Really looking forward to tonight as well. Reckon Luke will pip Balls though seeing as though he has his confidence now. Looking forward to see "monkey man" Mark Tyndale slam a couple down after making a steal.

Hey Skip, why don't you smile a bit more on the sidelines. Has Mal got you on a "no smile" contract?

Didnt realise I wasnt smiling Jack. Will make an effort for you tonight.

Stephen Black back for the Taipans or still out?

Cairns havent been great, and their age was showing against the Hawks on that fox game, then they lost to them at home a few days later! With one or 2 decent runs, i see this one being a mini blowout.

36ers by 15+

Any info on how the bookies rate the game ?

Nah not yet Camel. I am still waiting to see what the odds. I would say Sixers would be favourites but not sure on what line margin they would put down.

OK.
I don't think Maher or Davo are playing. I think that was Boti article, from memory.

Hopefully Mee will be playing for the Taipans.

Looking forward to our duno or Schensh & Balls dominating.

Thanks Skip, I'll throw a smile and wink your way as you wander past!

I would shout you a cornetto at half time, but the kiosks don't seem to sell them anymore

No odds yet on Centrebet.

I'm tipping the 36ers though. Taipans are not hungry enough.

Odds are in. Adelaide massive favourites.

Adelaide $1.22
Cairns $4.35

Im getting on Adelaide for win under 10.5 - paying $2.70.

Hey skip, if we are up by about 20 with a few minutes left in the game, how about we pump some confidence into the boys by playing "We Can't Be Beaten - Rose Tattoo"...(Let's hope we win first of all)....

Maher and Davidson will be back on Wednesday, for the Dragons game, after plenty of time on the bike.

Looks like tydales here to play tonite come on boys

Darnell buzzer beater? Can't wait to hear more about this one.


Steered clear of betting on this game to risky :-)

adelaide are shit
miss all your free throws and throw away 10 point lead 8 mins left
why just shoot 3's in the last minute miss them all
bruce yeh hes good, good for nothin 0/9 5 turnovers and the pass that throws the game away, good night brucey u fckwit

Might have been a scrappy game, just on box score,looks bruce had a shocker.

Bruce 0/9, Cattalini 3/16. Did someone put the rings up to 12-feet?

Can't make free throws, can't make shots when they need to go down and no oncourt leadership - no wonder we lost a close game. Noone wanted to take the shot in the last three minutes, there was no on court presence without Maher or Davidson to guide the team home. Bruce did have a shocker, as did Tyndale and the refs as well (nothing unusual there). Disappointing in a game that should have been won.

Rocco, your just a child/jerk, you shouldnt use language like that to describe how you feel, Bruce is a rookie and with rookies you MUST show patience, and inbetween time deal with what seemingly may look like obvious plays. Tyndale was a couple of seconds and some poor defensive location away from making a great game winning defensive play! Neither team played at all well IMO, but i can tell you this, we will be winning alot of games this season, from this point on with overall defense like that!

I blame that loss on Ninnis. Bruce had his worse game of his short career yet Ninnis played him for the WHOLE last quarter! Also he put Winatana on for about 6 minutes of the last quarter and he gave nothing for the whole game. Bruce got cained by Cook and Grabu leaving them open for various 3's. Hill played awesome and was part of the reason we got an 10 point lead yet he did not play one minute in the last quarter as far as I am aware! Sixers should have easily won that game and now play dragons and will probably lose that. We needed to win that badly! Tyndale instead of driving against Crosswhite decided to be an absolute hero and shoot a 3 over him! The Sixers looked better when there was no Tyndale and Bruce on the court. Tyndale might have played alright however when Davidson and Maher come back he will continue to struggle. We scored 11 points in that last quarter and had Bruce on the whole time!! Absolutely pathetic coaching in that last quarter! I can't wait to get Davidson back!

Missed free throws and allowing to many offensive boards killed us

Real shame on the game, bruce had a bad one and that play...well he will learn from it, thought tyndale had a very good game bar a few moments the most being the airball 3 but what an effort on the last block. As a rule i thought everyone was pretty good but thought they really did not go to luke deep enough. 1st quarter is really where we lost it and why ninnis did not call a timeout after the first couple of minutes when we were just at sea was beyond me. think we have a good shot at getting 2 wins on the road in this next patch.

Tyndale's defense almost won us the game - sadly turnovers came back to bite us big time down the stretch.

Tyndale's shooting and shot select almost cost us the game though - I dont mind that he isnt going to shoot the lights out, but when he gets an opportunity he has to hit them

Foul shots - after recovery session tomorrow - 100 shots each, every shot missed = a push up for everyone

Umpires - the standard has really dropped off, even the experienced refs have disappointed this year. Why are we getting all the old farts this year - they just dont seem interested, I saw Bill Mildenhall at the airport 30mins after the game last sunday - did he even debrief?? Maybe he is too good for that. Just a warning to the umpires expect a pasting in the paper after every game if that is all you can do.

If only we had started the game like we played in the second quarter would have been a much better game - looking forward to Maher and Davo coming back - but I hope Burdon continues to get a couple of minutes, I really think next year with Maher his minutes will become very important.

In the first quarter the ref gave cairns two 3 pointers when there foot was cleary on or over the 3 point line. Costly

Does anyone have a tape of the game? Did the clock stop on the missed shot with a few seconds to go?

Tyndale, Eze, Hill all had good minutes tonight. Cooper was awesome in D, with a couple of huge blocks. Ballinger consistent, Schensh maybe down a bit on our now elevated expectations.

Bruce had a shocker.

Excatly I saw those 3's with foot on the line and the umpires where right infront of it but called it 3.

I would say 70% of games Tyndale will miss 2 free throws in a row. That is not good enough for a professional athelete!

Also that Rookie umpire is absolutely pathetic every game he keeps coming up with shit calls for both teams. What is his name??

Schensh didnt get any love from the refs whatsoever and in long patches he simply didnt see the ball. When he gets it, good things happen literally 80% of the time! Im a big believer our fortunes run through big Luke, yes ballinger is our best player stats wise, but luke dominates in ways no other can, his ability to change shots is invaluable. That 4th foul with 7 to go in the 3rd was very costly for his overal influnece on the game.

I hope the 3 umpires from tonight read this forum because they were the worst we have seen for a long time - absolute crap all 3 of you. Not just for the 36ers, but for the game. I hope you donate your match fee to charity, you certainly don't deserve it. Some calls (or no calls) were so bad, somebody might think you were bent. - Bloody disgrace!!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Sh!t I'm devastated! Meeeeeeeeeeeeee!?!?!?!?! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Holy crap! I thought it was all over after that awesome block by Tyndale and then I look up and there's still 4 seconds left. Meeeeee!?!?!!?!?

Kiss my ass rocco, if you watched the game at all you would know how important he was to our offence, he had 8 assists while being doubled virtually all game and hacked at every oppurtunity by Grabau. He had an off shooting night thats for sure but dont dicount the effect he had on this game.

Schenscher: Didnt get the ball much thanks to some dirty work by Crosswhite off the ball. we can thank Goorjian for that, he was pushing and grabbing under the rim all game. Big Schensch still managed some ok numbers though with 11 and 9 and was great on D changing shots. Only 22mins? watsupwidat?

Cooper: Fantastic on D, blocked everything! 5 blocks (dont let captain baldy tell you otherwise) in 6 minutes.

Ballinger: His slow start was one of the many things you could say cost us the game but he bounced back very nicely with 17,12.

Holmes: Tried to do waaaay too much tonight. Shot choice was appauling at times. Still worked hard and managed to record his 15pts at a pretty good clip though. suprising!

Hill: Fantastic! Really attacked the rim for his 10pts. Not sure what's up with his perimetre shot, he's actually got a nice stroke but its not happening in game situations right now (0-10 for the season).

Winitana: Played relatively good D but needs to become a threat on offence.

Tyndale: Very good in limited minutes, almost won us the game with his last HUGE block. His numbers look like this on fiba: 9/3/3/4/1 in 24mins but I guarantee you they've made some mistakes there. He certainly had more than 3 assists and would've had 3-4 blocks, not one (yes, I am including the one that was called a foul, that was BULLSH!T).
Defence was terrific as usual.

Burdon: 5pts in 8mins = very solid. He was getting knocked around a bit but handled it well.

Bruce: As above. Passing and ball handling was excellent on most occasions but that was one of the best doubles I've seen on a PG in a while (usually Cook and Grabau). Shooting was OFFFFFF!

Refs: ABSOLUTE BLOODY DISGRACE!!! Captain Baldy made his long awaited return and picked up right where he left off. Copper and Tyndale's blocks were two of the best ive ever seen. NOT FOULS!!! The greasy-haired, feminen-running one was terrible once again (I should remember their names, soz) but the last of the three didnt do too much wrong.
Another factor we have every right to say cost us the win. Especially in the first half.

Skip: THANKYOU!!!!

you suck...you suck...you suck...you suck

If there was one time you had to release that monster it was then. Brilliant work.

Dancers: Old uniforms are back! Yay!

Taipans: I just realised they have possibly the worst bench (apart from Cat) in the league. Cook, Vale and Williams are development players at best.
Crosswhite is a DIRTY DIRTY mongrel.
Cat is a primadonna but I an frgive him.
Abney needs to start performing before he beats his chest and does the Birdman symbol after a dud foul.
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!?!?!?!?!?
Grabau is a pest but he played veeeeery well at both ends.

Ultimately the poor start cost us. It looked as if they didnt have a warm up at all. Bad shot choices and stupid turnovers were rife.

Still can't believe that finish! f*** Mee!

The ganme by Bruce was very close to the worst game ever played by a Sixer. He was an absoulte disgrace and subsequently the Coach was not far behind him for leaving Bruce on for so long. The last play by Bruce was disgusting. BUrdon did well when he was out there and we also seemed to get some better looks on shot when he was out there.
All in all a shocking game of basketball from 2 very ordinary sides and so disappointing for the home crowd. Far too many passengers eg Winitana (this guy has to start doing something soon).

"shocking game of basketball"?

Despite the loss it was one of the best games I've seen for a while - great defensive showcase.

Who else can they run at point for a lot of the time except for Bruce?

Heard that the clock was accidentally stopped after that final block giving the Taipans a bit of extra time before it was restarted.

Probably a bit of payback them for the missing 0.9 seconds Allan Black complained about from when we played them up there 3 years ago and snatched the win on the buzzer.

Shite really?

I was very suprised when I saw how much time was left after that block. I totally thought it was over!

Thanks for the smile Skip. I saw one sneak out tonight.

Agreed Squid, I would have preffered to see Burdon out there at the end, Bruce was a joke.

XztatiK,
Comments on tonight's game spot on.

Captain Baldy needs to go back and ref U10's. 5th foul called on Luke was rubbish!

Grabau should be cited for smacking Bruce in the face. Suprise, suprise, Baldy was looking the other way

Thankyou Xtatik. I completely agree. One of the best games I've been to in a long time, a real battle out there with some of the most intense d I've seen in a long time.

A couple of huge dunks and huge blocks (Coops was never, ever a foul).

Re Bruce: he was not that bad, still ran the offence, but was too slow bringing the ball up the court, just looked lazy.

Finally, was it just me or was Dave Thomas about two feet out of bounds when he gathered the loose ball off the block? He jumped back in the court to gather...I for one was going off at that no call!!

Will hurt our season but there were some good signs out of tonight's game, especially to come back from 17 down!

Unfortunately for the Sixers an scorers error may have cost them the game - the clock stopped at 5.4secs for approx a second after the Tyndale block as I think they thought the ball was out when in fact DT saved it.

DT had a nice split lip courtesy of a Schensch elbow!

Schensch can't buy a call, poor guy.

Everyone at start of season want winitana to start but know ppl thinks he is useless

I must have been at another game I think. So many mistakes by both sides. But it was Bruce's game that got me. Who was it here that said his game was not too bad? You have got be joking don't you, check the stats out in the paper when you can.

I thought our offence was really poor tonight, often our movement left us with no decent looks and putting up crap with the clock expiring. Not many of our guys look comfortable with the current structure. Still, credit must go to Cairns for their pressure D at times.

Hopefully Bruce can rebound from that abherration and post a good game next time...

Xtatik spot on, atleast someone can talk the truth on here.

Got to say one of the most exciting games i have been to for a long time. Crowd really got into it.

Really thought it was over after that HUGE block by tinny.

Thanks Jack ans sixersfan.

I agree with Isaac re Bruce in the last quarter. You can't go into a close finish with no point guard, and you can't go into a close finish with a development player who has played less than 30 mins this season either.

The only thing I'm critical of Ninnis for is the use of Schensch and Coops, and possibly his pre-game pep talk (?) Overall I thought he did pretty well.

"Thanks Jack and sixersfan."...and Kobe-for-MVP, lol I'm getting big raps tonight :P

When there is only 1 point difference in a game you can think of a million occasions when the game was lost, the poor first quarter, the poor free throw shooting, the poor performance on offence (for once you can't say they lacked D), the turnovers, whatever they are they are numerous. One can accept a loss when the team is entirely responsible for that loss. When you start adding umpire errors, that's when it becomes unbearable. Yes, the umpires cost us the game. Despite the 36ers' shortcomings, they had actually done just enough to win the game if the refs called it accurately. As others have pointed out, I also saw Cattalini's foot on the line for two shots counted as 3 points. There alone is the game reversal. The 3 second key rule got overlooked several times. The pushing and shoving the opposition got away with. The fighting on court started by the opposition, where was the T although just about every spectator was shouting out for it and making hand signals. 5,000 people can't be wrong. Schenscher had several disagreements with refs to no avail. He pointed out that he had been slapped on the arm but no call made. Whether any points would have been scored if these errors were not made is something that is not definite but what is definite is that Cairns were credited with 2 more points that they were entitled to.

I hate losing, but hell, we lost this game by ourselves, accept that please!

sixersfan, I thought he was out of bounds as well. I was at that end of the court behind the basket and had a good view. Because I was watching him I didn't notice the clock stop, but I can believe it did, the hooter went off later than I expected.

The refs were rubbish. Someone upthread asked why Schenscher only played 24 minutes - foul trouble. He collected his 4th early in the 2nd half and spent most of the third quarter on the bench. Also as mentioned above, he got fouled a lot more than were actually called by the Three Blind Mice.

Bruce knows he stunk it up, I saw his reaction after the siren, he was gutted.

i hope bruce doesn`t read what you guys are saying about him .Fair enough his stats don`t look good but what the stats don`t show is how hard he tried.Leave him alone it looked to me that he was trying his guts out but was just having a bad night.Remember he`s only human no ones perfect im sure he feels bad enough without you guys getting on his case. I thought tonights game was one of the most exciting games ive been to in awhile, i felt the whole team put in a good effort and should be proud of themselves. Sure it would have been better to have won but why can`t we just be excited with the determination and effort the guys put in.

I AGREE WITH EC!!!

This is a crazy night.

If we had played our best we certainly could've won despite the poor officiating but the effect the referees had on the game certainly outwieghed 1 point.

Why did Cat change shirts?

and take his shorts off only to pull em up again? lol

A bit harsh on Bruce. He had 8 assists, should have had a couple more but there were some easy misses. I was suprised he had 5 TO's, didn't seem like it was that many. He didn't really look to score at all, which was probably his undoing on that final play - you just knew he wasn't going to try score.

One thing that stuck out to me is we can't defend the pick and roll at all. Bigs don't show, yet the guards go under? It's pretty hard to prevent a shot going up if that's the way you go about it.

Rookie, I'm glad Bruce tried real hard, the poor guy. My little brother tries real hard too and he only plays under 12's and doesnt get paid for it. And Xztatik I'm not giving you big raps, I think your posts have been crap.

bruce for the most part was fine really just off with his shot and the last play, he made 1 long pass down the court which was kinda rushed but thats all. As stated above he knew he stuffed that up and was off as soon as he could, did anyone go to the post game function? Just wanna say as a personal thing it was good to see Hill so strong and confident in this game especially going against abney again and he made some strong moves to the hoop.

It was a crap game to loose but we did and they have to get a resolve and move on. The positive is the last couple of weeks they have made good steps to being productive and must move on with that frame of mind.

That's cool justin, i believe you're the same tool who thought I was really Mal Hemmerling for saying Tyndale's defence and rebounding was more important than exciting you with a few dunks. Therefore, it wouldn't exactly be a 'big' rap if you were to compliment me anyway.

i have to say that initially i was all for getting rid of tyndale but he certainly brings an intensity to the game and his defence is great. His offence will get better over time. He got the ball from Mee a few times tonight which is no mean feet. He is much better than Chapel in all areas of the game. I will be happy to keep him. Bruce had a stinker but that happens, If we continue to play D like we did tonight we will win a few games.

squid, you are totally wrong, the 36ers had actually won that game by 1 point if the scoring was called correctly. Everything they did wrong tonight was going to be a non factor to the win. They were robbed of 2 points that was going to be a win instead of a loss. Even if it was by 1 point and at home, it was still quality opposition they were up against. Before the previous 2 wins which instilled a lot more confidence, one could have given up on winning this game before it was even started.

XztatiK you get my raps lol
twice coz i posted this in another thread by mistakelol lol lol

Justin you dont happen to sit in the South stand approx. row R/S seat 11-14?

I hope so coz that would mean that there is one less douche in the world if your the same f*wit that sits behind me.

Sure Luke got really bad calls but he also gave away at least one really cheap foul.

Brad has improved his defence heaps, saw him take a charge in transition tonight, owesome. But one or two decisions in that 3rd cost him more court time, but hes improving heaps.

I am getting tired of seeing so many players want to just drive. Is Adam the only player that can just catch and shoot the ball?

Thought the defence was great,
but i dunno about the offence.

what sort of offence has Ballinger in the near side post position with his back to the ball?
what sort of offence at the end of the game has the ball restricted to the opposite side of the floor to Adam's side?

Love to know what the last 36ers planned play was, would like to see it run one day!

Thanks for your feedback Justin i was just trying to say that i didn`t think bruce deserved the bashing he was getting. Take a second to stand in his shoes, how would you feel if you tried your guts out and nothing was going right for you, then to have people bagging your performance.

"XztatiK you get my raps lol
twice coz i posted this in another thread by mistakelol lol lol"

lol didn't think it looked right in the other thread, well i appreciate it... twice coz i posted that in the other thread too lol.

lol

Nah STAT I sit in the West stand, so I guess there is more than one f*wit that attends sixers games, and it sounds to me like you would comfortably fit into that catagory. And rookie I too believe that Bruce is a good player which is why I expected a bit more than 'tried hard', but anyway let's hope he bounces back with a good game on Wednesday.

well that explains alot. no wonder everything u say bout the game is shit u cant see anythin behind those rings eh? ;)

I can't believe some of you are saying that was one of the best games of the season. The ending was decent but the whole game was terrible due to the shooting percentages 34% vs 38%! That does not make for a good game! Only 71 vs 70 is a bad game!

Bruce cost us the game being on the whole 12 minutes in the last quarter! They needed another guard so I would have been happy to see Eric Burdon on there at least he has Basketball smarts! Also i would have prefered to see Hill out there to run the point in the last quarter rather then Bruce.

Hill had a heaps good game and was the one that helped us get the lead yet played NO minutes in the last quarter!

People are saying Bruce didn't have that bad of a game he even had 8 assist! So what Grabau previously averaging 4 ppg scored 17 on him. Any time Bruce had a chance to score early in the game he rather pass it and lost it. Also with 4 seconds left on the shot clock decides to shoot a 3 from between half court and 3 point line instead of drive it to get closer. He played all minutes in that last quarter and that is what stuffed us up hence our pathetic 11 point quarter. Fine if the guy is having a bad game and u still want to play him play him for 3-4 minutes then sub him and put on players that are playing good. If those players don't play good then sub Bruce back on. Don't play him for the whole quarter when his playing shit house! Absolutely pathetic performance which should have been an automatic win! Those that were saying it was a good effort don't know much about basketball!

Winitana needs to lift also! I'm sick of hearing he is playing awesome at training! I don't care unless it transpires into games then it is Irrelevant! He goes out there with no confidence, plays 20 minutes and gives us nothing offensively. He reminds me of Nash forces up shots because he has to.

STAT & Rookie, stop being so absurd about Bruce. He tried his heart out yes I agree, but don't make excuses when it comes to professional sport. Its not like a child (in this case Justin's 12 year old brother) but a professional sportsman. You can encourage a good performance from a child because they are still learning and gives them encouragement to keep learning. In Bruce's case you expect a whole lot more. I know that Bruce is only young himself and still has lots to learn, but despite that he tried his heart out, he gave sweet bugger all to the game last night.

Bruce is a gun, but was shit last night. Assists were good, everything else was crap. He is inexperienced and there was noone that was playing better or could do a better job on the night coz our experienced guards are both injured. Hill is no point man and I believe would have struggled running the point just as much during the end of that match. Winitana is having shockers still and Burdon rarely ever plays more than 10 minutes a match.
Everyone going on about Tyndale, yes he got a great block in the last minute, but look at his stats for the whole match. Offensively he's nothing! And his 'great' defence earned him 3 rebounds and 4 steals on a player that couldn't hit a shot until the game winner!

quasi were yoou at the game?

it was almost one of those gamess were you had to be there to really no what the stats were saying. e.g. Tyndale was one of our best contributors and Bruce didnt look that great at all.

King James, as usual you are spot on. To think that Bruce played the entire last quarter and Burdon and to my knowledge Hill none. Fair enough if Bruce had played a good one, but he was absolute crap. So Scotty, what was your reasoning on this one? A shocker by you too pal.

dave thomas tipped in a free throw from schench pretty obvioulsy from where i was sitting, should have been 2 points not 1, but as many have said a very winnable game if not for air balls and missed free throws. 7 or 8 missed free throws cost us the game not the refs and not aaron bruce.
(Grab)au is a chep and dirty defender that should get called for hand checks constantly.
Bruce has been getting no love from the refs in the last couple of home games you can understand his frustration.
One question i have is since when have players been able to touch the refs? Cat tried intimidating the ref after a travel call and physically grabbed his shoulder. Not a good example for the young kids watching the game n my opinion. If its done in humour i have no issues but when arguing a call its a no go area.
Great game, evryone i saw leaving the game had a smile on their face which is great to see even in a loss. Really exciting game as all have said.
I just wish some fans would get into it more. Me and my mate stood up in excitement after the block from tinny with 5 seconds to go as many others did to then get a ear bashing from the guys behind as they were too lazy to stand up and get into the game. We may have an educated crowd but a lazy one that needs to get more pumped up.

Karma returns after the 36ers' late bucket in Cairns the other year which should've been disallowed. That time, the team ran out of the stadium (crafty trick) to avoid having the final seconds replayed. This time, the iffy scenario went against us. It happens.

Law of Polarity

I knew i wouldnt want to read this today. The game was HUGE defensively, which is what everyone here has been wanting for years. Yeh our shooting was crap, possibly due to cairns strong defense...but why would you look at that. People giving bruce shit calling for burdon, the same guy that airballed in the last seconds of the second half from 6ft away from the ring, kids got talent but still lacks game exp in pressure situations, could have gone with him, but how do we know he woldnt have butchered it as badly as bruce did. Hindsights wonderful so stop thinking you know everything looking back at the game. Ninnis didnt have that chance during the game.

You've bitched about everything we did wrong, yet we kept mee to 2 points(horrible 2 it had to be), Cattalini scored 11, became so frustrated he played one of the worst games ive seen him in. We had some of the biggest bullshit calls from the refs, though we should be used to that by now. Schensers fouls kept him out of the game, half of them shouldnt have ever been called, or crosswhite should have been out of the game in the first 10 minutes.

The game wasnt pretty, but it had some huge plays, a rediculous amout of blocks, the team had heart, we played great defense. I was entertained to shit, it was fantastic, hell if more games were that close, got the crowd that involved we would pack a stadium every week. Simple fact is if mee hadnt of scored, you would all be talking up how well the team played instead of whining constantly.

That is so far off the mark Skud! The result made no difference to the way we played, we were crap last night.

I've held off comenting on the game, waiting to get a feel of the hoopers here. Pretty clear cut, some hated it, some enjoyed it. No surprise that with a loss come the hate, so in with those that enjoyed the game. I thought it was an absolute cracker. I had the pleasure of 2 extremely level headed & respected fans as companions last night & we yacked for ages (indoor discussion interrupted by Weslo) outside.
Plenty to love about the game, which in my mind, far outweighed the human errors that happen in every game. One of the things that amazed me, was that we had 4 players in double figures at 3/4 time, yet our scoreline was 59 at the time (we actually had those 4 double figures playerss with 3 or more minutes before 3/4 time).
The low scoreline was a complete reversal of what established 36er fans would've exoected, & even more amazingly, it was from hustle & effort. The Catt had only 5 easy baskets, of which 4 were from the free throw line. Put up your hand if you thought (before the game) that Grabber would top score for the Pans. I saw Darnell look very frustrated that he got out hustled during the game. Considering that the Catt & Darnell are premium ex-36er players, that speak volumes for our youngs on the floor.
On the gripe that Eze should've carried the team in the last quarter, where were you guys when our 9th player only got junk time? To dump on Scottie for not putting Eze on in the last, is pathetic. Eze wouldn't be bitching (he got 10 freak'n minutes court time FFS), why are you guys? It wasn't that long ago that the consensus here was that Eze was a shooter, & nothing else.
I hope I haven't offended anybody with my aggressive bi-polar rant. It's all fun.

We lost the game last night from the free throw line. 57% is not acceptable for any level of competition. It's called the charity stripe for god's sake.

The only thing worse than our foul shooting was the performance of the three referees. They did have a negative influence on the outcome of the game, which can bring to mind what happened in the NBA. We narrowly avoided having a bench tech called on us when Brett Maher became quite animated and provided vociferous "advice" to Ray Hunt's twin brother Mike. Passion rarely displayed by Brett during his 500+ games.

We definitely were found lacking in the guard department, but with the oldest being 22 was a major contributing factor. Burdon was not an credible option down the stretch, 2 turnovers in 9 minutes he was on court reinforces that, while Bruce had 5 in 40 minutes. Fatigue also may have contributed to the couple of brainfaid passes by Bruce in the last. Brad Hill,who plays in a similar manner to Ninnis, is great in the open court does not perform when closely attended, was therefore not really an option in the last quarter.

Unfortunately my concerns for the team, when the coaching panel was appointmented, is being realised.

Kobi-for-MVP - Yeah, I was at the game and I agree that stats don't always tell the story. However in Tyndale's case, stats almost always seem to work against him. Look at last night's game - 4/11 from the field including 0/3 from 3 point, 1/5 from the line, 9 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 4 steals in almost 33 minutes on court. Being able to hustle is a great quality in a player, but certainly is not the only thing that matters. I should also mention that Mee went 1/7 from the field - he had the opportunities on Tyndale, just didn't make the most of them. Since each team only gets 2 imports, it's fair to expect that the chosen 2 are good all around players. Not to mention that fans usually are more interested in the top scorers and rebounders in a match - not who hustled the opposition the most.

"I can't believe some of you are saying that was one of the best games of the season. The ending was decent but the whole game was terrible due to the shooting percentages 34% vs 38%! That does not make for a good game! Only 71 vs 70 is a bad game!" - King James

Please, do not ever, ever tell me a game is bad because the score was 71 to 70. You clearly are not a basketball purist and have not watched the game long enough to appreciate it.

It doesn't need to be 130-129 for the game to be good. Generally, those games are sh!t because there's no defence being played.

Last night the d was very, very tight and the game was actually a battle, rather than people getting the rim for an easy two with no d being played. Every bucket last night had to be earned.

And Mantis, I was down the West End too, felt like an idiot because I was going off at that call and everyone else didn't seem to notice it. Good to hear someone else saw it, was easily two feet out of bounds. Great game, wrong result from our point of view.

Nah Stat I am on the corner so the rings are no problem. The massive grumpy old fat shit with his massive head that sits in front of me is a problem though.

Justin i wonder if hes related to the greasy fat fuck that sits behind me?

Kobe:
"Justin i wonder if hes related to the greasy fat fuck that sits behind me?"

Kobe, you have such a way with words. : P

its all jokes, =]

In the last 4:36 of the 3rd quarter we went on a 12-5 which doesn't seem like much but in the context of the game it was huge as it gave us momentum. During that time We had on Burdon, Hill, Winitana, Ballinger and Holmes swapping with Cooper for 2 minutes.

If the coach is trying to instil confidence in Tyndale and Bruce by starting them in the last quarter that is fine however to play Bruce for the whole quarter was stupid considering his poor game. Bruce should have started and then if he was continuing to play average (as he was) after about 4 minutes put on Hill or Burdon. They are more then capable of playing. If they offer nothing during that time (like Bruce was) then sub them off and put Bruce back on for the final stretch! At least with Burdon you are going to get someone with a consistent 3 point shot, someone that isn't turn over prone and someone that can play good defence which Bruce is currently lacking.

So far it seems If Bruce starts off having a bad game he continues to spiral and he continues to get worse. This game he was getting flustered by Cook and Grabau and instead of playing within the team he decided to take it personally and went away from the team offence of moving the ball. It seems all teams have to do is get him fired up and he starts losing his game.

We needed to play smart basketball in the end and we failed at that. We needed to not lose the ball, we did that. We needed to get the ball inside to Ballinger or Schensher to either score or get fouled as they were over the limit. Or we needed to drive to get the score or get the foul shots. We didn't do that we had Tydnale trying to be a Hero shooting a 3.

Bake, thank you for mentioning Burdon had 2 turnovers in 9 minutes and Bruce had 5 (including a turnover which ultimately lost us the game) in 40. Yet you failed to mention Burdon had 5 points in those 9 minutes compared to Bruce's 1 point in 40 minutes!

Skud, Burdon's shot actually hit the ring unlike Bruce's 3 and two of Tyndale's shots. We played great defence but also played some terrible defence, with cheating trying to go for steals which created open 3's also going behind the screener giving more open 3's which ultimately cost us the game.

Sixersfan, I purposely mentioned the woeful shooting percentage as well to indicate that it does not equate to a good game. I'm happy for the scores to be low if the shooting percentages are higher then that.

Davidson will be a huge relief to get back to limit the Bruce overload. Also we are really missing 3 point shooters for probably once in Sixers history. With no Davidson we have no guards that play significant minutes that can consistently hit 3's. This is causing teams to collapse inside on Ballinger and Schensher as the 3's aren't much of a threat. With Davidson back and possibly Maher also soon, this should help the situation. Furthermore, Hill is emerging as a great player that has no fear when driving which is great to see! Also good to see him challenge Abney when he tried to dunk it with two hands, I probably would have been happy to even have hill on this play put Abney on his back.

Anon - I thought the issue with that game was that Cairns believed their was still 0.9 seconds left in the game after the sixers shot their basket.

KingJames what's going on mate? You've gone from knowledgeable to ClintDogg in a matter of hours.

The poor shooting percentages were A RESULT of thr fantastic D being played by both sides, dont use that as a reason it was a bad game.

And I guarantee you either Burdon or Hill would've been ripped apart by that double team in the last quarter. Neither are pure PG's and Bruce did extremely well getting it up the floor, despite not being a scoring threat.

"This is causing teams to collapse inside on Ballinger and Schensher as the 3's aren't much of a threat."

Did you just say Balls isnt much of a 3pt threat?

Completely agree with sixersfan, and quasi's an idiot.

Skip - sorry, yes, that was the scenario. 0.7 seconds I think it was? I even made something to show on the big screen that featured Alan Black and "0.7" in big letters.

KingJames - who was on for Cairns during that 12-5 run? The reason I ask is that when Burdon was on in NZ, Lemanis was usually playing Webster (a development player). Put Burdon up against Mee and he might get eaten alive - who knows.

Ninnis did not have a whole load of PG options in this game from the sounds of it. Look at what happened to the Breakers with Bruton and Jones (plays some back-up point) out - trouble in the clutch against Adelaide. Then they got CJ and Phill back and beat the Tigers in Melbourne.

Without Davidson and Maher, Ninnis had a young (most would say still inconsistent) college graduate and someone from the end of the bench. Seems that Bruce, not having his best game, nor Burdon, were going to be ideal in this situation.

When Burdon was on for the Sixers, Cairns had Kerry Williams playing the point - the 2nd worst backup PG in the league behind SoJ.

Don't you love how people go throwing around opinions about how others are 'an idiot' without actually saying why or giving a chance at reply? Especially when I pointed out earlier in this thread that Burdon and Hill wouldn't have handled the pressure of the last quarter at the point. Thanks Ian

Sorry quasi, I got a bit lazy and assumed you knew why you're an idiot.

Tyndale had 9pts 3rbs 5ast 4stl 3blk and played better defence than anyone else on the team while showing great hustle and competitiveness.

Points and rebounds may make the fans happy but theyre not the only thing that matters.

Just saw the replay of the last play on Sports Tonight - Thomas *was* out of court, tiptoe-ing on the line, when he recovered the ball after the block, and at the top of the screen, you can see the clock stop at 5.6 seconds as he does so - obviously the score bench incorrectly anticipated one of the Three Blind Mice blowing their whistles for him being out of court. The clock went out of picture almost straight away so I didn't see it restart, but I reckon it added at least one second, maybe two, to the game.

Well I don't know where you got your stats from, probably just made them up to add in a couple. I got mine from the NBL site (not that I'm claiming that to be totally accurate). Even if we assume that your extra couple of stats are correct, that is still a mediocre at best output from an import. I don't remember any previous imports being kept in a job for being able to 'hustle' the opposition and be 'competitive' with them whilst not being able to put out anything else of substance. You may be satisfied with mediocrity (you obviously are if your posts are anything to go by), but personally it pisses me off

Kobe he is greasy so it might be him. And Ian you have offered nothing to this topic and then you get on and call Quasi an idiot who is just offering their opinion which in fact is correct. Why dont you go back, have a long hard think and try to offer something constuctive before calling someone an idiot you little turd.

What on earth has happened over the last few weeks???? This site has always been a great place to ofer up opinions on all things bball and in particular 36ers - and recently it seems to be degenerating into a petty slanging site where people are more interested in name calling and put downs than actually talking ball.

Lets get back on track and cut the BS - we all have differing opinions on how to improve the teams results, just because someones opinion differs to your own doesnt necesarily make them an idiot, a turd or a whatever. If we all just think a bit before attempting to be a smart arse and just offer opinions and thoughts on the games then we will all get more out of the site.

Also, for what it's worth, I don't think anyone helps the situation with gross exaggerations such as calling a player's performance an "absolute disgrace". Sure, it might be a little PC to tone that down to "not at his best" or something similarly fluffy, but exaggerations in either direction are really only going to inflame those that disagree.

Firstly I was glad to see the 36ers Cheerleaders uniform last night. There best one this season and they look hot this year.

A heart breaking loss.

We need Maher & Davidson back.

Schensh is awesome and truly finding his way in this team. Totally cops crap from the opposition and nothing called. Even a chat with the Referees don't do a thing.

The Refs were shit last night and some of the calls are shocking.

Balls is terrific.

I don't get how Cattalini didn't receive a technical for getting in the Ref's face and then throwing the tantrum of throwing away his jersey even if it was blood stained.

I still like Winitana and dislike the harsh cristism some of you are saying about him. However we're all entitled to our opinions and I respect it even if I don't like or agree with it all.

Last night's loss hurt and we need to bounce back.

just a few things on the game it was a really enjoyable game to watch. The crowd at the end was the loudest i have heard it for a very long time, it was great!

The refs were shit yes.

Luke needs to watch out when he "talks" to the refs, he goes up to them very aggressively and throws his arms everywhere, he just needs to relax and talk nicely to them.

Cattilini should of been T'd.

Bruce tried his heart out, he didnt have his best game but i thought he ran the point really well, he was under alot of pressure being the only true pointguard out there, to me he did well, when maher and davidson get back, he will be better because he doesnt have to carry all the weight.

my 2 cents

Worst game I have been to in 5 or 6 years we are kidding ourselves if we think we played good defense.If that's the case then Cairns were awesome they held us to 70 and I don't believe they were.So far we are struggling to make the finals sure we can blame the bench or the refs but we should of never been in that position.Cairns were on a 3 game losing streak playing us at home and we have more talent so we should of won.

Nifty, a young point guard and a development player as back-up puts any team behind the eight ball. We might've been better in a couple of other positions, but someone has to get them the ball.

"have a long hard think and try to offer something constuctive"

Just like you do eh Justin!


"Tyndale had 9pts 3rbs 5ast 4stl 3blk and played better defence than anyone else on the team while showing great hustle and competitiveness."

Agreed Ian, in such a low scoring game I'll take that any day of the week.

Don't want to take anything away from him, but those numbers are slightly off - it was actually 9 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 4 steals. 1/5 FT hurts.

Better numbers than Abney's or DT's!

I understand Isaac's point about not wanting to run Eze against Darnell, but Bruce wasn't guarding him either (Tyndale was) or vice versa. Mee might have hit the game winner, but it was Scott Cook that really broke our back, and Bruce WAS guarding him. Eze's a smarter player than people give him credit, and he could have handled the situation for a couple of minutes in the middle of the last quarter (his defence is light years ahead of Bruce's). Grabau's a great defender, but not much of a scorer, so his 17 points really did hurt.

Say whatever you want about the game (I thought it was pretty ugly but still pretty enthrawling), the officials (not good except Haines), and the free throw shooting (just plain terrible), Bruce's last turnover was what cost us the game. He made a mistake, didn't have a great game, but he's in like his 8th or 9th professional game, he will learn from it and I really doubt that he will do something so amateur as jump in the air off a screen looking for a pass with the game on the line again. I think he'd struggle to shoot that badly again too.

4-6 with 3 in a row on the road, this is where it gets interesting.

Great report of the game Mutley. Saying it was ugly but enthrawling at the same time sums it up perfectly.

"Don't want to take anything away from him, but those numbers are slightly off"

They look right to me, I'm assuming Ian added the few blocks that were called fouls by Captain Baldy and he clearly had more than 3 assists, don't know what happened on the stats bench.

Anon - "Why Doesnt Cooper look for the shot more?"

Have you seen Cooper shoot?

cooper has a shot?

I reckon incorporating Coops occasionally in the offence (cut to the basket) would be a handy trick up our sleeve. No team's going to expect it, & he could find himself a spot under the basket easier than a heavily guarded Luke or Adam. Pretty hard to stop a quick catch & dunk (yep, he can do it).
What's more he'd revel in it.

Considering Mee made his shot right on the buzzer...