Taipans at home by 10 or so, Adelaide looked so immensely out of sorts the other night it still hasnt sunk in! And now they need to back that up with a complete role reversal, dont see it happening. Hopefully Joey sat next to DJ on the way up and got him motivated and locked in to produce big time tonight. But doubt that too.

@Jack Toft

I am worried about the 36'ers chances for the finals if they blow this game, more to the point I would be disappointed in not being able to see Randle in the play-offs.

The best team, of course, should get it done...

If Melbourne win their next game against NZ they can't lose top spot, which means they WILL have home court advantage against the 4th place team.

Wonder if they might chose the "throw" their last game ( play their bench much more than usual) against NZ, if needed, to ensure NZ finish 4th rather than face Adelaide imn the semi's with Randle back on court.

"Wonder if they might chose the "throw" their last game ( play their bench much more than usual) against NZ, if needed, to ensure NZ finish 4th rather than face Adelaide imn the semi's with Randle back on court."

My god that is an astonishingly dumb comment even considering some of the absolute tripe posted on this board (refer Tofts drivel above for an example!).

As if United sweat the 6ers in Melbourne! HAHAHAHAHA!

Listen up ladies....6ers aren't even in the same discussion as Melb, Perth and the Hawks. Your squad is a midget brigade who have NO game....and your bigs are a joke. DJ is a bum. No heart. No aggression. Nothing. Petrie? LOL. If it wasn't for Randle you'd be looking down the barrel of a wooden spoon and all you muppets would be calling for Joey's head (like y'all did with all the previous coaches).

@Bear

It would be a sad way to end the season for Randell and the Sixers

I can't see us shooting a winning score...or defending one for that matter.

@ROFLcopter, I hope you are not dumb enough to my wind ups seriously

The positive for Adelaide is Johnson has had some good bounce-back performances this season, they'll need one tonight you'd think.

Cairns will be gunning for the 12-point margin to claim the series, which is a chance if Adelaide haven't fixed their shot selection from the other night.

I think copter had a slight brain fart Jack...

man, i hate maths.........

Taipans are more than capable

It's about half way through the first quarter now. If you were still wondering.

Looks like little has changed since 2 days ago

Plenty's changed in the last 10 mins though.

Flop city in Cairns

maybe not foul on the three!

fuck me the flops are putting even redhage to shame, hope the refs get a flogging over the shocking baited calls. 2x trigger, 1x gliddon and 1x wortho so far, what a joke

maybe not foul on the flop!

Fixed

This flopping is painful to watch. Then Ebi tries it and gets nothing

Love how blatant Joey was, he was so pissed he said just flop!

Can't say the last 2 days have been great however like my coach once told me; players win games, teamwork wins championships.

And two teams who exude that teamwork and confidence have been the Cats and Breakers of late titles.

We were living on a dream that one player could be the be all/end all. End all it might be without him.

That Randle injury didn't feel like a big deal after the win and then no structural damage news... Then you get hit with reality of how shite the team is with out him. Ebi back to his norm DJ offered little and no one else has shown they capable. Sad end to a interesting season.

The margin blowout against NZ is what killed us. Plus so many miss FT over the last couple of games.

That was a pretty strong performance from Adelaide tonight, nothing wrong with that effort and a lot of players contributing, problem was losing the series to NZ meant they really needed to win.

Cairns still alive now if they can beat NZ, but the NBL have done them no favours giving them less than 42 hours between games in Cairns and Auckland!

Randle is the best import in the NBL, but the way Gibbo plays when Adelaide doesn't carry another import PG makes you wonder why the Sixers sign import PGs.

Think he's referring to the umpires...

Looking for a scapegoat? Surely not

DJ should be scoring 20-25 points a game consistently with his inside-outside touch. The fact that he's not is reflective of both the player and the coach. He's surrounded by too many mediocre players (Walker, Creek, Petrie) who drag him down to their level.

Great effort from the guys tonight, they kept coming back and did not give up.

Worst umpiring of the season I think and in this game of flops, guesses, missed calls and inconsistencies it is just possible the result was perverted.

Gibbo definitely salvaged his pride, played a gutsy game.

Creek really firing in damaging bursts.

Petrie, walker and Johnson solid.

Ebi, well he really needed Joey to set some plays for him to get some early open looks from range and recover his confidence after Wed night, but it didn't happen.

Sixers will always struggle without some consistency from three point land, leaving us driving into concentrated traffic. Cairns gave us plenty of open looks from range because it was apparent that no one wanted to shoot, allowing them to contract their defense and invite us to run into the brick wall over and over.

For all that we stayed with them and almost stole the game.

Good luck next Friday and may the gods set us a level playing field and Jerome is back.

Go Sixers

"I know DJ just signed a 3 year deal before the season but he and Gibbo are two players with poor attitudes who I wouldn't mind us moving on from."

DJ is only cruising right now and he still managed to be #1 in rebounding and 12th in scoring.

Imagine if he was focused every night? You can't let a guy like DJ go.

"I think MU are favourites for the title, and will remain so with HCA in a series, but IF a team could upset them, it would be Perth."

Well if NZ sneak into fourth spot I think they would fancy their chances against Melbourne. Remember how they turned it on last season in the playoffs after losing four of their last six in the regular season?

I think MU are favourites for the title, and will remain so with HCA in a series, but IF a team could upset them, it would be Perth.

Well if NZ sneak into fourth spot I think they would fancy their chances against Melbourne. Remember how they turned it on last season in the playoffs after losing four of their last six in the regular season?

Yep, Randle's injury has set up a cracker finish.

I would much rather play Melbourne than the Hawks.

Jut one small game situation that say a lot to me about DJ and Joey.

DJ is being defended by Trigger at times last night.

Neither he, the rest of the team or the coaching staff could orchestrate a play to get him the ball in the post or in a situation where he can use his speed, size or skill set to take advantage of Triggers defensive inability.

On the other side of the coin Cairns exploited DJ all night.

Admittedly DJ was a victim of probably three terrible calls but on two of those Cairns went at him and exploited his Axel Dench like lateral slowness on D to put the refs in a situation to make those calls.

Who decided that DJ will just pop on nearly every pick or hang around the three point line so much.

DJ was also on the end of one of the worst flop calls of the season when Trigger took a dive.
But yes, DJ's defensive liabilities are fairly evident. His overall play has fallen away a fair bit in the past month or so.

Am I correct in thinking that the BIG news out of this game is that Cairns' hopes of a post-season are now officially dead? They needed a 12 point win to take the series.
It's an interesting "strategic" move (or lack there off) by Adelaide.
Cairns now have nothing to play for against NZ...

I can't see Adelaide beating the Hawks, without Randle. So barring an "upset" in the last game, they should finish on 14 wins.
NZ should beat Cairns, so even if they drop both games to MU they should finish 4th.

If Adelaide and NZ are tied (NZ have the series) with only that last game to play, it could get interesting. If Randle is partially recovered, they might ask him to come back early.
Whilst I wouldn't expect Perth to do Adelaide any favours, they have already locked in 2nd spot, and would need MU to drop BOTH NZ games to have a shot at 1st. As we have seen, Perth can be sluggish if they aren't motivated. With nothing to play for, they may again rest key players, and again give the bench a run. Might that give Adelaide a sniff??

"Am I correct in thinking that the BIG news out of this game is that Cairns' hopes of a post-season are now officially dead?"

No. Cairns can still make it if they, NZ and Adelaide all finish 14-14.

No. Cairns can still make it if they, NZ and Adelaide all finish 14-14.

Cairns would have to play a lot better than they did against us to beat NZ. Everything is against them, travelling, shorter rest, NZ home crowd and they would have to shoot the lights out from the three and get that percentage up from 25% to around 55%

Most likely NZ will blow them well away.

An upset would be nice though!