General comments:

Great crowd. Boxscore said 5756 but it looked more to me. Shame we didn't have a better first half to put on more of a show for the fans.

Some of the rebounding fouls were pretty rough. Just when we had made a game of it and could've scored to make it close to a 10 point difference, Dusty got a couple of fouls and they get 5 points in a few seconds.

Maher shot 7/11 - would've liked to have seen him get more opportunities given that accuracy. Holmes was good - created a few good shots for himself. Farley had his moments, but those turnovers in the third quarter feeding the post were horrible.

The cars out the front and then at three quarter time looked great. After the technical hitch, they couldn't demo the sound system (there was talk of trying to get the Australian record - not sure) because it could've damaged Fox's microphones. Fox had promised an extended ad break for the cars, but I don't think it happened. Hopefully they'll bring that car back for another game?

I have a good amount of respect for Goorjian being able to have that roster playing as well as they are. They're not full of out-and-out talent, but they play intense defense and are very, very accurate from outside.

Yeah, but how loaded is Goorj's team Isaac? You give that playing roster to any other coach in the league and you don't think they'd be on top of the ladder? And they've got Luke Martin coming back. They go a legitimate 10 deep with Martin back and you could well argue that Sheridan, Kendall, Crosswhite, Barlow and Martin would be staring on most other NBL teams. That's ridiculous in this day and age of tight salary caps and points systems. I'm not an expert on the points system but the basis of it was the make the league a more even competition and stop one team dominating I thought. If the Kings can maintain a 20 point lead for most of the game against the 2nd placed team on their home floor where they haven't lost a game then something isn't right.

here here

Crosswhite, Worthington, Barlow & Kendall would probably be worth very little in the points system due to their lack of playing years and Barlow has neve recieved any meaningful playing time until this season. Remember, the point system is based on the previous seasons, not how they are playing right now. Luke Martin is a quality player but hardly a superstar. He would be worth a decent number of points but not enough to break the bank.

They really only have three veteran stars that would be worth 9-10 points in Bruton, Smith & Roberts. Ben Knight would in the high points depart as well I suppose. Goorjian, as much as I dislike him, has a pefect roster of veterans and young players. He is getting great peformances at both ends of the court from both his veteran and his young players.

Sydney was able to beat the 2nd place team on the road when they haven't lost a game because they are simply a fantastic team which was put together, I believe, in accordance to the points system. I can't speculate on the salary cap because I have no idea what anyone earns. None of us do, so speculation is pointless. The Kings played the night before in Perth and yet had far more energy than the Sixers last night.

They played better D than the Sixers did, the ran their offense better the Sixers did, they rebounded better than the Sixers did. Simple.

Good point re the points.

Wonder what happens next year or will the discounts for being starters at Sydney come into play?

Smith 10
Import 10
CJ 10
Martin 5 (Boomer but started at Sydney)
Worthington 5 see Martin
Barlow 5 see Martin
Kendall 5 see Maertin

27 points and 3 player up their sleeve. So potentially they could load the team even more next year.

well under the points cap...wonder if the NBL will adjust the rules to have say a max number of Boomers in your squad.

Not sure how they will do it though.

I have to agree with jasmine, I love the sixers but our recruiting methods are sub par. The thing Georgian does better than anyone is keep in contact with Aussie kids in the college system so when they are looking to become pro and europe doesnt call he has first dibs on them. We have Ryan Kersten, an adelaide boy playing for New Mexico, and he has said that he has never once heard from the sixers but has heard from Georgian many a time, so therefore as much as i hate to say it he desrves the better team. The other thing he has done well is have to stand out players in CJ and J Smith who can do as they like and filled the rest of the team with kids fresh out of college who are used to playing structured, disciplined ball, fitting to his side perfectly, smart bald little man!

With the Kings intensity and accuracy last night they looked far superior. I also expected that the Kings would have been much more tired than they were. Given all that we came within 10 points already having sliced around 15 off the margin in the last quarter and were on a roll until the dodgy foul calls came. This resulted in an explosion of frustration that saw a normally cool and calm player getting a tech foul. There is only so much you can take when the officiating is questionable throughout the game. If we were able to continue on that roll, who knows, I believe we could have won it. It was at a time also when the Kings were losing a bit of their accuracy in shooting as a result of the threat they were being faced with. This could have seen them slide further back. The advantage the Sixers have even though they are not consistent is their ability to fight back in the crucial moments. When I talk about questionable calls, I don't mean we did nothing wrong but how about picking up fouls from both sides instead of one only. This could have caused confusion on our part as to how much you could get away with from the refs when they were overlooking the same fouls at the other end.

Anon, you must have seen the game from a different angle. Throughout the game the people around me were watching the Kings players continuously committing fouls which went unnoticed by the refs. It frustrated us so much that it was difficult to contain the swearing. I'm not saying the Sixers didn't deserve the fouls they got called, but for crying out loud look at both ends and be consistent.

Playing like that, we could feasibly go 2-9 to close the season.

Cooper and a couple of others need to try for some one-handed rebounds because when they get in those tipping wars, we'd always lose out to pesky Kings.

The scoreline flattered our game, IMO.

I was pretty surprised that we weren't prepared to take on the Kings' transition defence. The game was played at the Kings' pace and the result followed.

The Kings' depth is what kills you - we were generally hanging in for the first 8 minutes of each quarter. We also had an opportunity at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, forcing Kings' turnovers, but then turning the ball over ourselves.

Give Goorg and his team plenty of credit, he's obviously done his homework on Adelaide and their
"NO POST" Offense. Sydney consistantly switched all perimeter screens and hand offs which limited our open looks from the perimeter. All Adelaide does is shoot the ball from outside, if you dont feed a post man the defense doesnt have to collapse to the ball making it even harder to get open on the perimeter.Cooper with his height and long arms should be posting up and hitting jump hooks in the paint, instead hes running around outside the keyway with little effect. Why isnt anyone setting great screens to get Brett Maher open. Why is Brad Hill running the point position when all he really wants to do is put it through his legs 4 times then force up a shot.
Why does Farley consistantly gamble in defense and get beaten forcing his team mates to have to run to help. Why is Paul Rees arguing with the refs about every call instead of focussing on the game.

Anon 61497, you can play badly for 75% of the game and win. The Sixers almost proved it against the Kings and have done so in the past. Foul calling aside, they were on a good run home. Anyone could see in the last 5 minutes of the game, their intensity and aggression had stepped up. In fact they looked to be playing very much like the Kings had played all night except for shooting accuracy. They would have made up for that by the extra number of times they were throwing the ball up. I firmly believe the Kings play a dirty game and don't know why the refs allowed them to get away with it. The saying "if you can't beat them, join them" clearly applied here in the last quarter except for the refs believing it was good enough for the Kings but not the Sixers.

You can't blame anyone but the guys on the court for that performance. Refs were OK in that they were consistently bad for both sides.

Roberts and others got a lot of soft calls under the basket, similar to Dusty's over the back fouls. Can't complain there.

Sydney simply had more discipline. To have such a young group playing disciplined basketball like that is a credit to Boy Goorj. Their defence was stingy, they ran the break well, they actually hit screens in the half court and they knock open shots.

The amount of times Sydney ran a simple double screen low, and Barlow curled in for a lay up was frustrating.

CJ should lead the universe in assists by driving and dishing to the open 3. He was too smart/good/quick for Farley, and I think showed why he should earn an NBA shot in the near future.

Kings for the 'ship for the next 6 years.

Rebounding was the key to that game, the kings wanted the ball more.

Our centre (rees & cooper combined) in 43mins of game time got 4 rebounds, that is woeful.

The amount of time the ball went up and knight or roberts didn't have a body on them was terrible. Basic basketball, box out.

If we had got closer in the rebound count (we lost that by 12) we could have won.

If the other team gets 12 more opportunities with the ball, more often than not you lose the game.

The kings never got called for hand checking constantly on defence. The amount of time brett did his little quick step got in front of his opponent then got hand checked/held so the defender can catch up was rediculous. Farley then got called for soft fouls when bruton got shitty when he hand checked and swiped his hand away. I had no issues in the first quarter but then the refs lost control of the game. Dusty getting called for over the back was also poor, it was happening down the other end all night. The little ref with the bald head didnt call much against sydney all night.
We left unhappy with the standard of the whole game. Roberts qetting frustrated was good as he was the one holding constantly when he was trying to post and he just got pissed.

halleluah nutwork...
I am one of the simple fans..never played the game at a high level, come to it as a fan...but it seemed clear to me..the 36ers were completely thumped on rebounds..especially defensive..look at the rest of the game, im guessing we matched up pretty well overall... but rebounds, we barely got a hand on them, and often the ones we did get were more that fell in our laps, as opposed to fighting for and winning them. If Phil did say he didnt train for the physical game..then thats a joke, even i knew it would be tough.

Sitting at home enduring the Fox telecast I said in the second 1/4 we needed to stand up to the physicallity being shown by the Kings and give some back. We needed a Garrison type ready to sit one of the opposition on his arse! Reesy tried in the last but the game was gone then, where was the attiude earlier? Its our home court dammit!
In years past Garrison or Cattalini would have taken it upon themselves to do something to fire themsleves and the team (and crowd)up (why it took a message in the fourth 1/4 time out from smyth for someone to do something is beyond me) We were way too nice on Sat night and payed the price!

And as far as Carfino is concerned yes his bias gives me the s^%$s but its his crap US hiphop jargon taht really annoys me. When did an assist become a 'dime' for example - I think Id rather listen to KG and Cornesy call the game!

if you want an 'australian' commentator listen to peter walsh on abc while you watch fox - very parochial.

All I can say is hopefully CJ does go to the NBA or (more likely) Europe. Then they will be forced to use an import slot on a PG (due to the total lack of aussie pgs)
Still if they lose CJ and keep everyone else then it could be a number of years before they don't win the Champ.

one thing i couldnt understand was when willie and holmes were just running pick and rolls for a while, holmes was hitting shots or willie was creating of the dribble and then they all of a sudden stopped because brad hill had to have the ball in his hands. and then when maher came back it wasnt seen again. at that point it seemed to be giving us a bit of momentum yet just because it wasnt something we usually do, it stopped. IMO if they had kept going back to it, we woudve gotten a lot closer.