chances are they won't make it, which would be another massive waste of talent. I think they're riding a bit of a sugar hit, but I will happily take that back if they can beat Tasmania away or at least continue to bring the energy and effort.

I do like Wells, but he still seems stuck in this NBA mentality of an 82 game season narrative, thinking there is time to sort everything out, but the run has been left too late. You also have to question what Wells is/isn't seeing if it has taken something external to correct his coaching and rotations.

Adelaide were always going to suffer with injuries/suspensions, but it's not like they had all four players out at the same time. Tasmania were missing Crawford in the first of several losses, and I think Perth were down 2 or 3 in one of their recent scalps in Adelaide. There was no real excuses for the Brisbane and Perth losses in terms of margin, most recently. They should have gotten one or two of those home games to keep in touch.

Credit to Adelaide for finding something though, and would be a huge effort to make it from here.

A very good win but I agree with most it's probably going to be too late. We likely need to go 15-14 to make it (SEM are 11-10 currently in 6th) so need to go 6-3 over our last 9 games which are: @ Tasmania, vs Illawarra, @ Perth, @ Cairns, @ Sydney, vs New Zealand, vs Brisbane, @ SE Melbourne, @ Perth. I just can't see us winning at least six of those.

Aside from being 9-11 and 8th on the ladder our percentage is crap because of all the massive losses we've had:

@ Melbourne by 27 points
@ New Zealand by 27 points
@ Melbourne by 20 points
@ Brisbane by 19 points
vs Perth by 15 points
@ SE Melbourne by 20 points
vs Brisbane by 21 points
vs Perth by 24 points

They're not the performances of a playoff team. Wells' mind-numbing mantra after almost every loss about not dwelling on the last game and putting it behind us is a mentality, common in the NBA where games are meaningless, that I think has exacerbrated our problems by not making the players accountable enough for their poor efforts when most coaches know a line has to be drawn in the sand before the season is lost.

It appears to be happening now after 2/3 season is gone. Not good enough and ultimately I don't think it will be either.

It is important to realise too that most NBA assistants or Americans fresh to the league have often had a season or two to learn the league before commecning head coaching jobs; Roth, Tatum are two that come to mind and Buford is an exception. But I still think Adelaide made mistake in hiring a foreign assistant who also doesn't know the league.

With only 8 players hitting the court against Melbourne, it will be interesting to see if Rasmussen continues to get minutes when Dech returns. Marshall seems to have lost his minutes to Rasmussen. Wells must also be aware of the points differential as he gave away no junk time minutes at the end of the game either.

Even if they don't make the finals or playin or whatever we call the top 6,it would be nice if they made solid steps to getting there next year.

It starts with Wells finding his feet, adjusting and using that NBL experience growth for next year.

It’s about having a core import last longer than a year, and someone like Davis IMO could come back even better next year for Adelaide.

It’s about learning how to use and involve Humphries so that he’s a positive impactful force from the start of the game.

It’s about getting DJV into a position to be more than just a three point shooter.

It’s also about having that fundamental core of role players that you can count on - what we have seen Dech do this year and Mayern do last game is what we want to see more of throughout the team and throughout the year consistently.