Isaac
Years ago

Sixers vs Taipans - Questions

It's all easy in hindsight, but here are my questions:

Clock is counting down on regular time. Maybe 8-10 seconds left. Cairns possession and they're up. We let 4-5 seconds run off the clock before someone thinks "shit, we should foul or our season is over".

From the way Cairns jumped all over each other after winning the game, you could tell they were eager as hell to win. After three lazy thrashings for the Sixers in the lead-up to the game, were we not quite as on the ball when it came to crunch-time thinking?

Then, with about a second to play in overtime and down by three, couldn't we have called for a timeout to advance the ball to half-court, passed in to Willie (2/2 threes for the game, shooting very well, and feeling it) and let him go for the double OT?

Just looking for some discussion on these I guess.

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DJ  
Years ago

And maybe a timeout with 32 or 34 seconds left in the game?

Phil just dosnt like timeouts is it because he has no set plays to tell them to run? Surely they would have a couple of clutch time plays they would practice?

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Mutley  
Years ago

Isaac, does the timeout in the NBL allow you to advance the ball to half-court? If it does then yes, you are quite correct.

Our lack of intensity in the preceeding three games had to have had an impact last night as well. Some of Adelaide's offences towards the end of regulation were not exactly smooth in their execution either.

As far as Willie, he's had nights not looking anywhere that good and taken 25 shots, and last night he only got 13! A failure on Smyth's part not to run more through him.

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Isaac  
Years ago

Mutley, not sure to be honest, but even if i t didn't it wouldn't have hurt. Doesn't cost him to use it!

One of the players post-game did comment that they were not running plays towards the end of the game.

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Statman  
Years ago

Those questions have been in my head too.

For all teh talk about the last weeks games not counting it showed in the first 1/4 that Cairns were confident and we were a bit tentative at first. If we had come into the game with winning (or at least competative) form and mindset I think we could have pulled out a massive first 1/4

As for the lack of a quick foul....again it could be due to the lack of intensity in the last few games. We have been just going through the motions in the last games and when the pressure was on in this one we just went to sleep.

and where was the timeout?? Sure its only 1 second but time enough to set up a play and run a few screens to have someone pop out open and catch and shot from the inpound pass - sure its a long sht but a better chance than a heave from 3/4 court!
Maybe the coaching staff couldnt find the whiteboard so couldnt do it?

In saying all that - Cairns deserve a ot of credit.....they played an awesome game and if we couldnt beat them at home after they had played Thursday night we didnt deserve to get into the semis

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Anonymous  
Years ago

yes mutley it does



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Mutley  
Years ago

Actually I'll ask another question: if we had've won last night does anyone think we would have gotten by Sydney next round?

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joshuapending  
Years ago

i dont really think there was too much to last nights game, we just fell that shot short, no one was on him and thats that. Just a realy shame.

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skip  
Years ago

Also added onto Mutleys Question, If this game had been part of a 3 game series does anyone believe we could have gone up to Cairns in a couple of days time and snatched a win back? I personally think No for both questions.

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EC  
Years ago

I don't agree. After the last 3 shocking losses in Queensland, seeing them play the way they did last night was quite obvious to me that it was a case of not giving too much to these games to protect themselves for the important one last night. As Isaac said about The Taipans you could see how much they wanted the win by the way they jumped all over each other at the end. How much did they really win by? One shot in the last 2 seconds. Considering Anthony Stewart was only shooting 3's at 50% it was more a case of luck on his team's side rather than additional skill. The Sixer's in my opinion played equally as well. When a game is that close any from a number of reasons could have changed the outcome. Why was Anthony Stewart left open in the last 2 seconds? Why did the umpires fail to make so many calls? Why did we miss one too many shots? The pressure that the Sixers were under in the dying seconds would have left them flustered and short of time to make good decisions. I don't agree that calling a time out in the last second would have achieved anything. What did cost us the game in the end was the lack of pressure put on Stewart in making that shot. The Sixers had every reason to leave the court last night with heads up high. There was certainly no shame, just sheer bad luck.

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panther lover  
Years ago

I would have to agree with evrything you have said EC. Spot on.

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Isaac  
Years ago

Yes, in a close game it's going to come down to who can make a basket and when. But I just wanted to question why four of the five on court for Adelaide walked back on defense on that last regular time play. If Maher (I think it was) hadn't been down there and realised we needed to foul, I don't know that we would've had the time.

We had the chance to foul Burgess instantly and have an extra four seconds. Burgess is a 54% free throw shooter. Darnell is 73%.

People have said of those Queensland losses that professional players will forget those efforts and come out firing for a play-off game. They did, but I just wonder if our mindset was missing something with that last decision.

I think we were lucky to get away Oscar making that layup on the buzzer. If he'd been fouled and missed the shot, I think nerves would've left him making 1/2 FT.

A time out in the last 1.6 seconds, or whatever it was, of overtime would've been the difference between Maher shooting from half-court on the run, vs Maher/Farley/Forman shooting a normal (albeit pressured) three pointer. A desperate chance, but a better chance IMO.

All of that said, I am glad that we finished with a solid effort from most of the team and an incredibly good game for fans to see. (The same can be said of the Fellas game!)

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twenty four  
Years ago

I can't understand how Stewart got so far open in the first place. I wasn't really watching anything off the ball, but you would think someone would make that sure a three point shooter isn't wide open when the game is on the line.
With the timeout, did anyone on the 36ers actually think; they hit the shot, I looked up, saw that they had a timeout, looked down and Maher was shooting from 3/4 court. Even if there is only say .7 left, you still call a timeout.

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Mott the Hoople  
Years ago

I don't agree with the approach the 6er's took into the last three games. Sure rest players that are carying injuries, but to get beaten by huge margins can't be good for the team's mindset or it's supporters.

Although the team didn't seem to have any ill affects from the losses, the supporters surely did. I think this is one of the main reasons for the poor crowd last night. This is something they may consider when they have secured a finals berth in future, if they want crowd support for a home final.

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Anonymous  
Years ago

why not question why stewart wasn't marked immediately when he was just subbed it to hit a 3

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Exactly, 69739. Why else would you make a sub in the dying seconds unless they were the designated shooter? That was bad thinking by Adelaide.

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Bo Hamburger  
Years ago

It was Maher who didn't cover Stuart. I saw a tape of the game last night and rewound that last play a few times to make sure. Maher was almost in the keyway, pointing and gesturing to other teammates but it looks like he just wasn't switched on that a) it was Stuart in the corner and b) Stuart was going to jack it without hesitation if he got it.

*deep breath in*

I may as well keep going, and risk the wrath of everyone: but is Maher increasingly suspect defensively at crunchtime? He flopped on that attempted charge call late in OT or regulation (I can't remember) when he just needed to stay on his feet, and I'll always remember him flopping over in Wollongong when Lowery went on to hit the huge 3 and got "fouled" by Mee. It's like he's trying to get the umpires to decide the outcome, and not simply staying between his man and the basket and making him shoot a tough shot.

Mind you, like Isaac says, it's easy in hindsight...

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Anonymous  
Years ago

maybe Maher has come unstuck trying to be everything to everyone it is hard to marshall the troops if they aren't all playing on the same page.

Much as I am a Maher fan maybe its time for him to say I'll take a pay cut (like Voss and Hird in the AFL) and let them use that money to help the team out.

mind you saying that I really think our league can not support full time athletes when the league was at its most successful people like Ali, Wood, Spear etc had day time jobs.

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Anthony  
Years ago

Yes Maher might have made one mistake in the dying minutes, but hes was the one that kept us in the final quarter IMO when he was outrebounding our centres and forwards in defence pretty much tells a story there. Coaching wise I though the lack of use of Brad Hill over the first half was odd considering we needed one to stay in touch which we doing two keep our players fresh which we didn't do as can been seen toward the end of the game where our offence was drying up.

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flatshot  
Years ago

great close game and and there are a number of individual errors that you can focus on. I thought the lack of rotation found us out in the end. It was as if we expected cairns to tire but ran without using enough of Hill or Cooper earlier in the game -particularly 3rd quarter which was when the vital signs were apparrent and the effort to get up with cairns told. In the end Brett and others were running on empty and Cairns injected freshened players into the game. But hindsight is a wonderful thing.

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XY  
Years ago

Agree Flatshot - Cairns had more in the tank at the end, and more depth they could call on. We lost because we were relying on two few.

As for mistakes that were made, Sixers were lucky to be as close as they were. Mee had the two most comical, uncharacteristic, no pressure fumbles out of court I have ever witnessed (even in an under 10s match) in the last six minutes of the game. Mee effectively threw the ball away without any defensive pressure. With the Sixers unable to make any defensive stops the way Cairns were executing, two more offenses should have sealed the game.

And even with that, Adelaide were lucky to push it to overtime, and lucky to be level with 4 seconds left.

A great game all around, too bad the result could not have been reversed...

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thedoctor  
Years ago

Note to Sixers - Get Darnell back. Is he now considered an non-Import?

Despite the outcome, thedoctor was thoroughly entertained. Great to see the banter between Willie and Darnell, although it backfired somewhat when Darnell had one of the best clutch quarters I have seen in a long time.

Anyone at the Stag after the game? Dusty and Carfino had plenty to say about Grabau's game. His defence and clutch shooting was instrumental in the Taipan's win IMO, as was Croswell's attack on the hoop.

It was the who's who of B/Ball at the Stag, with most of the Sixers, Fellas, Capitals and even Brad Newley and Dean Brogan..

It was Finch's birthday too. He has shaved his moustache. thedoctor is not happy.

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Kriss  
Years ago

It was a fantastic game but it hurts like hell to know Maher will be coming to the end of his career soon and we have gone out in the final 3 times in the knockout!!

Makes my blood boil. Im thinking Jacob won't be retained for next years team in search of a big 5 man

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Kriss doesn't Jacob have a year to run on his contract or at least an option?

For Jacob's sake and Aussie basketball sake I'd like to see him go elsewhere and improve his game - he should be developing like Glen Saville did but he isn't consistently getting the right returns for his efforts.

as stated on here before his fg% is woeful

like to see him play under goorj for a season or two

Adelaide's loss would be Jacob's and The Boomers gain.

Reply #69877 | Report this post




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