Very dissappointing result indeed. We scored the first bucket within 10 seconds and it looked good - but from there Brisbane just took over. They were running breaks and finding open players everywhere for layups. When they didnt get these open looks they kicked to the outside and just drained 3's.
Our D was lacking as the score suggests but I think we need to give a lot of credit to the Bullets - they were on fire!

In regards to Willie and criticism that he is copping all over the place Ill have my 2 cents worth...
He just appears to have lost confidence. Watching him on teh bench last night he just had his head down and wasnt really into it at all. On court he is settling for fade away jump shots and threes. There was even a time last night where he was on a break with Copeland next to him and he didnt have the confidence to take him to the hoop. Last season when his confidence was high he would have blown by him dunked it! Give him a couple of good games and im sure we will see the Willie swagger back and him again playing like we know he can.

On positives Brad Hill again showed glimpses of what is to come, and Oscar is a class act who just gets better and better.
All in all we had a lot of players having a down night and the Bullets played extremely well - lets put this one behind us and make sure we come back strong against Perth.

I thought that Brisbane did a very good job on double/triple teaming Maher, and keeping a good watch early on Forman outside the arc. As Phil talked about in one of his timeouts if Rucker had not hit 3 3's from the carpark we would be only 6 points down going into the third quarter.

I'm not one to criticise a coach but last night's game Phil somewhat annoyed me with a couple of things he did. First quarter, Brisbane get out to a 15 point lead and Phil still didn't call a time out!...Jacob in the first quarter was the only sixer player who was scoring, I think he had about 10 in the first and Phil takes him off with about 3 minutes to go!...
Then he persisted to play a zone defence when either the Bullets were just finding holes or the sixers simply have never practiced a zone before! Then in a time out he changes it to a box and one! What is this, social ball???
And finally what is the deal with five on five off substitution??? Not once but twice!
Was Phil hanging out in the locker rooms with Bobby Brannen before the game or something???

Watched the game on FOXTEL last night. Maybe it was all part of the plan?
Better to lose now than in a single game knockout final, don't you think?
Anyway, they had their back against the wall well & truly so they HAD to come up with something spectacular. They manged to do that and whatever they did came off, and the frustrating part was that the sixers had a shocker and still managed to score 109 points.
We made them look good.
Phil might just be thinking that Brisbane NEEDED to win big time and maybe we need to save our guys for tomorrow night's game against Perth?

Dana, finish top two and we don't have to play a knock-out final.

Play every game to win. Simple.

Part of the plan? I didn't see any plan last night. The game was horrible.

Bias I know, but Reesy, Holmes and Maher (and Oscar in patches) were the only positives.

Dusty was serviceable, Farley terrible, Cooper uncharacteristicly soft, Hill OK in patches.

Just a painful game to watch with so many wide open threes. We should have been down by more. Phil talks about the huge threes Rucker hit, and 'if only' he hadn't made them. Well, he did and he has been for 15 seasons! What about the 6 open ones Mick Hill missed? He should have knocked at least one or two.

Bradtke's effort should be applauded to. His game impressed me more than his mullet in the team photos from the early 90's at the Dome. 10/12 from the field.

Doc,
I agree with you. I was trying to put a positive spin on it. (Fruitless I guess.)
Watching it was, as you say, MOST frustrating. We were sitting there watching the game and saying.."Go ahead Brisbane...have a shot from the car park...no-one will stop you..." & bugger it if they didn't do it and get it in. And then Coops comes up with a rebound only to have it nicked from his hands.
Doh!
I should have put a *wink* in after saying it might be part of the plan.
I also agree with what was said in another thread about Phil 'letting the guys have it', however, I reckon they would be pretty embarrassed themselves and probably won't need to be told.

Open threes??? What about open lay ups??? What about four dunks by McKinnon in one quarter (or was it in a half?)They were getting lay up after lay up after lay up!
Like I said before, I think Phil's been hanging out with Brannen before the game. Phil is the new age Ken Cole...

Agree, Phil does need to call time outs about 2 baskets sooner.

and our defence was crapola last night

That was truely dissappointing given how well Adelaide played against Melbourne. It really does seem that we are content at times to drop games to good teams on the road: we showed no heart against Wollongong, or Perth, and now Brisbane (wait until we have to play in Sydney!). The defense was just nowhere to be found, and was compounded by Brisbane sinking a lot of early jump shots (again Phil, call a f*cking time out).

Holmes should never have been taken off in the first quarter, NEVER. Rees played really well but in 28 minutes (or there abouts) he didn't get one rebound. Dusty hardly played. Cooper was hopeless (I think he needs to lose his starting spot for a couple of games) and Farley, well, enough has been said about him.

Maher was solid, Nash played quite well though each of his three turnovers was very damaging, and Oscar again proved that when he's on song, he can't be prevented from dropping threes.

As for the five-on, five-off subs, the only part about that I find difficult to believe is that it means that Smyth WILLINGLY used Nick Hambour (in a combination with Cooper and Rychardt, what position was he honestly supposed to be playing?).

Friday against Perth will be interesting. Which Adelaide team will show up?