Jack Toft
Years ago

The race for 4th Spot

Well Poindexters, nearly half way through the 2015 NBL season and things look like they are firming up making for an exciting second half of the season.

Three teams are on 9 wins and in most 28 game seasons, 14 wins will get you some finals action. Sometimes, it gets down to splits and this might end up being a 3 or 4 way split this season.

Perth: 9 & 3. Better burn those 28 t-shirt and get some cheap $2 shirts from China saying "29" Unless something major happens, I reckon those pussycats should be purring at the end of the minor round.
Breakers: 9 & 4. The Breakers are back and with a home court tough to get wins on, my advice would be if you want to watch your team play finals, better dust off the passport, bro.
Cairns: 9 & 4. Came out of the starting gates flying and with 8 home games, and 2 away games in Townsville to play, it would be hard not to see them get 5 more wins out of 15 games. 3rd spot is their's to lose.

Wollongong: 2&12. Probably the only team definitely looking to next season so far.

The contenders for 4th spot:
Melbourne (7&5), Sydney (6&5), Townsville (5&8), Adelaide (3&9)

Adelaide. Are timing their run terribly if they are looking for 4th spot. If they are, then most of their supporters will have heart attacks due to the suspense. It's at the point where they need another team to help them out with results.
Townsville. Are sitting evenly against their competition with splits not favouring either team. They will be focusing on the Cairns, Melbourne and Sydney splits. They would need to get a wriggle on and hope to achieve those splits and results to go their way.
Sydney. Like Townsville, are around the mark, but the Mel v Syd series will be the one to watch there. Sydney seems to plod along each season.
Melbourne. Are a different team under D Mac. Probably gets down to keeping everyone focussed.

I would say the 4th spot is very much a race between Melbourne & Sydney. Townsville might be the smokey in the mix if results fall their way and they would be looking for a logjam of a 3 way split. I think Adelaide might fall short by 2 wins.

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Matthew  
Years ago

I expect the Violet Crumbles to well.. do what they do best sooner or later.

I think you will find that Melbourne takes spot 4.

Adelaide should really already be planning for next season in regards to who they want to keep and identify their targeted needs. With the new Brisbane team possibly coming (and I say that loosely as Im not sure its happening), then it will be interesting to see how each teams roster is affected.

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The Dream  
Years ago

miracles do happen , but the 36ers needs a bunch of them and fast . Motum needs to play some D . For somebody trynna get back to the nba

home town advantage got United home on sunday . shocking calls & poor ball control in the dying seconds.

suprised the Breakers missed so many shots
lord chillington got alot of help from his team mates for once . i damn miss jessie sanders . Perry aint shit yo . finally some production from cody ellis


Wilcatds doing their thing as expected

The Crocs did so good coming back against United
they didnt deserve to be so close. those young guards off the bench shot a bunch or random 3 balls. Markovic wow . for a older and wiser player , still recovering from injury . he can still break down the defence and draw valuable fouls.

no blockgate this week . but how poor were those calls on Gladness?

i think in my limited viewing experience that the top 3 are set and that 4th spot will go to United or the taipans . United on the up , Taipans form is rocky atm

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Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

Sydney is pretty past due to hit the finals, I think they're building to it this year. But it's hard to say.

The big knock you have to have on United is that while their home form is truly impeccable, their away form is abysmal. 1-4, only member of the top 5 to not notch at least a 2nd away win, worse than all but Townsville and Wollongong.

Sydney meanwhile is 4-2/2-3 at home away. So I think this will come down to the series split.

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formosa  
Years ago

that time has been and gone for 4th spot. the players and coaching staff and managers might say different but its done. the next 2 games of Melbourne (H) and Perth (A) loom as losses. If they are to start winning, u need luck to make it happen now. But I reckon the Top 4 are NZ, Perth, Cairns and Melbourne with Sydney right behind. The rest aren't gonna make it

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Mick  
Years ago

Townsville too weak mentally and with no leadership. Sydney just don't have the talent outside of Madg and Childress, and Adelaide are nearly too far behind. It's Melbourne's to lose.

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Isaac  
Years ago

I think the Sixers are just as likely to surprise everyone with a 2-0 round as they are to fall short at the end against United (like the home game against Sydney) and get dismantled in Perth.

You'd think they'd be at crisis meeting time this week trying to sort things out.

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Marcus Camby  
Years ago

The Sixers are not out of the race by any stretch, it will be hard but doable.

Last year there was ONE loss at home.

Defending the home court must be a primary concern!

Not only do the Sixers need the wins but they need to put a good product on the floor for the fans.

Joey said we need 5.5k members to be able to afford a Marquee so it starts with getting the people excited about being at the game.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Disrespectful to the teams playing good basketball to even put the 6ers in this conversation. Like during the Clarke era, no point even making the playoffs if you not any good!

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Adelaide aren't as bad as I thought. I picked them 8th preseason and clearly they're good enough for 6th or 7th position.
Quite right anon above to include them as top 4 chances is insulting to Nz, Perth etc..

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Grovermister  
Years ago

that game against New Zealand... was that just aonce off?

they have proven they CAN play good basketball...

Motum has been more disruptive than ANYONE would have thought...

And Wilson and Gibbo on the court at the same time is NOT working...

we also are missing a player that we can reliably give the ball to and score that winning basket like ervin did for us last year... how many games did he win for us... (Standout the New Zealand Steal and layup....) We do not have a player whom is currently playing with the same mentality and hunger and determination to do that...

Its frustrating... because we have all seen what the team CAN do...

long way back for them now....

TVL did it years ago went on a crazy 18 or so win streak to get to the finals... they didnt shave for that whole win streak and were lead by Rob Rose... i remember a game against the 6ers during the streak where they were down by a substantial amount and my Grandpa... RIP ... said that TVL were going to win... my Dad and i were like yeah what ever... TVL just played inspiring basketball and over ran a 6ers outfit whom were helpless...

didnt the hawks do something crazy last year as well....?

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Fan-ciful  
Years ago

Adelaide boosters going for the rosary beads early doors.

What a laugh. Give it up blokes. Your chance will be 2019 or thereabouts.

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Hendo8888  
Years ago

We are trying to not win the race for 8th at the moment. 4th isn't even a consideration at this point.
Wollongong start slow, then charge home pretty much every year. Whereas, the last 5 years or so have shown that if we start bad, we finish last, or there abouts. Maybe that's not the case, but we haven't won at all with Motum, have only won once with Creek, Wilson has had good numbers, but the team's played worse with him on the court. We have a lot of creases to iron out before we can even say that we aren't going to finish last.

As for the question at hand, Childress will do his absolute best to get Sydney into the playoffs, but I think Melbourne win that spot. Childress just doesn't have enough around him, whereas Melbourne has 5 or 6 options to go to depending on the night.

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Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

Yeah, Melbourne has multiple "near-Childress" options, whereas Sydney has a drop-off in quality. Big nights needed from Ben Madgen pretty consistently here on out.

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orbit  
Years ago

Adelaide are tanking - someone forgot to tell Joey no draft system yet!!

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Adelaide are shit

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