Luke was getting mauled all game, like normal, but he's never going to get the calls, so he needs to toughen up a bit.

Like i say im always there, and i must say Tonights crowd reminded me of the last GF win, Adn i believe we will draw a big crowd saturday night, with nothing else on in adelaide, Any team can win games when the chemistry is right imports or not (sorry) all we need is for the whole team to contribute on the score board and off of it.
Winitana was instrumental in his 10-15mins the presure he puts defensivly is fenomonal,
Ball's also showed why he is one of the premier imports, And i dont care if he doesnt score much but Holmes does the job he is paid to do!!

See you all saturday

Great crowd. Some horrible officiating mistakes (same foul getting no-call on the Hawks, then called on the Sixers at the other end 20 seconds later) but I don't think it affected the game.

Most impressive tonight was the all around contribution - 4 of the 5 starters had significant point contributions, Schensch and Coops a combined 20 rebounds, and some great shooting from Maher.

We gave up way too many first half points but the lads were able to stop the flow a little in the second half. The Sixers have a lot of skill in forcing bad shots and passes and causing the turnover, but when they don't apply the necessary defensive pressure, we get torched from jump shots and from the 3. Franklin exploited this in the first half. The defense lifted in the 3rd and 4th and was a big factor of why we got the lead and never let it go.

And the best thing about Luke is he gets on with game, and plays it truely and doesnt sook like anstey does when he gets a brush on the arm.. that is why luke is hands down the best center in the league

Aww I keep getting the wrong thread :( God I'm tired -

Referees: Will be thanking Hodge for taking the spotlight tonight. This was possibly their worst performance of the year (big statement, I know).

When they are not calling INTENTIONAL FOULS on the Hawks you know there's a problem.

It was the only time that Kavossy was actually unhappy with the refs.
I honestly have no idea how Mr. Garnier Fructis (Phil Haines I think) keeps getting a gig week after week. Surely there isn't some clown out there who actually thinks he's doing a good job. They are ruining otherwise quality games and I'm sick of it.

Schenscher: Was a little off early in the piece but you wouldn't know it looking at the final stats. He is just unstoppable.

Ballinger: 9.5/10 for the first half, 2-10 for the second. Average that out: 5.75/10 - Not too bad, lol.

Holmes: Julius is gone and he's still struggling offensively. His 5 assists and quality defence was handy but 2/9 shooting is not acceptable, especially when he's shooting outside shots with plenty of clock left. (Coady he did do what he is payed to do but he tried to do extra. He should not be taking those shots)

Maher: VINTAGE!!! is the word. He hit some of the most crucial shots of the game and absolutely set the crowd off in that 3rd qtr.
Did anyone see his alley-oop attempt in the warmup? He missed it, but for someone who can barely touch the ring it was impressive. It gave me a lot more confidence in that ageing body of his.

Bruce: Fantastic, hit the open looks and created his own when he needed to. He looked more confident that he has all year and his D was betterthan usual.

Coop: 0/4 shooting was terrible, 7 boards in 10mins was outstanding.

Winitana: Looked set for a big on after he was hyped-up by Boti but didn't do much. He was one of the major contributors to our low FG% and his D was just average. We're going to need him to step up without Hodge.

Hill: We saw the best game of his career a few weeks ago and tonight we saw the best quarter of his career. I think he had 9pts in the fourth - securing the win. He hit the open three, identified mismatches vs. Tragardh an got in their faces defensively. He also contributed two of the most outstanding plays of the night - First he was it the wrong end of a trademark fast-break rejection by Saville (if it wasn't a foul it was awesome), he then preceded to throw down the alley-oop that he just missed last game. Fantastic performance.

Davidson: The stats look very SoJ-ish but he actually played very well. D was great and his hustle was a catalyst behind a few 36ers runs.

Gong: Saville and Tragardh were fantastic without Davidson and Petrie. Dusty was great at one end of the floor while Tait and Kavossy both played their part. Mat Campbell showed his is no Maher and Rhys Martin and Daniel Jackson are development players at best.

It is hard to say which team was disadvantaged the most by injuries/selfishness but I'm just glad to see the 6ers take the W.

Haha Maher used to always attempt that alley to him self back in the and 9/10 would make it, i knew when i seen him do that, that something was different about him tonight, not too mention the the ankle to calf strapping!! IM sad i came home and watched the game on fox:)

Kavossy's crossover on two of our guys in the first half for the lay-in was highly sweet. I'm pretty sure ankles were broken.

Watched the first quarter again on replay this morning; interesting stat from Steve Carfino: apparently Balls has the most career points of any currently active player.

Loved Coops' persistence and desire for the ball, especially in that passage of play where Davo missed a couple of 3-pointers from the corner, with first Hill and then Coops winning the ball on the rebound when they really had no right to, the ball finally ending with Mahersy who drained a triple - beautiful!

Hill's alley-oop dunk also had those of us in the eastern stand out of our seats.

Can't wait to see those two highlights again when I watch the rest of the replay tonight.

Again I was shocked at how poor our defense on the pick and roll was.

The Gong got so many looks on either a simple pick and fade for an open jumper for the screener with both defenders chasing the ball or a 3rd defender would jumper out on the screener and they would make the easy pass under the basket.

It was frustrating to watch. Our D was terrible in spots and I can't work out what/who is to blame.

Poor coaching, no hustle, bad individual defenders??? I have no idea.

Xztatik - mate, what game ar eyou watching? Totally disagree with you on Winitana's defense. He forced two turnovers on Kavossy Franklin when he was guarding him and was totally in his man's face. He was only scored on twice by Franklin when he was having his purple patch. I thought his intensity and hustle helped keep us in the second qtr when the Gong when going well, and not to forget Balls' scoring.

Furthermore, Hill's defense was rather ordinary in patches as his head was floating in the clouds after scoring and was leaving campbell by himself in transition. Jacob was yelling and pointing at him to get back.

When will stats be acceptable to you? Winitana was 1/5, but the four misses included two roll around the rims - my point being for Jacob (2/9 not acceptable). I do believe he hit a very important three and almost the game putting away J with 1:15 left to put us up by 7. He scored well on the road against GC and kept us in the game.

Sometimes you may need to look behind the numbers to see a player's value and contribution. Although Sav still got 20, I thought when Jacob was guarding him he made him work damn hard to do anything and was totally in his face and got in front of him very well on the dribble.

I thought our zone D we were playing was good for some Steals up top, but for a zone, the base was really open, Our talls D looked sloppy.

If Shench got any calls he would have had at least 10 more points, well if he made the free throws. Looked like he was getting hacked to peices.

Our pick and rolls seem to work really well at times, but early looked like we were forcing up a lot of shots, Luckily a fair few of them dropped. Perhaps some of the time we need to work more on quick ball movement, rather than, skip passes and post play, just to break it up a bit.

All in all, great win!

Watched the first quarter again on replay this morning; interesting stat from Steve Carfino: apparently Balls has the most career points of any currently active player.

Whilst Adelaide played quite well last night down one import, the problem is the bottom ranked teams have all picked up a couple of notches in the 2nd half of this season and a performance like last night is not going to go too far into the finals. Wollongong were severely undermanned, ranked lower than Adelaide and still managed to keep up (almost). Against any full strength team last night's performance was not enough. Had Hodge played, you would have expected a break away win which would be an indication of how well the 36ers will go. Without him or a similar replacement import, the 36ers will be lucky to make the playoffs let alone continue well beyond. Sorry to mention Hodge in this thread but it is a direct argument which made a difference to the team last night and he has only been used to compare the performance of the team and not the controversy surrounding his non show.

As for the refs, they were pathetic as usual but this time they were at least fair. Their crap calls and non calls disadvantaged both side.

> That's only since 2004 I believe. Guys like Maher,
> Bruton and Rillie are all active and would have far > more career points!

Mea culpa, I perhaps should have researched it.

In my defence, it was 5 am AND before the first coffee ...

Probably Hill played a bit better and Paora not too bad. The 2 reds were good and Maher shot well.
Obviously, the team is not as good without Hodge.
The refs made a few bad calls, in particular the play on decisions when guys are getting fouled pretty hard, but I've seen a lot worse.
Cooper can't shoot but nearly got that one in, from the backcourt, on the buzzer.

Yeah, Coops was closer with that one than he sometimes is from 12 feet!

I like the improvement that we're seeing from Hill: his next challenge is to show it more consistently, more often.

Agree 100% with XztatiK's summary above.

I knew Phil Haines personally for a number of years, and it was a struggle not to throw a punch most days after watching him ref.

I brought a non-regular last night that loved the atmosphere but reckons he couldn't stand attending a game week in week out with such an infuriatingly pathetic and inconsistent level of officiating. Worst I've seen this year. The league really needs to clean it up for the sake of the game - very sub par.

Awesome to see the guys coming together as a more cohesive unit and finding their roles. Maher was worth the price of admission.

Cavalo, I was probably a bit harsh on Paora's D. I'll upgrade it from "just average" to "pretty good".

Also, looking back I can remember two occasions that he was given the ball with -2 seconds left on the shot or game clock and forced to put a bad shot up - lowering his FG% so his 1/5 shooting probably doesn't tell the whole story.

So when I think about it he didn't play that bad a game, lol, but there's no doubt he still needs to become more of a threat offensively if he is to take minutes from Hill, Maher and Grizzard (fingers crossed).

As for Jacob...

"my point being for Jacob (2/9 not acceptable). I do believe he hit a very important three and almost the game putting away J with 1:15 left to put us up by 7"

The two he hit were fine, I was critical of his shot-choice early in the game. He was struggling to get into the game so he just forced bad shots and it resulted in 2/9 shooting, and I don't care if some of those 7 misses 'almost' went in, they were still misses.

"He scored well on the road against GC and kept us in the game."

Agreed, he has been fantastic in our games vs. Melbourne and GC - I was only talking about last night.

"Sometimes you may need to look behind the numbers to see a player's value and contribution. Although Sav still got 20, I thought when Jacob was guarding him he made him work damn hard to do anything and was totally in his face and got in front of him very well on the dribble."

Agreed, again, Jake's D was great - I said that.

I thought that was a great win from us last night, as the Hawks did play pretty well. Hodge's not playing would have disrupted Wollongong too, as I'd imagine a decent percentage of their preparation would have involved what they were going to do to stop an Adelaide offense run through him.

I agree with most posters above. Ballinger's first half was great, though I wasn't happy with his defense on Dusty. Schenscher was excellent, and when he does eventually snap and turn around and deck an umpire for AGAIN not stopping the mauling he is received EACH AND EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY GAME he should be awarded an OAM. Maher's 3rd quarter was vintage, top-shelf brilliance. Aaron Bruce had a super aggressive start to the game (he actually looked really pissed off during warm ups) and his battle with Tait was great. Two young point guards going at it in what I thought was a draw.

Holmes shooting was hopeless, and if I can be bothered later today I'll research what his PPG and FG% are home v away as he has a bit of a Dench thing happening with his offense. His defense was again solid and I thought he did everything he could to contain Saville, who was magnificent for most of the game, and hit some TOUGH shots.

Winitana was a defensive spark, and he moved well off the ball on offense. I'd like to see him stick the open jumper with a bit more consistency though, but he was a positive on the night though.

Brad Hill was great, and without thinking about it too hard is the best 2 point player in the league. The lob was great, but I actually liked the left-handed floater off the glass more.

Cam Tragardh is great to watch as he is just so efficient. Saville as mentioned was fantastic, and his block on Hill on the break was a beauty. Franklin played a solid, composed hand as always. Mat Campbell is IMO in nthe same position as Matt Hayden. Petrie and Davidson missing hurt Wollongong, and if one of those guys had been playing the result might have been very different.

Overall a great win, a good game on a Wednesday for Fox Sports for a change. I'm looking forward to Saturday, and hopefully we can have Grizzard (or someone else) in uniform in time (though even if we get it done, I can't imagine the NBL office will get what they need to do done in time).

Holmes averages 12.7 points at 44% on the road and 7.2ppg at 32% at the Dome.

Great call Mutley, I didn't think there would be that much of a difference.

Sweet crowd, I reckon the top corner grandstand should be reserved for screaming kids with thundersticks, really gives some extra atmosphere.

In the warms up I just remember thinking damn these guys are in the zone.. Maher was throwing alley oop passes to himself, Winitana was showcasing his athleticism, they seemed to be trying to out do each other.. hell I thought Kersten almost came close to touching the backboard at one point. It came across as a different mentality, maybe something to prove.

I think we are a much better defensive team now that Winitana is back and his offense will improve with more game time. The hacking of Schen wasn't nearly as bad as other games but there were a few blatant shoves that went uncalled. The refeering was no where near the worst I have seen this season but I guess the big no calls stick in peoples minds.

I would actually like to see Holmes shoot the ball a bit more, a lot of his shots are taken when the shot clock is about to expire and there are no other options.. rephrase, i'd like to see him take some easier shots because they are there.

Maher, Bruce, Ballinger and Luke were fantastic. Saville was so clutch for a period it was unbelievable, good d being played on him and it made no difference. A few criticisms would be that we are sometimes a bit slow in transition defence, and that we can fall asleep sometimes on inbound plays.. oh and free throws.

Was a good win and great atmosphere!

I enjoyed the game immensely. I thought the officiating in the 1st half was alright, but I'm one that likes the game to be played without the whistle getting in the way. The 2nd half the refs show-cased a bit, but enjoyed the refs turning a blind eye to the deliberate fouling at the close of the game. Provided the fouling isn't malicious, it's in our favour to keep possession & use the clock. Life can be too short for some, but I don't want to stand for 8 minutes when there's only 90 seconds of game-time. Free-throw competitions don't do it for me.
I'm delighted with the win, but agree that Jules' no show would've been disruptive to the Hawks game prep, on top of them being down 2 players.
Where I really enjoyed the game was that both teams got on with it & played through the dramas.
I've not been a fan of the Sav, but he played a game last night that I'd not seen in a long, long time. It wasn't through any deficiency on our part, but he stood up & delivered. Trigger was massive & deserves major props for his game & Dusty was Mr Consistent Dusty. He's added a long range shot too. Nice.
I didn't see a single coaster for us & can't understand how any negatives could be drawn from any of our boys. I'm bemused that Jake is copping flak about his shooting. He used to have the flattest shot I've ever seen, but he's worked on it & been a bonus with his scoring recently. He had every right to go into the game with a shooter's mentality last night.
Aaron put on a show in the best possible way, involving the team. The Ally to Brad Hill & the feed to Brett for the long court breakaway was highlight reel stuff. Davo's energy & determination brought results. Love his game.
Winnie for a 1st game return after a huge break was very respectable. He didn't hold back or show any caution, which is massive. Glad to hear mention on here of Coops' hustle. He plays his role unselfishly & quietly lifted our free-throw %.
The only other thing I'll add, is that if the feed into Luke is working, use it. Scotty stuck with that & it was the right thing to do when your opponent is down to 8 & height challenged. Energy efficiency is the way to go & especially when it's putting scores on the board.
An interesting side-line for the stat-junkies. What did you make of the rebound count being tied at the half?
I'll throw in another positive, have a squiz at our turn-over count for the game.
Bother, missed the official media coverage scripting this. : )

I just think the whole team and coaching needs to be congratulated. It would have been unsettling with the Hodge rubbish, and for them to step out onto the court like they did is a credit to them all. Anyone who plays any level of sport knows how outside problems can interfere on your game. Each one of the players stood up tonight.

Anyone got vision of the Bruce --> Hill Alley. That is one of the most perfectly executed alley's I have seen in a game, perfect pass and dunk. Apparently they have been practicing!!

Also really liked seeing the Cooper/Schensher duo on court, good to see us dominate in height!

Skud - completely agree. Can't remember an alley-oop as perfectly timed as that before in the NBL. Only better one I've seen this season was Abercrombie against the Spirit, slipped over, recovered and still got up there to finish it.

Has anyone youtubed the Abercrombie one? I missed it :( I have, however, taped Wednesday's game so I've watched the Hill alley about 50 times lol.