Schenscher's pretty good - Aw, now subbed out and away we go.

WhyTF did the game start so early??? I missed the start. I want 11.83% of my money back...

Amen

just from the livescores Creek looks like a GUN!!!

Creek was awesome for the first game.
Winder did better this week and ball movement was more fluent.
How bout the D? Very impressive with plenty of hustle. Loved it

"WhyTF did the game start so early??? I missed the start. I want 11.83% of my money back..."

I was there at 7:25 and the game started then, not the designated 7:30. Unless all of our phones that auto update are wrong, ofcourse they were all the same so I doubt it. It was obvious with the amount of ppl still streaming in this game started early

Great game all round, everyone contributed and the 2nd unit was fantastic. They look so much more composed and well paced with carter running the point. Creek was great and the raps on his hops are justified, little worried about his jumper but just might have had an off night. I like the fact that he was defending the point well despite the size difference.

Great night, on to the Gong.

Did Creek even take a proper jumpshot? Anyway, agree with what you said - the 2nd unit should be starting next game!

Agree about the second unit, I did also notice that when Hill was on the court we would lose ground, and make it back up when he sat down.

Creek did an awesome job for a first game. If he can improve, regain full match fitness if he is still lacking it and continue to his defense he will be a starter in no time.

Is Trevor Gleeson Bob Katters cousin?
The only guard called for holding was Darren Ng,while Crosswell tackled for most of the night. I suppose if you hold both hips it's not a foul. The referees coach was ther tonight , he would have to be proud of his boys. (sic)

Correct - no jump shots by Creek. Was impressed with his composed offensive and defensive play, didn't try to do too much, attacked the rim and worked hard in the lanes for steals - noticed on the box score he ended up with 3. I was so glad he got a monster slaw too!

I do agree that the 2nd unit was fantastic - they really are the starters of tomorrow: Carter, Creek, Johnson, Dowdell (?). If we can add more young, athletic, talented and agressive players around them, we will have a solid foundation on which to build.

Skip - what was the song that the dancers performed to in what I think was their last routine for the night? It was a dance/house song with no lyrics. Thanks

Crosswell grabs hold of singlets for milliseconds at a time and there are no fouls. The first quarter was reffed well but even as a biased supporter, some of the fouls against Townsville were a fraction odd.
Tim Mills used to be a great ref, but disappointed me with some of his calls for and against. No complaints though....we won :)

"The game started at 730 what's the problem?

Missed the start, get there earlier next time."

I got there at 7:29 exactly (time from Foxtel IQ) and the there were just over 7 minutes left in the 1st quarter. If they tell us the game will start earlier then I WILL get there earlier.

But that aside, fantastic four-quarter performance at both ends. Finally we hit some outside shots!

Balls: One of his best defensive games I've seen. Absolutely beasted the bigger guys of Townsville! Again didn't get a huge amount of touches but finally the alternative offensive options were performing.

Holmes: What a defensive play at the end there!!! Inspirational stuff! Hopefully he's okay. He had a quiet night apart from that but we can probably put that down to our other bigs being in good form.

Hilly: I can see him losing out in the battle with Creek very very soon. Good to see him knock a few threes but he isn't attacking the rim as aggressively as usual.

DeVries: Solid all-round game without starring. Had some nice bail-out threes.

Winder: Looked like a different player, like he's accepted that he's not our Kobe, he's just our Fisher. I like the role-player Winder better than the wannabe superstar Winder. Hopefully we can get away without having a superstar import because when he's not trying to do it all he's pretty solid. Nice D too.

DJ: Looked like someone slapped him across the face before tip-off. Great to see him showing such aggression at both ends! That's the best D he's played in a 36ers jersey, probably in an NBL jersey period.

JD: Such a workhorse. Perfect role player if we can surround him with guns. 11pts in 14 minutes, yup I'll take that.

Tim Tam: I can see Mitch having a huge impact once he grows in confidence a bit. He passed up so many offensive opportunities and still ended up with 7pts. His movement off the ball was outstanding for someone in his first game for a team and he goes up strong. Defensively he played like a bigger Carter. I can't wait to see if he has a solid outside shot, because if he does.......

Ninja: Really needs to get more looks offensively to justify him being there at the other end.

Tha Carter: OUTSTANDING playmaking! 8 assists in 18 minutes! Finally hitting the three ball too. This is the best I've seen him play in a while and yet it was his lowest minutes tally in a while.

Jan and Daly: I wish I could write something here. 20 points up with four minutes to go. If they don't get a shot in that situation then there is no point handing them a uniform.

Gleeson: Stop whinging please, you were not hard done by tonight by any means. Gabe Freeman is the only one who could claim he was.
Crosswell was hacking all night with no attention from the refs.
Blalock and Schenscher (despite the great D) really their only good performers. But that was one of the most embarrassing flops I've seen this year by Luke.

Refs: Well in an attempt to say something positive, they were a lot better than they were last home game.

Agree with hereschenes the second 5 played better offence and defence, they seemed a more co-ordinated unit and could be a better starting option to get the team going.It would be awsome to hear the whole stadium do the wolf call every time mitch creek scores.

With Creeks jump shot i was watching him in warm ups, yeah no shots during the actual game though.

Also agree with annon re parking, its a joke and has to be annoying the surrounding residents. If anything they loose money as they would have to be paying something for using that space.

If you studied the game, you would find that when Winder was on court, we went backwards. He plays his best when he is sitting on his backside.
Creek has got very quick hands and good reaction time. Made a big difference on D tonight.

was it just me but is our best 5 the 5 we started the last quarter with being Carter, DeVries, Creek, Ballinger, Johnson.

I hope that becomes our starting 5 from now on and with young athletic guys like Creek and Johnson will be very exciting to watch and is a nice foundation for the future also, if we can hold those guys together for say 3-5 years(well atleast Carter, Creek and Dowdell) will be exciting times ahead.

Dowdell = great pick up, probably one of the best signings for the club, great 6th man IMO, and one that was knocked by a lot of people, Townsville and Perth fans were laughing at us. I'm very impressed with his energy, work ethic and he has some skill, when he is on the court good things seem to happen, to me he is the perfect glue guy off the bench. He also adds some toughness to the group which we have lacked in the pass, i was very happy when i think he put Wilkinson on his ass against NZ then stood over him when he tried to get up, thats the kind of aggression we have needed for years.

Oh yea Creek, great first game IMO, loved his activity especially getting in the lanes on defense and constantly harassing the opposition, also seems to pass well and has good decision making skills with the ball, if he develops a nice jump shot, he will be very very good.

Re: The Wolf Creek call, seriously that and the other gimmicky noises like "I'm special" make the game look like amateur hour, its something I would expect to hear at a kids carnival not a professional league.

Sorry but were not all little computer geeks who like gimmicky sound effects, to me it wholly ruins the experience of what an NBL game should be. You would NEVER hear that at an NBA game, well I never did in the many games I saw.

I thought Marty Clarke had a much better game tonight.
He pulled many guys off the court when their defence or attitude dropped off,
he has gotten Winder to play with a little more control,
he has gotten DJ to rebound and contest consistently....

I think DJ and Mitch Wolf Creek will come off the bench all this season but start next season,
and if both play with the same attitude tonight, both will be leading the team in minutes, even when they come off the bench.

Spot on Jonno, I agree that we had the best possible starting five on court at the beginning of the last quarter. The younger guys along with Balls were most impressive tonight and as mentioned we seemed to loose ground when Winder and some of the usual suspects were on court. The intensity and hustle of the second 5 tonight was awesome and just went to show Marty how the minutes should be spread from now on.
The extended pressure with Mitch Creek playing the anchor worked extremely well and needs to be used more when we have the young and fit line-up on the floor. Sorry to say but no room for Darren Ng....still can't create his own shot and always a liability on D.
Can we please get a better Wolf sound next game...that was horrible. Maybe use the Teen Wolf howl.

Yes Mitch had a great start, lets be careful remember he is only 18.
Lets not set him up for wa fall.
Wow, a win is a great feeling

yeah i thought I was gonna be 5 minutes late and when I got there the whole 1st quarter had ended. I paid full price for 3 quarters. Game definately started early.

Ben allen is a waste of time for townsville. He looked dis interested and useless. He needs to stop chewing gum and get into the game.

With the comments re the team going backwards with Hill and Winder on the court, the +/- stats for Hill was -14 and Winder -9. If you look further along the sheet though Ballinger was -8 and Devries -5.

The simple fact is the game was mostly won with a 22-3 run against mostly the Crocs bench bridging quarter time. The Sixer bench also had a 6-2 run against the Crocs starters in the third, but mostly the Townsville starters were on top when they were on the court but their bench wasnt as good as Adelaide's and that was the difference.

It is hard not to think though that a natural pg wouldnt be a better fit than Winder. It would most likely have to be a young energetic guy to fit Clarke's system (Balls and TDV fill the veteran roles) but they are out there.

As others have pointed out though, if he defends and doesnt try to force things he can be a solid and occassionally spectacular contributor, and given the Sixers wont win a title this year no matter who the import is, perhaps its better to save the money required to make the change.

Unless Devries can find his stroke I dont think he is the answer for next year, but given he led his Spanish team in scoring the past two years despite not getting a heap of shots, how many better imports are out there?

Props on a great Win Sixers.

Good to get a win, still some troubling signs that IMO shouldn't be overlooked.

Our best 5 last night on more than one occasion was Carter, Ng, Creek, Dowdell & Johnson. That lineup was the reason we went on two significant runs and help to build a sizeable lead.

Subs came, Winder, Balls, Devries all came back in and Townsville started making a run back at us. Our regular starting 5 just don't seem to execute properly, on numerous occasions I saw players looking at Winder with a "WTF is he calling" look on their faces.

To me some changes should be made next season to really take us to the next level, this season should be used for blooding and teaching the Creek's, Dowdells, DJ's with next season them becoming the guys. I would probably move both Winder and Devries on and bring in a PF import and a 1/2 guard.

Overall decent night, but IMO Townsville aren't overly great and while there were some good signs (all from the 2nd unit) we still have a way to go if we want to make finals.

X - I think they didn't run Daly and Warbout because they were trying to boost percentage - given how close the league is percentage could be the difference between finals and not - In saying that next game if we have a sizeable lead the crowd needs to start a "We want Janny (pronounce Yonny)" chant.

Bizzy,

Basketball hasn't used percentage as a determinant for finals in 10 years. It is purely head to head in determining finals. And they play teams 3 times so someone will win on head to head.

That said they might get into a 3 way tie with townsville and point spread might help.

I just love basketball ignoranouses.

Bizzy I completely agree, it was the second unit that got the win. I was somewhat amazed that a lineup which included Ng could actually get the job done defensively, but they did. Creek's speed and length added a dimension to the extended pressure not seen since Darnell. Dowdell continues to be one of the best recruits in the competition, simple, no-nonsense hustle and the ability to be in the right place at the right time. It is amazing how much better we looked when DJ was on the court and involved in every offense.

Of course all the positives are undone when Winder is on the floor. The offense becomes stagnant, the wrong guys get the ball 25 feet out, and the constant stream of poor choice/worse execution passing errors, notable by his first and last plays of the game. The only positive thing I can say about this joke is that at least he isn't Gabe Freeman.

Townsville would be disappointed with their showing last night. I thought the refs were actually really good too, especially in the first half.

Dione, so points may matter at some point. Go easy.

To the game, good to see threes finally dropping at a good clip. We won the boards against a tall team. We didn't lack for a real centre, blah blah blah.

Winder's performance was like a summary of his season to date and he would rightfully be shredded on here if the second unit hadn't showed how to play a team game. When Carter needed a rest, I remember thinking that I'd almost rather see Daly get on there.

I think we had 44 points off the bench. DJ showed what the believers know he can do and I have to agree with those speaking of Dowdell. Wasn't overly sold on his signing (could understand it, but not get excited by it) but I don't know that he's had a bad game yet - no-nonsense is the best way to describe his game.

Early word on Holmes is that it might be a broken nose unfortunately.

Decent outing from Ballinger. I also liked the final five: Carter, DeVries, Creek, Ballinger, Johnson.

On Creek - he looked nervous at the line and doesn't really have a jumpshot (for those expecting it to show up soon), but was otherwise really comfortable for a first-gamer. He is all of 18 years old. He knows what his strengths are and didn't force anything that wasn't there. The dunk was showtime. Going to look forward to watching him play each game from here. Were those his parents there in the Creek singlets?

Dione how bout you check your facts before making sweeping statements.

KB3, What facts are those? The chances of a 3 way time between 3 teams with an equal head to head are miniscule.

Anon '144 - I guess European players can get more money in Europe if they are that good.

I think we might see more teams going for solid Australian options with import money. e.g., go for a D Martin or Gibson instead of Winder. Let's say Adelaide had paid up for Gibson. Not really a step down, gives flexibility (if someone goes out for the season, got a spare import position), and hurts the Blaze who have to find someone else.

Anon, three reasons:

1 Plenty of money in Europe
2 They dont bring a new dimension like US players do in terms of athleticism and a scorers mentality
3 Local talent in Europe isnt really any better than in Australia, so if they dont offer a different skill set it would be just like a very expensive local, and given it wouldnt be the first stringers they would prob just be role players here.

I know I wasn't there - although I wish I was... The foul count was 21-12 and freethrows were 22-11 both against the Crocs. That bring the first home game after Boti's article calling out Cairns & Wollongong's home cooking (& rightly so)

Oh no - your certainly not alone there :)

36ers have released Craig Winder. I think they might've had a potential replacement lined up who promptly got injured before signing?

DJ Rod the foul count would have been even more lopsided if the refereeing was consistent. The Croc players were extremely lazy in defence and were allowed to get away with almost continuos hand checking and moving screens. I think the referee coordinator (Peter Carey?) was observing the game so it would be interesting to know his thoughts. I think that a bigger factor in the Crocs loss was Gleeson's constant complaining to the refs and the apparent lack of interest from Allen and to a lesser extent Peter Crawford. The coach would have been better employed by concentrating on his players. Gabe Freeman must be paying his own salary, as it would be the only way he could justify his place on last nights showing.

I will be surprised if Gabe Freeman's NBL career lasts much longer than Craig Winder.

Gabe Freeman has a shitload of talent and if we actually needed a swingman/PF at the 36ers I'd welcome him aboard. I don't know what he said to piss off these refs but if he adjusts to the officiating he will be a very good player. He's a gun defensively and one of the most athletic guys in the league.

Well it might just happen one day X. The sixers have a history of recycling imports previously cut by their clubs.