Also now that the Sixers tickets are done through Ticketmaster and it looks really full on the seating map, get behind the boys!

It depends who's playing: Abercrombie, Pledger, Ebi.

If Adelaide is a full strength then I tip them to win regardless. Yes, the Breakers have a great system but Webster is their class go to scorer. Without him, I think the 36ers will run and gun and outscore them.

Do like the new Ticketmaster seating. You can select specific seats, rather than just a section. Which is nice.

I'm hoping we win, should be a close one.

Ere is playing as indicated in the paper four days ago.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/basketball/adelaide-36ers-import-ebi-ere-says-he-will-be-fit-to-go-in-nbl-opener-against-nz-breakers/story-fnii09ki-1227552747229

From what I heard NZ will rest Pledger until the Crocs game and take teenage DP & UK recruit Tai Wynyard in his place and Abercrombie is being rested also until the Crocs game with TeRangi & Bailey covering is role.

New Zealand will be playing small ball with Tai Wesley at the 5 against Adelaide.
Keeping up with Petrie & DJ will not be an issue.

Ced Jackson/S.Ili
E.Bartlett/S.McDonald
R.TeRangi/D.Baily
M.Vukona/T.Wynyard
T.Wesley/C.Jackson

People under-estimate the Breakers but I think (bias aside) that they will get up in this one. Charles Jackson to step up and finally show his worth.

Charles Jackson had a great stat line in their last game at the Blitz.

Charles Jackson put up good numbers at Tenessee Tech and put up decent numbers for Philly in the NBA summer league.
He'll find his feet, he's played about 5 meaningless games in a Breakers uniform to date. All the armchair critics were quick to judge Ibekwe last season and then just as quick to jump on the bandwagon when he hit the championship winning shot.

Cedric Jackson is the only import NZ will expect a big game from.
Bartlett will have a licence to put shots up as will TeRangi and McDonald otherwise the ball will be going inside to Wesley on the block to take advantage of DJ's stellar defensive qualities while Petrie & Vukona wrestle for rebound position.

A lot will ride on how well Bartlett and TeRangi shoot from outside for NZ.
If they can't space the floor Cedric won't have a lot of room to operate.

Absolute banger of a game to get the season off to a start!

Lots of variables going into the game with teams as well as form. The form in the Blitz is no indication of what it to come.

Ebi "Bane" Ere will suit and you can't tell me the Sixers aren't looking good with the changes made in the off season. DJ will be the go to man for them in the key, but I look forward to seeing Diesel getting some quality minutes while DJ has a break.

The Breakers might go home with a loss, but what becomes of the broken hearted?

Sixers by 6

"The Breakers might go home with a loss, but what becomes of the broken hearted"

Hahahaha God I missed your write ups Jack Toft. Nice work , keep em comin

I just can't wait for this one to get started. Have been counting down the days for months!

McNeail carrying a shoulder injury and may not start. Ere may be promoted to starting lineup. today's Advertiser.

ps - good to see half the back page and full page in the sports section devoted solely to NBL

Adelaide by 4 with it being after an over time period.

That's about what it comes down to in Round 1.
Blind hope, with no form guide to go off.

When do starting line up's get confirmed?

Kenyon is suited

I'm on Adelaide - it just feels like a game to settle in for NZ and can see 36ers getting it by 5-7

Reality is you have to beat a team missing three starters. Pressure is on the Sixers even if first game uncertainties are factored in.

Kenyon is warming up.

Is Bartlett arming up. He is not on the box score.

Warming up.

If you can posts scores here that would be great. Still at work and most social media are blocked.

I know the box score is up and this is gonna sound dumb but are there confirmed starting 5's?

Finally the wait is over. Bring it on!!

Matthew, live stats here I think.

That's also blocked for me Isaac. AS is the nbl.com, news.com.au ? and many other normally easy to access sites at work. Strangely I can still come here.

Matthew, live scores are on theroar.com.au here:

http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/10/07/adelaide-36ers-vs-new-zealand-breakers-nbl-live-scores-blog/

woot! Thanks!

Works for you?

the roar seems to work fine.

Cedric Jackson going to need a big night tonight, me thinks...

ADL should win.

No Webster, Abercrombie and Pledger.

Super ugly start...

The nets are frustrating me. No swishes. Seem like those heavy ones.

Charles Jackson won't last long methinks.

Sobey is an athlete.

I don't think people realise how athleic he is. He is also 6"3ish.

People talk about Gliddon, Norton and talked about Greenwood.

Sobeys ceiling seems much higher IMO.

Its a great question. Usually i would have said because they couldn't find any other local PG..

But they could have got Jarrod Kenny instead which would have seemed much more logical.

Charles Jackson will be fine playing energy minutes behind Pledger.
Breakers need to box out and need crisper passing offensively instead of scrambling to gather.

Mystro, Pledger's health and fitness is going to be in doubt for probably all his career. We probably need someone with a bit more offense.

Our lack of shooting is very worrying (though we are missing one excellent shooter and another very good shooter tonight).

Yeah, NZ need a 2nd import who can give them a bit more than energy off the bench this year, IMO.

Ere looking good

Old man Ere still knocks them down just fine.

Where are the Ere haters now?

Oh my, Ebi Ere!

Going to be interesting watching him defend some of the better guards in the league on the other end of the court this year, though.

ere is unreal lmao

Charles Jackson: gets a rebound, yay. Wait, nope, turnover...

Vukona looks quite slow and lacking his usual speed and sharpness.

Age and high usage over the past year finally showing?

I don't think NZ can afford to sit Cedric Jackson... this lineup is terrible.

Hodgson looks great, wouldn't be shocked to see him starting sooner rather than later.

Kenyon McNeil is injured, has barely played.

NZ have 3 starters out and are playing 2 development players, I wouldn't read too much into it.
The disturbing thing is they are getting bullied and cannot box out and are getting killed in the effort areas.

Breakers missing Webster big time have nobody who can create.

#wishfulthinking

Yes were missing some fairly good players but no excuses.

Our starters have played equally bad - too much fouling.

Our current roster has sadly moved away from all the things that made us so good previously. Hoping its just this game but certainly not good.

Hodgson looks great. Breakers severely undermanned and in massive foul trouble early, and just lacking seriously in the effort areas. Not reading too much into it, but expecting a much better team performance in next game. Also, what the heck is with trying to go one on one- really need some direction.

Finally, Charles Jackson looks way out of his depth- bring back BIG G!!!

Hodgson is enormous. Only way to describe him.

Why would you risk Kenyon in a game that you have under control?

Best way to stop a run is to sub back on Hodgson...

Hodgson is a big boy.

Wilkinson is a volume scorer- get him in and get jackson out?

With Creek on the roster is Lucas Walker perhaps a little redundant?

Hodgson is an absolutely amazing grab.

Yup, Creek has most of Walker's strengths, minus the foul troubles.

Nice alley-oop and then hustling back to block Johnson from Charles Jackson.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing re: the colours... I think that blue is too dark for an away jersey. Not a fan of NZ's jersey's at all, to be honest. Looks like they should be out there kicking balls around with Hugh Greenwood.

Adelaide -very impressive

Horrible call against Jackson there... where was the foul? Typically horrible NBL post-d call there.

Yeah, that was silly, Breakers should have played in white

Dead rubber type of game in the end. But that nz roster even at full strength wont do much. Webster is too big a loss. Ebe looked better than id belived he would be, but has a lot of weight to lose still. The big boy is a potential gold mine! Thats the big news!

The Breakers don't have a white jersey, just their usual home black and the one they wore tonight. Of the two, I'd say they wore the correct one for the circumstances.

Great performance from Adelaide, brutal second quarter. Few questions for the Breakers to answer over the first quarter of the season.

36ers shooting % is what will be needed for a top team

I hope the scoreboard is broken as I can't stand it not having them available. Use one of the replay screens. Good game after a shaky start, nice that we also got to rest some guys at the end as well.

Great to see some 36ers players get around Hugh Greenwood after the game.

Breakers less two of their main scorers were always going to struggle to keep up with this Sixers line-up

Great little cameo from Ebi in the second there

The story of the game is Hodgson. With this year's crop of NBL bigs they need him to be competitive in the paint at certain times, if they are to challenge for p layoffs. It looks like he's more than capable of that

Abercrombie is one of the best shooters on the team so yes.
NZ played small ball and then forgot to box out and got smashed on the boards.
They also put up way too many 3's when they clearly weren't falling and everything looked sloppy, passing shooting & offensive direction along with their inability to stop Adelaide.

Kudos to the Sixers, they controlled the tempo and made their shots.

Crowd was about 4,500.

36ers played messy and absolutely terrible in the first part of the first quarter. If NZ had actually hit its shots, very different outcome would have occurred.

It's hard to judge too much since it is the first game, but no team has the benefit of a slow start in this years epicly even competition.

Breakers were missing 3-4 players, so it's hard to judge the game again on this basis.

The Good
» That second quarter. Great basketball to watch. If the 36ers can play like that more often and during larger parts of the game, expect to see the 36ers competing against the best.
» Hodgson. He was so damn surprising, he had me on my feet. The 36ers visibly sucked when he was on the bench and when he was there was sudden scoring, rebounding and those blocks were simply great to watch. What a start!
» Ebi Ere. Doesn't look the most athletic bloke out there obviously, but he had energy and nailed those shots. Ooh-ahh, Ebi Ere.
» Sobey. Some really good effort plays, good layup and three point shot, a nice block, this guy is another good pickup.

The Bad
» Defence, particularly perimeter defence was not great. Left NZ wide open.
» Those classic 36ers third quarter starts - no matter how good Adelaide are playing, they have to have a woeful third quarter start, they've been this way the last 25 odd years. Some things never change.
» I don't really see the point in Lucas Walker yet
» Johnson (except for that nice three point shot). Struggled particularly in the first half, he looked more like the backup big and Hodgson looked more like the star. Nothing concerning to be made of it, just dusting off the cobwebs. He likes playing against Perth, we'll see how he goes on Saturday.

Overall, happy with a win, and such a large win. There will always be negatives regardless of victory size, and it's hard to read much into them after the first game. Very bright efforts by the youth show real potential for Adelaide to have a good season. Bring on Perth!

It surprises me how many people (commentators and supporters) are surprised when an Australian US college player comes back to the NBL and shows he can play!

At D1 or D2 level college, after 4 years or so and gaining all that experience, knowledge and conditioning in the home of the sport, why do we act surprised?

Good for Hodgson, it was an impressive debut, but no real surprise to me...

Not the most inspiring game overall to start the season, however it was a bit of a blowout so that would have been part of the problem, still some good highlights that I am sure Foxtel/Foxsport can promote.

Crowd was rocking. Good to see a decent turnout. Breakers looked lost without their star who is trying to get into the NBA. Early days though so improvement should be expected from them.

Great win by Adelaide, a good team, although they seem to lack some quality depth. If they get off to a good start then that should hold them for the finish. Adelaide should be there abouts challenging for the top four.

More positives than negative for the Sixers last night. They have a deep team that can run. DJ and Gibbo are the main stars. Extremely impressed with Hodgson and think he will be starting next to DJ soon.

Can't read too much into that for the Breakers without Pledger, Abercrombie and Webster. But thought they were undisciplined and got into foul trouble. They lack scoring as no one can create for themselves at the moment and if Webster makes the NBA would get rid of Jackson for a gun scoring import. But thought that Charles Jackson went alright in limited minutes last night.

Defence, particularly perimeter defence was not great. Left NZ wide open.

I'm not sure whether it's a good game plan, or a bad indictment of slow defensive rotations. Depends how we go in other games I guess

Isaac I think that's spot on, the Breakers have relied on those guys doing what they do best and it then creates for the others to do their thing.

Without Webster's shooting ability they had to go outside their comfort zone and added to this missing Abercrombie and Pledger created massive holes in their usual system of play.

The 6'ers came away with a win against the previous champs, can't take that away and it is always good to get an early win, but it is only round one...

Adelaide did what they had to do. With NZ only having 3 main rotation guys from last year's title team they were always going to struggle, and the 36ers made the most of that, even though they are still a long way off their best.

Adelaide have a very athletic and versatile team, I'm looking forward to watching them play in more competitive games.

Most disappointing thing about last night was seeing us (the Breakers) being outworked and out-hustled.

Hustle and out-working our opponents has been a staple of our success for the last few years but it was non-existent last night.

I like the look of ADL this year because they look very balanced. Last year, the offensive output was heavily reliant on Gibson/Wilson having fairly big games.

This year, you can share the scoring load and have a lot of genuine threats which spreads the floor and opens up a lot of space - Gibson, McNeil, Ere, Johnson, Hodgson, Walker.

Offensively, ADL will be the real deal if they run fluent offence with good ball movement and create short and sharp rotations with Sobey being the energy guy off the bench.

Watched bits and pieces of this game. Points that I've taken away:

Adelaide:
- Adelaide go 10 deep. Hodgson and Sobey look more than capable of playing a role off the bench.
- Adelaide’s group of frontcourt players has a nice, even balance to it- Hodgson has serious size, he operates near the basket and appears to be a strong rim protector. The right player alongside Petrie and Johnson who can both score from inside or outside, then Walker and Creek who are super athletic guys and will consistently create a contest on the glass and attack the hoop.
- This Adelaide team is fast, athletic and mobile. Well suited to Wright’s coaching..

NZ:
- Charles Jackson is still a real question mark. It was a mixed bag for him- he did some nice things at both ends, but at other times I felt he was too soft and isn’t enough of a physical presence at the defensive end. It won’t get any easier- they’ll need to ease Pledger back to match fitness in their next few games as they face Conklin, Childress and Khazzough and Ogilvy. Jackson needs to protect the rim.

I didn’t see any reason to change my prediction from before the game- hard to see NZ winning the championship if Webster doesn’t return. They’ll probably miss the top 4 without him.

Agreed LV can't see New Zealand making the four without Webster unless they get a gun import or gun Aussie

Yeah, Webster's production is huge to this teams championship hopes.

Don't think they"ll be able to get a stud local (gutted that Penney is with the Hawks).

They will need a stud shooting guard - but that is a mission in itself.

They will be solid without Webster once they have Abercrombie and Pledger back - it is not all doom and gloom.

That said, they look less potent than last year with a chucker like Bartlett playing such a big role.