Dont worry, you are playing the Wildcats next week and will most likely win as thats the only game you guys lift for, its as close to a final you have gotten too of late.

36ers some how play well in Perth against Perth, but i'm tipping the Wildcats next week..

Ok, I'll get the positives out of the way first.
Darren Ng almost single-handedly put us in a winning position with some beautiful shooting inside and out. 20 points, great effort.
Simpson keeps delivering what he promises. Hard work down low, strong rebounding, blocking shots and shooting at a very respectable percentage. Oh, and pathetic free throw shooting, but that's for later.
DJ was an offensive threat all night. Fought hard on the boards too.
It was, for the most part a pretty entertaining game.
I managed to win the auction of the signed heritage singlet by the whole team, so I'm happy there.
The dancers were looking fine as usual. Especially the one with the large umm, airbags.
Good to see the invincibles together again.

That's about where the positives end though.
Ballinger missed everything again, clearly not fit, but should be a lot better.
Cringeworthy defence. The amount of completely unopposed layups we gave them was ridiculous. They gave us just as many, but that's beside the point.
Crosswell was in foul.trouble early and never really got in the game.
Warren wasn't knocking down his shots.
Free throw shooting was pretty pathetic.
Did I mention defence?
Weigh needs to hand back his gold pass. Creek did at least as much in 12 minutes as he did in 33.
We let a team score 95.
Defence?
Deleon and Worthington were allowed to do what they wanted.
3 point shooting (with the obvious exception of Ng of course).
Umpiring was pretty good on the whole, but there was a period there where they completely threw their whistle away and let everything and anything go.

I want to know what is wrong with Ballinger. The team needs to just come out and say it. If he is injured why play him, if hes playing badly then atleast we know he should come good. He's not just unfit he is looking completely out of sorts and has no confidence in himself at all. We need a big 20 point lead one day so he can come on and play himself into form without pressure.

Ng justified spending way to long on the court in a 5 minute scoring blitz. Proving once again he should be an impact player only. His defence tonight was better than most though.

Weigh did nothing was on the court for WAAAAY to long and had the SHIT blocked out of him!
Crosswell sat down for to long for only 2 fouls taking him out of the game.
Warren needs to open his game up more..he has more ability than just the occasional three and his penetration will help spread the defence.
DJ didnt look to be doing much but had a solid game, maybe I wasnt watching him but he just seemed to sneak his points in.
Creek had some OK defence and should have been rewarded with some court time.
Helliwell should have been handing out towels only.
Daly..why did he step onto the court again??

Clark once again re-introduced his horrible rotations into the game. Why is it top teams he plays the top 7-8 players then we play bottom teams and all 10 get a run. Daly should see court time when we are up by 20 ONLY same for Helliwell.
Simpson..was he Injured?? If not why did he consistantly score and be sent to the bench..did he say something naughty to Clark and was being punished??? I think Issaac's +/- will be interesting for him.

Clarks a development coach..but week in week out we see the same horrible defence!!

Did anyone see the out of bounds call against Ng..he looked to be at the 3 point line from our seats so it might go down as the worst ref call ever!!

so what was with Crosswell? He only saw 10 minutes but only had 3 fouls, so it wasn't foul trouble keeping him off court. Given Ng had increased minutes and Daly hit the court, presumably in Crosswell's place, was Crosswell injured or sick?

Defence was woeful.

Last week we saw Marty down and The Rat barking orders and plays, tonight, The Rat was quiet as a mouse and More-D was pacing the sidelines.

What's the story?

Thought the team did OK while Daly was in there. He certainly wasn't responsible for those defensive lapses that gave the Blaze absolute gimmes inside in the first half.

Clarke has to go! Rotations are crap. Leaves Weigh on and takes Simpson off? I was waiting for him to take Ng off when he started scoring! Clarke did the same last year and until he goes the Sixers will not play finals.

And here I was thinking the game would be closely fought out. Wont come with that thought process again.

Defence was carp, how many times did they let us in? not many. how many times did we let them in? too many to count.

refs were ok, but some interesting calls.

boti wont have much to write about this week, with no one booing. might have to make a scapegoat outta someone so he gets his jingles.

cant really blame anyone tonight, just wasnt out night however free throws!!!!!
This is elementary stuff. How is it possible to miss when you have virtually no pressure on you. All the time in the world to put up a shot and nail it. Very disappointing.

Skip, nothing personal but the music this year isnt great. Still worthy of clapping my hands to a few songs but not great.

Music is a small part of the game but a big part of the enetertainment. perhaps next year might not rejoin with the team flopping, the music somewhat disappointing and a few other personal factors which are mine alone.

Happy to go to games and watch but idf the whole entertainment side of things is crap, might as well go watch ABL or CABL as most of us know it.

Did someone mention the 36ers defense? I was there tonight and Adelaide's defense was almost non-existent at times. Almost every time we got close the Blaze seemed to either find an easy way to the hoop or found someone free outside the arc.

Ng, DJ and Simpson were the standouts and for The Doc hopefully its the start of more court time. Weigh seriously needs to work on his defense and his shot selection. Balls worked hard but every time he even looked like getting into the game he got subbed out (which says that Clarke's rotations once again sucked or that he is not really fit.....probably both). Cross and Helliwell spent too much time warming their seats to be effective (Wade did well when he was on IMO but once again was reduced to being mostly a spectator by Clarke).

What killed us though other than being turnstiles when Blaze players had the ball was woeful foul shooting. It might have been closer (or even a win) if we had not missed so damn many free throws. Didn't help that we got into the trap at times of trying to hit 3's to catch up but why shoot when there are 2 or 3 of the opposition under the basket and none of your team mates? Since last season the shot selection really hasn't improved.

Ok, that's my rant but I want to take the opportunity to have a go at the club over their merchandise. I make no secret of the fact that I'm a big guy, I weigh 130kg and my t-shirt size is at least a 3XL. According to the woman at the merchandise booth the club only ordered souvenir t-shirts up to size XL (her comment was that they didn't really think properly about things). Note to 36ers management.....not all spectators are skinny basketball players or kids :/

Oh and Anon (#340232) no one that I could hear actually booed. Too many people were leaving in the last 2 minutes for there to be any really. No one booed probably because they way we played we were never in the game really despite the efforts of Ng, DJ and Simpson (DJ and Simpson were again the standouts on defense but 2 players defending doesn't win ball games).

Just watching the replay (4th, down 82-74) and from where I was sitting you have to give credit to Deleon. Damn that guy is good. Some of his shots defied belief

And just heard, DJ and Simpson AGAIN got double double's tonight. Pity their efforts are being wasted.

Deleon's three over Creek was the shot that broke the game, IMO.

Agreed Isaac, that and the missed 3 from Warren after Ng had a hit a couple. The offence after that missed shot seemed to go nowhere.

We seem to have lapses offensively and defensively (there were alot defensively tonight) and nobody to step up and carry us in those times.

Despite the result, found the game very entertaining. Plenty of highlights, big 3's, dunks and blocks. The atmosphere was quite decent as well. Good night despite the loss.

Have to also agree with Isaac, Balls isn't getting much court time because Simpson and DJ are playing well in the 4 and 5 spots. That and that his shooting touch is way off right now is holding him back, he's not the offensive threat we know him to be ATM. Not good in the last year of a contract.

Seriously, how can defensive pressure be so non existent for the entire match? Offensive structure is ok but how can you expect to win games with no D? How many open 3foot buckets FFS?!!!!

I missed the game but from the stats it seems missed foul shots as well as defense was why we lost. One thing that I don't think anyone mentioned is gold coast had only 3 turnovers for the game!!! Is that an NBL record? That is a good indication of how bad our defense was.

Sounds like Weigh decided to play passive again and still got 32 minutes... As someone mentioned Creek got the same contribution in 12 minutes. Clarke still hasn't learnt that he needs to play players that are playing well. If Weigh plays aggressive then leave him on but if he just wants to be a passenger in the team then play the others and have him on the bench. Even that Creeks offence is not really natural he could still get 10-14 points playing 34 minutes like Weigh but would actually give you defence as well.

Interesting to see Crosswell play only 10 minutes and Simpson only 26 minutes. Looks like Clarke decided to be the nice coach he is and give everyone a run what a shame we are about to be 2-8 with loss's to Perth and NZ coming up.

The coaches have dodged two bullets beating a complacent Perth and then beating a Tigers team that played the night before and had a player out injured. I don't think they will dodge the 3rd bullet once we are 2-8

I'd like to hear the reason that Simpson was getting subbed out. I assumed that it was because he plays an intense game and Clarke wanted to keep him at that level rather than fading. Still, no point having him fresh if the result is beyond doubt for the final couple of minutes.

Sixers didn't rotate on D and got punished everytime for it.

Spot on Mystro.

When trapping in the back court, they over-committed and failed to cover the last guy.

Gold coast coach in the huddle said it best- 'just make the extra pass to the second or third kick after dribble penetration and we can get open looks'

That is so damning.

Teams are so comfortable playing us.

Deleon was unstoppable last night. Hitting big shots, getting into the lane whenever he wanted and scored 25.
Problem is, every game I seem to think the opponent's guard was unstoppable.
Lisch in round 1.
Campbell and Martin both scored 16.
Bruce in round 3.
Lisch had a quiet one and we beat them. Still had 15 though.
Jackson had 16 & 11.
Madgen had 20.
Mills with 32.
Deleon with 25.

Re Simpson - That was Radford (at halftime)
" We wanna keep him for the end of this game and Helliwell did a few solid things. "
And Sapwell ; " Simpson's not an athlete, like Williamson is. "

Similar story with the opposition's big guard (Weighs opponent) and their big (DJ's opponent).
Ie Worthington and Goulding.
Dorsey and Tragardh.
Wagstaff and Redhage.
Ratzsch and Khazzouh.
Abercrombie and Wilkinson.
Wollongong had Martin, Campbell and Forman, they don't really have a big.

The defence is just too passive, a combination of a poor system and some poor defenders. Opposition teams just run through their stuff and get shots they want.

With the offensive movement in the NBL, the number of shooters on each team and the lack of a great shot blocker for the Sixers, you have to disrupt or the points will continue to pile up.

Is it fact or fiction that Weigh has a minimum 30 min per game in his contract?

seriously cannot work this team out. we beat perth and melbourne (potentially the 2 best teams in the league) - yet lose to sydney TWICE at home and now the gold coast at home.

you would have penciled in those 3 home games as 'wins' at the start of the season.

it really isn't good enough and has to come to a stop ASAP. we get the biggest crowds in the league - imagine what a powerhouse we would be if we actually started to play half decent!

our imports are great this season, we have an elite 3 point shooter in the team, our big guys are pretty solid - DJ is gonna continue to improve and score 15+ a game. balls will come good eventually we know that. our roster is good - our structure is not. simple as that. the coach needs to go. creek has A LOT of potential but isnt allowed to show it with Clarke's style of coaching. and as a lot of you guys have mentioned, WHY do our players get subbed out when they start 'heating up'.

home losses to teams we should be should not be accepted and the fact we have won 1 home game since january - that is, honestly, pathetic.

i also sat behind Brett Maher the other week at the game. he was talking to his mates and mentioned that he still had to buy drinks at the game etc etc. the guy who has his name on the court!!! come on guys, this is ridiculous. i know there have been posts made in the last couple of weeks about how good it would be for or younger fans to see our past heroes at every home game - it sure would encourage them to come along to the games, get autographs etc etc.

its fantastic that the SOS saved the team but since that, have we taken any MAJOR steps forward??

i was quite happy with the offense last night. i frustrates me to see that stagnant dont know what to do thing we do sometimes. simpson seems to have really helped that.

is anyone else as massive a fan of simpson as i am??

i think he is a must keep for us next year. scores down low, is aggressive, rebounds. has length on d.

unfortunately for all our work on offense everytime they went down and scored. d obviously not good enough. as for the turnovers they do have 3 very good ball-handlers in cadee, gibson and deleon but yeah no doubt not enough pressure.

to be honest i looked at us last night and thought we are not too far off.

c-johnson- has stepped up this year, so dangerous on offense.

pf- simpson- must keep. gives us scoring down low and rebounding

sf - weigh/ creek

sg-

pg-

to be honest its our guards that are the problem. we dont have enough talent at those spots. warren crosswell ng herbert. only one of those guys should even be in our top 7 rotations.

ideally next year

top recruits ild target

brad newley. jason cadee. matt dellavedova.


sg- brad newley / ng

pg- warren , one of cadee/ delly/ crosswell

i love ballinger, absolutely,and he deserves a chance to get back to his best but if we could bring newls home send balls elsewhere to rediscover his form. we desperately need a talented 6'2=6'6 quick sg who can score off the j or ( and this is important ) beat a man off the dribble and drive. we severely lack anyone who can do that. warren is our only guy and he is tiny. also target cadee big time, is young but can do what ive just said.

Quagmire - yes, I heard that time out in the replay and it confirmed, for me, that teams come in knowing they'll get 90+ points against the 6ers. So they know they just have to play patches of good defence and they'll walk away with 2 points.

Was Gibson guarding Warren? I saw teh first half of the replay but wasn't sure. Anyway, Warren was kept very quiet as a scoring threat and I suspect that was the plan. Shut down 2 of our scorers and we wouldn't get a winning score. So they shut down Warren and Weigh. Ng stepped up but that wasn't enough.

Simpson is gold! He was truly inspirational in that first half and I assume he was in the second. His attitude and efforts, as well as the results he got, were great. Keep this guy and find some way to get him to to play more minutes without wearing out.

DJ is looking so good offensively, He is really developing into the next money man at the 5 spot in the NBL. Now to work out his defensive game. He should be mobile enough to play better defence than he does?

The 6ers were going to have to show up with their best game to win this one, given the form that the Blaze brought into it. In particular, Deleon has turned their season around and teams are yet to work out how to slow him down, let alone stop him. He's really good.

The other big thing against the 6ers was having won the week before. Anyone remember last season and how hard it was for this team to win 2 in a row? Welcome to Groundhog Day.

In my view, at this stage of a season, making winning form repeatable is about team fitness (avoiding injuries), team attitude (read - coaches being able to get the team ready mentally), scouting the opposition well, and having a game plan to deal with what they'll throw at you and that can be adjusted on the night to handle the opposing coaches' response to yours. Then the players have to execute it well on the night.

The good news is, we go into the game next week having lost the previous week and with no-one expecting us to beat the Wildcats. And it's in Perth. I reckon we're looking good for the win!

Quagmire - yes, I heard that time out in the replay and it confirmed, for me, that teams come in knowing they'll get 90+ points against the 6ers. So they know they just have to play patches of good defence and they'll walk away with 2 points.

Was Gibson guarding Warren? I saw the first half of the replay but wasn't sure. Anyway, Warren was kept very quiet as a scoring threat and I suspect that was the plan. Shut down 2 of our scorers and we wouldn't get a winning score. So they shut down Warren and Weigh. Ng stepped up but that wasn't enough.

Simpson is gold! He was truly inspirational in that first half and I assume he was in the second. His attitude and efforts, as well as the results he got, were great. Keep this guy and find some way to get him to to play more minutes without wearing out.

DJ is looking so good offensively, He is really developing into the next money man at the 5 spot in the NBL. Now to work out his defensive game. He should be mobile enough to play better defence than he does?

The 6ers were going to have to show up with their best game to win this one, given the form that the Blaze brought into it. In particular, Deleon has turned their season around and teams are yet to work out how to slow him down, let alone stop him. He's really good.

The other big thing against the 6ers was having won the week before. Anyone remember last season and how hard it was for this team to win 2 in a row? Welcome to Groundhog Day.

In my view, at this stage of a season, making winning form repeatable is about team fitness (avoiding injuries), team attitude (read - coaches being able to get the team ready mentally), scouting the opposition well, and having a game plan to deal with what they'll throw at you and that can be adjusted on the night to handle the opposing coaches' response to yours. Then the players have to execute it well on the night.

The good news is, we go into the game next week having lost the previous week and with no-one expecting us to beat the Wildcats. And it's in Perth. I reckon we're looking good for the win!

Theres no excuse for not playing Simpson longer. He has played more minutes in other games and putting Helliwell in for him is a complete joke. Its like your trying to lose the game.

Clark came out and basically said the supporters dont know what the hell we are talking about last week after the Tigers win..well when your 2/7 as a coach with no defensive strategy, plan, efforts then you clearly dont know what your talking about as a coach. Clark should come out and apologise to every fan after these bloody comments.

I'm perplexed and once again it would appear that my late March/ early April 2012 plans will not involve making time to attend play-off games at Adelaide Areana.

I'm at a loss for an answer and I'm not going to suggest I know the answer (although the number 42 is on a continous loop in my head, which just happens to be the playing numbers for both Keegan Tudehope and David Gruber - Douglas Adams fans too I take it and, now quite disappointingly, not the answer for the Sixers).

Like many (who frequently express their opinions on this forum), the answers do however appear rather obvious. Yet the solutions are rarely delivered.

It's lack of defence, poor rotation, wrong coach, foul shooting, lack of fitness/form, poor decision-making, the umpiring, poor fan support, lack of skills or key personnel in key positions, the lack of a 'jumbotron' (TM) at the Powerhouse/Dome/Arena (and possibly soon to be named Crittenden Square Gardens) or the wrong beer served in the bars. There are many I've missed.

All the above can all be valid and plausible reasons as to why the Sixers cannot string 3-4 wins in a row at home (ok may not all, I'll let you decide which)

The Sixers program is starting to resemble the storied New York Knicks (major basketball market in a local context, a successful history but recent lack of success and a strong sentimental bond to its home court venues, fans booing.. I could go on but who really cares).

Perhaps there is an answer and as a Sixer fan I can seek counsel from my friends in New York, surely after all this time they must have an answer.

oh Adelaide v Gold Coast thread...., see above and all previous game threads in which Adelaide scored less point than their opponent.

I saw James Crawford in his first year in the league, and Simpson is soooo much like him it is not funny. Simpson is simply a keeper. people forget that JC could not hit a shot from further out than 1.5m in his first few years.

I could not understand why he was on the bench from the 7 to 3 min mark in the final Q, when the Blaze were running 3 bigs, and we had NO offensive re bounders at all.

Simpson's presence has seemingly made Daniel Johnson a better rebounder and a bit tougher player inside. It was good to see Ng have a big night offensively, and to see him have a couple of decent defensive efforts too.

I thought the refs were excellent for the second straight game at The Arena (or whatever the hell it is being called this year).

Gold Coast are not easy-beats - they're tipped as top three or four. That said, we have to find wins somewhere and besides the FNQ teams and maybe Wollongong, where are they going to come from if we plan to challenge?

I agree, Simpson is excellent and Johnson has improved yet again. I think Warren is a bit sketchy on D and obviously SG is our weaker spot (almost every team has their weaker starting position), but we need more consistency from Weigh or a better split of time with Creek.

FWIW, the Blaze are paying $4 for the championship, so they are not considered duds.

The bookies have somewhat abandoned Adelaide and Wollongong though - both now at $21.

Clarke : " We are not getting distracted by wins and losses when you're building something. "

Sapwell : " The great teams always looked like they were enjoying it , out there .
We didn't have a play book , the years that Smyth coached us. "

Very Old, I can see some similarities in Diamon and Crawford - long arms and lean-looking athletes - but Crawford was a much better leaper than Diamon. I think Diamon is a stronger, more physical player under the basket than Crawford as well. I would've said a bit more Mark Davis than Crawford, though once again, Diamon is not as mobile as the Chairman.

Whoever we compare him too, I'm glad to see him on our team though. We haven't really had an import banger like him since Dusty (and Dusty was always undersized compared to Diamon).

Skud, I agree with this: "Theres no excuse for not playing Simpson longer. He has played more minutes in other games and putting Helliwell in for him is a complete joke. Its like your trying to lose the game."

I was scratching my head at that stint Helliwell had on the floor. We gave up several long shots while he was on, simply because he is too slow and can't close out on players. I think we had almost got back to level pegging and then all of a sudden we were down 10 again!

By god you've hit on it Big Ads! The reason the Sixers have been struggling for so long is Isaiah Thomas! He's secretly been pulling the strings behind SOS the last three years!

Hmm Beantown you might be onto something there.

I've also just realised that the obvious was standing right in front of me while Anatoly Bose was shooting free throws from the foul line. The number '42' flashing like a neon light on the back of Shawn Redhage's playing singlet.

The answer is Shawn Redhage!!!!!.

i am disheartened by the lack of physicality. No contact on screens, not much contact on block outs, no one seems to fight hard through screens, especially curl screens, especially when they are run from out of bounds plays. The Blaze success rate on set plays from out of bounds was directly attributable to their scouting of our team weakness against curl screens.

i cannot remember the last time i saw a 36er draw a foul for trying to fight through a screen or get to the offensive glass.

Most physical is Simpson and he really stands out amongst this group for that and to he honest Herbie gives %100, but i really just want to see this group be tougher and make it harder for teams to run plays and/or get into the paint.

Would also like to see more efforts in re-addressing the points in the paint imbalance. No idea why the coaches love so many 3 pointers when Simpson has single coverage in the block.

"Simpson's presence has seemingly made Daniel Johnson a better rebounder and a bit tougher player inside"



Simpson and DJ training together would be helping both of them. Give DJ some of simpsons toughness and rebounding and give Simpson a hell of alot of DJ's shooting and Clarks career might just be saved.

League Leaders:

Average Rebounds
1st Julian Khazzouh Sydney Kings 10.0
2nd Jacob Holmes TWN 9.9
3rd Diamon Simpson ADE 9.0
4th Jerai Grant SYD 8.2
5th Daniel Johnson ADE 7.6

Average Blocks
1st Jerai Grant Sydney Kings 1.6
2nd Julian Khazzouh SYD 1.6
3rd Daniel Johnson ADE 1.3

Yep, definitely worst defensive player in NBL history, just behind Grant, Simpson, Holmes and Khazzouh.

You idiot.

Here's the +/-:

Adelaide

• Nathan Herbert (-2)
• Mitchell Creek (-2)
• Wade Helliwell (-3)
• Diamon Simpson (-4)
• Tom Daly (-4)
• Nathan Crosswell (-5)
• Darren Ng (-6)
• Adam Ballinger (-7)
• Chris Warren (-9)
• Daniel Johnson (-10)
• Stephen Weigh (-13)

• Stephen Hoare (15)
• Adam Gibson (8)
• Chris Goulding (8)
• Mark Worthington (8)
• James Harvey (8)
• Tom Garlepp (7)
• Adris Deleon (5)
• Jason Cadee (5)
• Anthony Petrie (3)
• Will Hudson (-2)

Defensive rotations and help defensive are a serious problem. There were a few instances where GC players had enough room to drive a truck through the defense. It either comes down to a lack of awareness on the defensive end or players are more worried about the guy they are guarding. Adelaide should watch a few videos of the way Perth play defense although the depth/defensive talent at the guard(s) spot might a problem. Very impressed with Simpson - great on the boards and athletic. Can someone pleaseeee teach him how to shoot free throws !?!?!

DJ is definitely a work in progess on defence and he has a few mates in that regard as well. Certainly there has been some improvement but he is still frustrating to watch.

he collects defensive stats sure, but so does the player he is guarding, and the team he is playing.

I think there were a few things that cost us the game on Sat night. First and foremost was the lack of D which everyone has commented on. Secondly, the inability to nail free throws.

I think Warren did a great job defending Deleon holding him to 12 points or something for the first 3 quarters however, this was taking it out of Warren and therefore he wasnt getting his offensive game going. Enter the last quarter and the coaches decide to release Warren from defending Deleon and look what happened. Warren couldnt knock down a shot and Deleon went ballistic for 12 points in the last quarter. Bad coaching decision in hindsight as they should have kept Warren defending Deleon and make someone else beat them but then they needed to find some offense from somewhere to catch up, which brings me to my next point.

Why Simpson spent so much time on the bench when we really struggled when he wasnt out there? I can only think he still isnt fit enough?

Weigh needs to find some consistency. He always tries but struggles to put 2 good games together.

Having said all of that, I think the team is headed in the right direction and arent too far off. Their problems can be fixed and if they can play some defense from time to time they should start notching up some wins.

I think you'd need to watch tape and look at each of Deleon's scores to get a feel for what went wrong there. The game-breaking shot, he was being defended by Creek who did a decent job. I think Maher or Carfino commented that it was one of those "did almost all he could" things for Creek, just a big shot to make. He had one score under the bucket at the end once the result was more or less in the bag.

Here's Deleon's scores from the play by play.

First quarter - 5 points
Makes a 2
And 1 (Crosswell fouls him)

Second quarter - 5 points
Makes a 2
Makes a 3

Third quarter - 5 points
Makes a 3 late in the third
Makes that 2 on the three-quarter buzzer, I think?

Fourth quarter - 10 points, including five points once the game was arguably out of reach
Fouled by DJ, makes 2/2 FT
Makes the 3 over Creek (margin was 3 prior to this
bucket)
(Few plays after this, Adelaide go 2/4 FT and we'd missed a three and IMO the result was more or less decided.)
2/2 FT (fouled by Warren)
Makes a 2, open under the basket when we were pressing
Fouled by Weigh, goes 1/2 FT

---

Excusing his debut (13 minutes), he's scored 21 against Perth and 21 against Townsville.

He had a patch against Ng where it looked like he was having his way, but only scored once (maybe that was the two in the third quarter?) - Ng blocked him another time, and forced him into a circus shot another.

Ng's D was very impressive in that stretch, and was well reffed too.

Deleon showed great poise throughout the game, particularly in the last quarter. GC had apparently according to the NBL web site only 3 TOs for the whole game. That is an incredible effort and a great endorsement of their PG, even against a side renounded as having the worst D in the league. He looked incredibly relaxed and in control for a guy who has just arrived.

Arrogantly wearing headphones in the warmup, 2Hard2Guard delivered. Incredibly hyped before his arrival similarly to Homicide, @Hard@Guard so far is the real deal.

" It was Joey why I came here . " I heard Deleon say
after this game . " Ya know , he came to New York and liked me and convinced me to come . I will go back there after this season. "
" Joey is a big fan of Simpson , he just told me . "
I heard Sapwell say , at this game... "And , Joey just gotta text sayen his friend was listenin to this radio
and also ,Joey wants me to go out and pull down that net right now. "
Sapwell told us.

We all know that DJ is suspect on D but he is slowly getting better. Personally I wish he'd speed that up because he is a player who could dominate this league if he got his D working. He's shown that he is a big threat on offense and it helps that he's 6'11½. He may not have the body strength of Helliwell but I think if he put on some muscle he'd lose a bit of quickness and its that speed for a big man that makes him dangerous with the ball in his hands because he can either drive to the hoop or go with his good mid-range shot (anyone else notice that on offense he plays a lot like former Tiger team mate Chris Anstey?) It was good to see him drive through the key a couple of times on Saturday night even though he didn't get the buckets but he did draw a foul each time.

Weigh and his 30+ minutes a game has been done to death. We all know the story so I'm not going to add to it when my views are the same as many others.

If Warren wasn't assigned to cover Deleon on Saturday then who should have been? Darren Ng did a decent job on him in the 3rd but personally I would have had Cross on him from the start and leave Warren to just worry about running the offense. Weigh had him a few times in the 1st and 2nd and Deleon was definitely 2Hard2Guard as far as Weigh was concerned.

Too many times on D we got into the trap of trying to double team but by the time the 2nd man in got there the ball was often on its way out to someone either for a 3 or inside for an easy Jam (there were a couple of those IIRC.....).

Ok, that's my rant.

well im glad i didnt waste the trip going down to watch another crap effort

I watched the game again and am not convinvced the D problem is any one player, but as V8 said, a lack of understanding between the players when playing a 2/3 zone for instance. They either over-commit and get burned because of lack of backup or get found out on on-ball screens for playing too far out of the zone. If you watch the "easy lay-ups" they gave away, it was more this lack of cohesion rather than any individual getting beaten. (apart from when Deleon had the ball). DJ did not get beaten 2 or 3 times by Petrie as anon suggested from lazy footwork, (don't know which version of the replay he was watching) but instead, he and all the guys were pretty solid individually but not as a unit.

duner, did it seem localised to a particular position?

I remember there was a 36ers import in the past that the team struggled to work with because once they'd lost their player, the rotations and switching would fall behind and gaps would emerge. Did you notice anything like that?

Perhaps it is a tendency to over-commit that was scouted and exploited? Or were the players involved the types that just didn't notice their man drifting away to get open?

anon (you should pick a name - good to hear your thoughts on this and would be easier to known which anon was which) - did this happen repeatedly? Could it be that DJ was at clear fault on one occasion and it was a team thing on others?

Can that tendency to ball watch (as you say) be trained out of players or are those habits too deep-seated? How many players can improve their D significantly? I think one-on-one D is only part of it - general court awareness is another. I notice that after some movement, Ballinger (as an example) will frequently look around frantically for who he should be defending. A more specialised defender may already be aware of where they need to go and when because they have a better sense of who is becoming free that they should cover.

On what training can achieve in ironing out habits or abilities, I was talking to someone at the Blaze game about Simpson's free throws. We were talking about how fans say he should work on it. Our end point was that someone like Shaq had endless money to throw at the problem, countless opportunities to dedicate to it, and was still a poor FT shooter at the end of his career. There is no discernible improvement in FT% across Shaq's career, in fact many of his worst numbers were in his prime or later.

I agree that's bullshit though I will give credit to someone in Adelaide for finding a positive... It is one part of defense though and his rebounding is much improved now that he's putting in real effort there - that's an upgrade on last season. He works hard on offence too; if he got calls like Khazzouh does, he would be adding 5-6 FT a game. Progress is progress.

Perhaps it's a matter of him working on many things (through Marty) that sometimes the less exciting components take a back seat?

DJ is still a developing prospect, and his development has been excellent. There is still work to do, but his defence is definitely better than two years ago in Melbourne.

Let's just hope he keeps improving, because he could be one of the best centres in the NBL before too long if he does.

Team balance killed us in this one. See my full review

http://36reasons.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-was-that-all-about.html