Sixers strong favourites because we do't have anyone to stay with Randle (unless Dillard has some serious quickness).
If Johnson, Sobey, Creek, Drmic score double figures each we will be in trouble.
Breakers have to play solid man defense. Get back in transition and get into a half court game. Make the Sixers beat us inside, contest outside shots and DO NOT give any open looks.
Breakers offense will centre on Penney but we need to get to Dillard/ Loe high screen action going at some point to see what Dillard has and then adjust after that. Pledge can do a number on Sixers bigs if they give him the ball.
Sixers did a good job attacking Penney off the dribble earlier in the season.
The longer we can hold on to man coverage without getting hurt and then use the zone as backup of hopefully when we have a lead.
Same expectation as last night with Cotton. Answered after 1 quarter.
HOW GOOD IS DILLARD???
IS HE A MIRACLE IN WAITING??? Let's hope so.

Adelaide shot the lights out v Hawks and will be hard to repeat that effort.I'm going Breakers in this game only for the fact nbl would want the league ladder to be as close as possible,so i see Adelaide losing a few on the trot.It was interesting to hear Bevo say the other day that it was the hottest any of his teams he has coached have played in.I'm sure Titanium stadium has air con which i'm sure wasn't turned on.If this was done on purpose it's a dog act and they should be fined.I know you are thinking it's hot for both teams but if it was a plan then they would of trained in those conditions which is an advantage.

Do NZ have 2 new imports? Who is this Carter fellow?

T Ferg putting on a show early

Very sloppy start to this quarter.

Un Zud are hot poop

Un Zud are hot poop

Ferg's had a couple nice allys this weekend.

I love watching 36ers play they share the ball well. When a shot is made bench goes nuts can see the team has a great bond

..... would like to see a foul called when you dive in and take someones legs out.....
other sports do...

Trouble for NZ. 22 points down at the half after giving up 64 points - with Randle and Sobey barely troubling the scorers

Props to the Breakers crowd staying so positive even when the team is trash

Yeah dangerous play by Vukona there.

Easy to say the Sixers should win this easily with the Breakers not playing well with an ever changing team due to injures but it's never easy winning in NZ.

What is most impressive is how hard the Sixers are playing on defence especially on the full court press where they've forced a few turnovers. They could have just rested on their laurels at the top of the ladder but that definitely isn't the case.

Hope we go on to blow the Breakers out as payback for all the times they've blown us out on their home floor.

Dillard is great at the 3 pointers.

Dillard looks like a shrunk Quincy Acy (who, coincidentally was waived this week).

What happened with Stockton? Was he only filling a gap on Friday until Dillard arrived?

Back issue apparently.

Creek 12, Teys 10, Johnson 16,Sobey 10, Ferguson 9 after 3/4. Randle can get whatever he wants, anytime he wants. But if we can't stop those others we don't have any chance.
Gone with match up zone all the way haven't we and Sixers have cashed in.They have looked like they are cruising.

Dillard just said he met most of his teammates in the locker room before the game.

Decent effort if we were playing anyone other than Adelaide. We could not get stops and Randle was just insurance to close us out. Dillard is OK makes us better but not that much better to make a finals run. We are just "spoilers" now hoping to change the makeup of the finalists. As a previous post said, Dillon dithered too long with Stockton. Should have made the call a month ago.
Hope the fans keep showing up for the remaining 4 games.
I suppose the balance sheet has taken a hit with 5 imports coming and going.

Those rims are so clunky, every time you hear the ball touch the rim it's cringe worthy

I don't think Joey should have kept Hodgson on the floor when he picked up that first foul, even though it was only early in the qtr. Should've subbed for Jaobsen and hoped to get to qtr time with both on only 1 foul. Those 2 players have a knack of following up the first foul with a silly 2nd one.
Hodgson makes a big difference when not in foul trouble.

Rather than not keep him on the floor, Hodgy needs to do a better job on not getting into foul trouble. Im such a big fan of him and think he can be a game changer, but he has to do a better job of staying on the court.

He likes to get a stupid foul Every. Single. Game.

Against NZ, it was fouling at our end of the court when NZ took the ball. Hodgson decided to lean in and take a swipe from behind (stupid idea). This caused him to lose balance and fall over the NZ player.

Leaning in to swipe for the ball in that situation is what amateur under 12's do, not professional big men.

If you're a big man banging next to the basket, you're going to collect fouls. That's fine. But he'll get into foul trouble and not be able to spend time on the court or be effective if he racks up his 3rd and 4th fouls so quickly doing things he need not be doing.

With an inexperienced squad, these are the things you accept will occur as part of player development.

Randle and Teys have made some silly passes which we can't really afford when we get to "finals-like" games. Usually it's not so much overly ambitious passes (which the other 36ers players have a tendency of) but more slack passing.

Penney kept postingup Randle and achieving the easy basket, that was a mismatch and an area we were out-coached.

On the flip side, this extended defence which I was critical about early in the season, credit where it's due, Adelaide have started to do it effectively and no longer getting heavily punished for it. They have used it more sparingly and timed it better - it's now creating or furthering momentum for Adelaide instead of the opposition.

I am incredibly impressed at Adelaide's temperament and consistency.

To be able to carry big leads the entire game for two games in a row is a good sign. Whenever there is fight, Adelaide has produced baskets whether it be Sobey, Randle, DJ, even Teys or someone else.

Watching Adelaide this season, for the first time in a long time, you don't really feel like they'll "screw it up". Adelaide has a long history of bad second or third quarters which either screw things up or makes things tighter than they should be.