"Last time I was this frustrated, I was dating a girl from Walford." - Hiyo! Still got it, Jack.

Couldn't agree more with the above post. If I may, though, I'd like to add... if the game is on the line and Gilly and Tez' decide to play hero on a clear out / shirt tug / bad selection / first phase of the offence shot instead of posting up Ballinger or looking for Burston, I may very well explode from the neck up and leave.

Loco I would advise against coming then, you know they will try to iso and do it all. I have stopped yelling for them to dump the ball in to save my own voice. Tex has been a little better recently I think but as the point gilly has me going loco.

Cairns paying $3.60 for those that want some insurance. 36ers strong favourites at $1.29.

If 6ers can't win this game they donm't deserve to be playing finals...

Adelaide to win by 5.

and to think i married a girl from Walford

I was going to post exactly what LC posted ... well not exactly but you get my point.

If you can't beat Cairns in Adelaide you don't deserve to be in the playoffs ... and Ninnis needs to go.

Just saw Melzer on North Terrace ...

If they do not win this I will reach boiling point... Your all right if they do not get up they don't deserve playing the finals!

That being said I'm almost half tempted to put a few bucks on cairns... These days ya never know ha

Is Holmes definitely back in then?

Yup, do or die for the Sixers tonight. Gotta win at least 2 of 3 this week as well. If we can do that, might squeak into the playoffs by winning remaining home games and jagging one more road win.

Hope Holmes is back! We need his toughness. Sixers will be all out of excuses if they can't beat Cairns.

This has to be it - no more chances. If the Sixers can't get a 20 point win tonight, I think we can free up our calendars during the finals.

Lose tonight, then get a new coach and start building for next year. Isaac made a good point in a thread about last Sunday's game, that if we do replace him, at least we have a running start to build a team, rather than waiting to find a replacement coach in the off season.

Will always be a supporter, but it is getting bloody hard!!

Agree that this is a must-win. At home, against what you'd have to consider the weakest team.

My companion point on changing coach was that doing so now could rule out some coaches already in the NBL. That said, right now I'd be asking Goorjian for a ballpark just to be aware of options.

If we get Ballinger and Burston the ball, hit our free throws and box out (what we didn't do against perth) then we should win. Close game last time and Cairns can be pretty physical so hopefully we match that.

TC, that's the key. Need to feed the ball to Big Bird and Big Red. Once Cairns expect the feed, pop it out to a loosely guarded Ninja for a three shot, then we already have some tall timber for the rebounds if there's a miss.

Need to give Miss Molly some court time too......yes, I sound like a broken record

I'm a fan of Molitor as well. I've seen Molitor play for West Adelaide a handful of times and always been impressed, good composure, good size, good stroke. Sure the NBL is a higher standard and it's hard to know how his game will translate, but there are times when I would have been more than happy to seen some underperfoming players minutes go to him.

Two other things I would like to see tonight, 1. persist with high pick and rolls with Burston - I think Cairns would struggle to defend that, 2. Not have Ballinger inbound the ball from the baseline if there is pressure/trap applied.

Gilchrist is the problem with the team. Its his ball handling that fails to set up the plays they need. What is the sense in dribbling that ball for 18 seconds and watching the keyway congest with traffic before you even get there, then have 6 seconds to fight your way through that bottleneck. He is also completely blind when it comes to realising Ballinger's position on court. Ninnis has addressed this problem and the last 3 weeks or so has seen him change for the first half and then automatically revert back to his old habits. He does not suit the fast free flowing game style and will always stifle the keyway. He has definitely got to go.

I have read so many times people complaining about Gilchrist dribbling the ball on top of the key. The reason is that he is running a play and waiting for the two wing players to cut. I don't know which play it is but next time you see him dribbling watch what is happening off the ball before you blame him for holding onto the ball. Last game he was actually telling the other players to hurry up.

Honestly, can it get any worse? You bet it can. I can't imagine to think what will be posted if we lose to the Snakes.

With Crosswhite potentially missing this game, the Sixers should definately run the high pick and roll with Burston as a focus all night.

Other notes on tonights game:
Mix it up with starting 5 (Burston,Balls,Jake,Tez,Gilly)
Molitor needs to see playing time in 1st and 2nd periods (around 6-7mins)
Get Darren some open looks (he's overdue for a big one)
Get Balls posting up with Hilly making strong cut down the lane to get him some nice close looks and chance to use his hops over the undersized Taipans.

Sixers need a big win to restore some faith.
Tip: Sixers by 12

In a way, I hope we get put out of our misery tonight... even if we win against Cairns, fanboyisms aside, does anyone here *actually* believe that it will be the start of a worthwhile playoff run? I am semi-dreading going... life's too short to watch this indolent lot! If they don't care, which seemed to me to be the case on Sunday in the fourth-quarter (what happened to that first-quarter passion?), then I sure don't care. And at least if they flame-out badly this year, it will hopefully bring some significant changes for next season.

Anyway, that's my depressing rant over. Try not to project any exploding brain fragments on my row on your way out, Loco!

TC, definitely agree that Ballinger shouldn't be inbounding the ball. Not really his strong suit IMO.

Jacob is by far the best big that can inbound the ball then help the PG by screening his defender in the back court.
Even Coops seems more confident than Ballinger in this roll. Ballinger seems to get frustrated when having to inbound after a shot and makes poor decisions more often than not.

Often Ballinger gets the ball and stalls which gives defense time to react. He will do well when the team motion gets him open. The solution isn't always "give Ballinger the ball and step away" because he gets double teamed and harassed.

36ers by 13.
Burston top scorer, Gilly top rebounds.

If Gilchrist inbounded the ball that would take away any potential double team and if sides still double teamed the guard (Groves, Ng, Herbert etc.) then the good old give and go would work a treat!

"I have read so many times people complaining about Gilchrist dribbling the ball on top of the key. The reason is that he is running a play and waiting for the two wing players to cut."

I've seen that too Big Sexy and pointed it out after a game I saw awhile back. You can see him gesturing to players to get in position sometimes. I think sometimes it is his fault, but in general I think its his team-mates that are clueless most of the time.

Whatever happens this season, our roster needs to be settled early in the off-season and whoever is coach needs to drill them like SAS rookies until they can run half a dozen plays in their sleep!

I think you will find little scotty ninnis fits the budget of the sixers and therefore they will stick with it...

would love to see a gorj at the helm, but he would command the salary cap alone...no i'm not kidding...well slightly exaggerated...but you get my gist...

this game will go to OT!!!

From memory we beat them by 37points in Cairns.
Lets think... a wild guess .. Adelaide by 17points tonite. Top scorer - Cortez Groves.

Hill, 2 spills in a minute. Get him out of there....

Worst. Charge. Ever.

4 minutes left in the second, 29 - 26 Cairns.

At the half 43 - 39 Adelaide.

I just heard that Ballinger hasn't scored??????

Ng on fire?

At the end of the third 70 - 59 Adelaide.

Looks like Adelaide have got this one.

Come on Tez - you gotta get my prediction right.

Aw well - I was 3points out - on Groves and the margin

Groves starting! and Ng off the bench and yes their best games of the year - interesting.
Wonder who was best of the 2 - pretty close - maybe Groves just.

Fiiiiiinally! We play to our potential! Only for one half of course but still.

We're a far better team than Cairns. Defenders of the Taipans, don't even bother with this, they're not any good. Sorry. If we had played at our best we would've won by 30, nevertheless it was great to finally find some form later.

Burston: Not sure what to make of his game. Defensively he was a pest in the lanes but below his best in the post. Offensively he made great position consistently and got himself some huge mismatches but we failed to capitalise, either through turnovers or simply not getting him the ball. 4 turnovers was the main negative, his rebounding was solid.

Balls: Had to be a bit greedy in order to work himself into the game, but he did, albeit very late in the game. His block was massive! We'll call this an off night and get on with things.

Herbie: What's going on with that pesky scoreboard? When he was subbed off in the 2nd it showed he was on 4 fouls, then the box score comes out at the half and he's back to three. You don't want coaches basing their decisions on an incorrect scoreboard, not a big deal in this case because he should've been out on 3 anyway (and that foul was a load of crap by the way). He was lighting it up in the warmup and had a solid offensive night. Didn't have a major influence on D.

CORTEZ 'I'M GOOD AGAIN' GROVES: YIIIEEEEAAAHHHH! That's the stuff! Penetration! Hustle! Athleticism! Defense! Playmaking! That's the Wollongong Cortez that I know. Brilliant game, and he only jacked a few threes.

Gilchrist: I thought a lot of you were being a bit harsh on him after the last few games (as is always the case when we're on a slide), but it looks like he responded. Not a dominating performance by any means, but I'd say the ball spent 50% less time in his hands, his shot selection was excellent, body language good, played solid D and his passing was just fantastic. So you'd probably call that a quiet game from Mr.No-Nickname but if he plays like that consistently we'll win a lot of those games.

Coop: He's in some really good form. 2 turnovers was the negative but his D and rebounding was good as always. Even made Rich Melzer pay for his lazy D with a nice slam.

Holmes: Being eased back in it seems but he made no mistake tonight. Made some nice passes in limited minutes.

Molitor: Hehe he was our Zac Delaney tonight, the crowd went nuts as soon as he got near it. I've never been a fan of taking last-second shots when you're up 14 but I think the Snakes will understand. He could hardly leave it after Gilchrist set him up like that.

Hill: The crowd cheering after he was dragged for his 2 turnovers was disappointing, but he came back pretty strongly. Good to see him knocking the outside shot.

Ninja!: Get out! Get the fudge out! When he's feeling like that, he can have the green light and cruise his way through the whole game. He worked so hard on the cuts to get open looks and even started hitting some really tough contested ones once the D stepped up. 6/7 god damn! So smoooooth!

Refs: A spin move is NOT a f%#$ing travel! I give up.

Hopefully that's not just a flash in the pan against poor opposition, hopefully this sparks us to the playoffs.

What was up with that pass out-of-bounds along the baseline at the end of the first half? I didn't know that was legal.

The Sixers played a rubbish three quarters and one good quarter and won, so yay I guess. Cairns was cover-your-eyes-awful for much of the second half. Ballinger was ice-cold until the last quarter or so - he seemed shocked that he was getting the ball the rest of the time. Ng was great, no idea why the Taipans didn't play physical defence on him more often - Phillll did once or twice and Ng coughed it up. Molitor came on for the last couple of minutes and seemed a bit overawed - didn't really get a chance to do anything.

Worst reffing ever by the guy with grey hair... I think he just likes the sound of his own whistle.

Oh, and if I see Scott Ninnis pull his petulant "WHAAAT?" face one more time, I am going to... I dunno. Probably I'll do nothing, but it's very embarrassing. Not a good look Scotty. Passion is all well and good; constant whining is all bad.

(Mod: The pass along the baseline is legal. It's a simple method to assist in beating the trap. As long as both players are out of court they can pass back and forth all night. 'or until the ref calls 5 seconds')

hereschenes - 100% agree with every post you've made in this thread. 'Nuff said.

Umpiring was shocking!

Give the MARS green shirts a go

PS Good to see #15 on the court

official crowd 5,510 ?????

I would have thought a few more than on Sunday. The place was rocking and weren't too many empty seats.

Perhaps the Tristar kids were not counted

5,627 as the official crowd on Sunday - there were more punters there tonight than Sunday.

I would have said 6,510 if SUnday was correct

Really don't mean to be a wet blanket - a win is a win and that's cool - but am I the only one that thought we looked awful tonight? As in a better team would have mauled us?

In the first half, or maybe the first 65%, yes.

I gues the 0% from outside evened out this week.

The crowd cheering after he was dragged for his 2 turnovers was disappointing...

yeah the flood from the outside got us the win, the reverse of how we lost a couple.

Seriously Hill will be feeling real pressure now..when the home crowd is against you...you know it will take something to get big to get you back in favour...

i like Hill tho, so i hope he does something big to get himself more court time...

they all talk about the knowledge of the 36ers crowd...sometimes its a disadvantage when yr a player on the wrong side...

Good to see the team getting it done without much input from Ballinger. The Cairns defence though was swamping the post men {except Coops } and was leaving the wingers in space.

Hill has serious talent, it just looks sometimes like he forgets which offence is being run, and he is late recognising where the ball is going.

Negatives, i thought we had too many turnovers, those bounce passes to the the big men in traffic are just crap and only work against slow defenders.

Positives, much more up-tempo tonight, with a lot more passing. Much better offence, but it remains to be seen if we can still do it against the better outfits, or will Gilly & Co revert to old habits. He got 9 assists tonight though and the 36ers got double the assists that Cairns did, so the ball moved a lot better tonight.

Nice call Dazzman. Darren was definately due!

That three that Ng missed/was blocked on/looked like on the coverage he jumped up to shoot than was looking for the pass into the bigs in the key who were not looking, not sure if the defender still got a piece of the shot/pass.

Great shooting display by Ng and great to see him pass up a half open look at one point to give it to a WIDE open look in the corner, not too many hot shooters will do that!

The blocked three looked like a shot attempt to me, but I didn't see a replay.

Was the passed-up shot the behind the back pass to Hill (I think)? The crowd liked that.

The behind-the-back was to Herbert I reckon.

What was the Fox broadcast like? Did H-E-A-L descend to pronouncing Ng's name properly? Not like he could have ignored him last night!

Loved the close-ups of Chek's double-fist-pump in the crowd after Ninj's last three.

Larry Sengstock was at the game so good to get a decent crowd on a Wednesday night. Must give him some more faith in their persistence with this season. 5,500 for a mid-week Fox game (even considering the TriStar and Triple M deals) against Cairns is pretty good.

Much better in the second half when they made quick decisions on Offense.
They need to push the ball much quicker, we have spot up shooters and drivers.
They can't let the other team setup their D everytime before trying to run isolation plays.
Move the ball quickly so players can get open early in the shot clock and the D isn't setup.

The Fox Sports call was abominable. It nearly makes me consider watching the game on mute. Shane Heal makes the most ridiculous gaffs every game he commentates on. This weeks was claiming that the 6ers need to get the ball in to 'Redhage' (he meant Ballinger)????? Then he doesn't bother apologising for or correcting his cock up and the footy commentators don't know enough to correct him. The footy commentators defer to Heal's 'expertise' on every call. They don't have a good understanding of the game. Heal also drew attention to last week's gaff on insisting that Gilchrist needed to get back on court and stop being a sook after he'd actually fouled out and the commentators were none the wiser. Speaking of which, he insisted that Burston was fouled out last night when he was actually on 4. Watching him interview Groves at half time was funny after Heal's comments about Groves as a team mate. Groves probably wanted to deck him, much like everyone else! Painful to watch and listen to.

Win is a win . But some of our shooting and turnovers were shocking with Ballinger missing so many easy shots and Burston having a Cooper type of attempts to put ball in ring.
GOOD
Passing -- Well Scotty obviously had a word to Gilchrist and Groves re holding onto the ball too long as most times tried to move it around and create open shots etc .
Didnt work for a 1st half as got used to and poor shooting but was good to see and got results 2nd half.
NG -- Lot of us saying get NG with a open shot he will nail them he did . Hope all gain confidence from.
Herbert -- This guy huge addition to our team and had massive start to game until soft fouls called to put him in foul trouble.
Groves -- Best game so far although still stuffed up at key times . But learnt from Perth and drove hard as PG to edge of keyway to set up play.
Hill
After some poor turnovers nailed some open Threes and working harder on D .
Bad
Shooting - on the game that we worked on getting the ball in both Adam and Matty had bad shooting games . Hope persist as know these two will score if given opportunity quick enough.
UGLY
REFS -- I have been pretty cool about refs this year but last night was bl---y awful especially that Shields guy. Some of the silliest fouls ever seen.

Oh and Hereschenes, Heal took to calling Ng 'Darren' for the majority of the nigh, instead of N-G

BT actually made the call on Burston, then was good enough to correct himself. Heal was typical Heal, calling Ng Darren all night. Could be worse, could have no coverage at all.

Well done Sixers, 4 on the road now..Missed my tip by 1 point.

I don't want to go on about it but the umpiring was just a disgrace. I see Michael Butler at some games & assume he is marking their performance - I'd love to see some of the comments.

Is the NBL or clubs going to do anything in the offseason to try & improve this area?

Quasi

What was the half-time convo between Cortez and Heal like?

I was at the venue and staring out of curiosity. I was looking for the tension or a blue to happen between the 2. Interesting indeed.

Tez looked like he couldn't wait to get away. Same as Ng at the end of the game, jogged off half way through a question from Heal.

Sorry just saw you asked quasi.

"Much better in the second half when they made quick decisions on Offense. They need to push the ball much quicker, we have spot up shooters and drivers. They can't let the other team setup their D everytime before trying to run isolation plays. Move the ball quickly so players can get open early in the shot clock and the D isn't setup."

Spot on Aussie bballer. It was there for all to see when we broke the game open with some quick offence that got us several open threes in a row.

I think you can see that the guys are trying to improve their offence. There was much more of an attempt to move the ball tonight and Ng benefited big time from that. It was fortunate that he was on, because our big men couldn't buy a basket with 4 points between Balls and Buston at the half!

X - I also thought Burston was slipping his defender off the screen well and getting good position, so it was disappointing that our guards couldn't find an angle to get it to him more often. Same thing in the open court - I feel our guards don't do a good enough job of advancing the ball quickly to guys running the floor. Guys like Groves and Hill should be getting several fast break layups a game if we run it right.

Does anyone else think the Sixers do an unusual amount of gesturing, trying to get their team mates into the right position at both ends of the floor? I really noticed it last night and I think that it shows, unfortunately, that most our guys still aren't on the same wavelength most of the time. Something Scotty needs to work on big time, because we just aren't a cohesive team most of the time.

Anyway, thats enough negativity. Bottom line is we needed this one and we got it. Hopefully our team learnt that if you move the ball and get the Ninja some open looks, you can stay in games even when Balls has zero points at half time!

Lets hope they have a good crack at the Blaze on Friday. I think we can get the win up there if we take care of the ball and keep it moving on offence.

Bad
Shooting

Rotations seemed better for me..

I actually liked the team dynamics when Groves had the ball as the point...Gilchrist holds it way too long...

they still seem tentative to feed the post at the right times...not sure if that is a coaches directive...doubt it..but if it is, no point in running with Burston at all..

NG was exceptional, and a great value off the bench....

was a decent game to watch...

The_Champ33 - Yeah, I agree with DB5, the interview looked really awkward and Tez only gave stock standard replies to questions. The Ng interview at the end was a non event as well

Thanks Quasi and DB5 for that, I appreciate it.

I didn't see the Ng one as I already left the building.

I could tell Tez didn't want to be there and get away quick.

A win is a win. A platform from which to build on.

Good:
Ng's shooting, supported by a good cast.
Cortez playing point - just seems more natural there.
Winning one that needed winning, even if it was ugly at times.
Cortez's fast break dunk.
Playing a more uptempo game in the second half.
Skip Mills hitting some clutch shots with the shotclock running out.

Bad:
Won't always shoot that well - live by the 3, die by the 3.
Have to say it unfortunately, Ballinger's defence. Almost all of Cairn's first ten point came from defensive lapses by Ballinger. Just where was his head last night for the first three quarters?
Brad Hill - where is his head any night? Much better use of him in the second half as a spot up shooter only (but only because the shots dropped last night).
Relapses to the old stagnant offense, particularly in the second half.
Last night at times looked like the battle of who could care less. We only won because Cairns was more incompetent than us.

Ugly:
Incompetent team defence in the first half. I really dislike the spread 3-2 zone the team plays.
Skip Mills - taking CJ Bruton's title as the leagues most shameless flopper. (Gilchrist tried hard to take this award, but was totally outclassed)
The umpires - particularly for falling for Mill's flop 'charge'.

The behind the back was a nice one, but that three missed.
There was one earlier than that where Ng passed it up to I'm pretty sure it was Hill who nailed it from the corner.

Will have to have another viewing of the Ng show tonight I think ;) After the Breakers Tigers game.

That bloody travel on Cortez was a joke.

I've wanted to say this since I first saw Darren Ng nail his 1st 3pointer:

Brett Maher, the heir to your throne may have arrived.

I friggin knew Ninja could shoot the lights out like that; nailed some great quick-release threes in the collection too. Great composure all night. Just needs to work more on his pick and pop shooting, then I think we may have a true replacement for Maher.

As for the reffing "It's called Pivoting!; I'm sorry that your eyes can't keep up with the movement, but you don't call travel when you can't keep up with the footwork. Skip mills step-back moves were Travel. Crossing over then leaping back with two feet for a jump shot is travel. This isn't the NBA; and he isn't Kobe."

Big Marty I like you optimism and am NG fan also .
But a long way to go in many areas of game to even be compared to get to Bretts standard yet.
Certainly has a lovely shooter, but has to do that under real pressure. Hope gives team and himself confident in his ability to score

I also thought that play where Ninja was credited with a miss was actually a pass.

Beantown, yep, I've noticed that gesuring as well, Gilchrist in particular is ALWAYS waiting and pointing and talking at his team mates, it seems to me we're too focussed on running plays to the letter rather than exploiting opportunities. Example last night when a loose ball popped out to the wing, Balls was back to the basket with single coverage but the wing passed it straight up to the top and reset the offence.

Perhaps I'm lamenting Phil's f*ck it let's go for the win style of coaching, but I'd like to see us play a little looser. While I'm on the topic, I wouldn't mind seeing our shooters play some catch and shoot ball, don't know if they don't have the coach's green light to shoot first ask questions later but I'd rather see Darren do that with 12 seconds on the shot clock than see Gilchrist jack up a contested three as the clock expires.