I agree that this should be a great game but am struggling to back NZ to win given how they have played of late, even in the win against Townsville they almost choked.

They do have the talent but it's a case of if they have the mentality.

Fourth place, fourth place, fourth place...

I'm cheering for the Breakers.

Too close to call.

How are the ticket sales going? Will we get another sell-out without Randle playing?

Ticket sales look reasonable but still some left in the silver section. Not bad for a Wednesday.

Like Arsenal, 4th works for me anyday however I really dont think (in theory)it will be an easy game. My heart wants a 36ers win, but mind says NZ.

Personally I want an O/T game to settle it. Whoever has the mindset in O/T wins sits well with me.

NZ by 1

^^^ Still heaps of tickets available. Nearly entire top section available plus plenty in bottom section corners and behind basket. My guess 4500 crowd. With school back this week that rules out plenty of families.

I think NZ will come out firing. They will think we are vulnerable without Randle and will gain confidence from that and will try to put us under pressure early.

If ever the 36ers need a captains game from Gibson this is it....will he step up?

Totally agree with the above anon about Teys. He can be a game changer with his rugged way he goes about it. Hoping Adelaide get this one based on them being hungry and the Breaker being horrible!

Lol, Teys is a bum.

Belongs on the pine

Wow, Ebi looks shaky early.
Aggressive but it's not working for him.

Amazing how different Gibbo plays when he's the prime ballhandler.

Please take Wesley off Vickerman!

Webster!!!
On fire.

Ebi trying to do too much.

^^^ +1

Hard to see the 6ers coming back from this. They're stinking up the gym.

Be interesting to hear what Randle has to say at half time.

Gibbo attacking the hoop AND playing suffocating D. Feels like a year since I've seen that in 2 consecutive plays.

Sobey is rubbish.

Lol, sobey is like watching a kid amongst men. Get him off!!

LOL anon

When Jackson's hitting threes you're in trouble..

UMPIRES CAN GO AND GET FUCKED!

5-8 from Jackson, crazy.

Oh my, LOL!

What happened with that charge/block call? It was changed to a no-call?

DJ - bum
Teys - bum
Sobey - bum

Lol

yeah it's the refs fault the Sixers are travelling when open and driving into traffic

We're officially losing the season split.

Ebi not getting any outside looks without Randle sucking in the wing defenders.

If this doesn't prove Randle is MVP nothing will. Pitiful embarrassing half. Ashamed of that as a fan

No Randle, no worries

And the passion has miraculously disappeared since last game. That was woeful to witness, absolutely pathetic.

Someone needs to step-up, anyone, I don't care who it is.

Also is DJ still having issues from his off season illness? He looks like a passive ghost out there. Not a good effort for your 200th. And Ebi is back, sadly.

56 in the first half, where has this team been the past 6 or 7 weeks?
Now they gotta hold their nerve and put their foot on the Sixers throat in the section needs half.

I watched a video of NZ coming out on the court before the game and Websters body language looked 100% better than in previous games.

To be fair to Adelaide, 15 points of that 20 point deficit have come from Cedric Jackson 3s. Adelaide sucking it up on offense, but on the other end I think it's mainly been bad luck that has hurt them. If Cedrick returns to Earth in the second half I still give them a shot - IMO Gibbo needs to be attacking every possession, because for me he's the only guy that is really standing out for Adelaide right now.

wtf with that credit card ad.. lol

Nitpicking: Crowd too dark, can't see the amount of supporters, at least Staples you could still make out people getting up out of seats, etc.

Wow, add Petrie to the list of bums.

Ced Jackson doing his best Beal impersonation tonight.

Lol, this may go to 30 points +

To the anon saying randle should be playing, he is still limping idiot.

Adelaide having some issues with shooting free throws lol

Joey Wright at his dictator best there. Fuck me that was poor stuff

DJ with a horrendously slow rotation there... jeezus. Lazy.

DJ is a bum!

Zero heart. ZERO!!

To be fair when Jackson hits 7 threes there's not much you can do. It's not like the Breakers are a crap team either. They were going to put it all together sooner or later and tonight happened to be that night.

I don't think it's necessarily all doom and gloom. A bad game, sure, and there are a few guys who need to lift but there's no reason they can't get Cairns - got a good record up there.

WEBSTER!!! Money!!

I hate you Corey Webster. Finals not looking very good right now.

Classic Breakers, 'heads' they care, 'tails' they don't give a fcuk..

Well, 2+ hours of free time wisely spent watching that train wreck.

Webster, Jackson and Pledger have played great. Gibson hit his open ones and DJ hit some but it was their failure to get stops that caused Adelaides headaches.

NZ get the win and the season split and keep their playoff hopes alive.

How's that 4th place looking now Bear? Still as confident?

Lol, 6ers are a bag of shit without Randle.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaay too many small midgets with no game and the talls they have are no damn good.

Oh what a difference an injury makes????? Joey Wright must be kicking himself for starting in a zone. Shot us into form. And we never looked back except for a couple of jittery moments in the 4th. Staying alive just..........

Strange coaching indeed, why put a kid on for 3 seconds ?

I love Randle's mentality.

Heal was basically asking him do you keep with the scout and give Jackson open 3s..

Randle basically said you at least need to get up into him and stop the shot..anything else is semi disrespectful..this is professional ball. You have to treat and respect that guys can hit shots

If Randle was out there, Jackson wouldn't have done that. Gibson played to the scout yes but man..at least make it a semi open shot. Don't give the space he got tonight! He had yonks to line up some of those

"Joey Wright must be kicking himself for starting in a zone. Shot us into form. And we never looked back except for a couple of jittery moments."

Exactly! Without Randle you have a heap of guys who can switch and apply pressure and you come out in a passive zone? To get scores without Randle the 36ers needed to generate it from their D, hard to fathom the thought process behind the zone.

You can say the Breakers were lucky with Jackson shooting so well, but there were so many other poor aspects from Adelaide that you can't overlook them.

We effectively just gave NZ 2 wins tonight.
All we had to do was not lose by 16+, at home. We couldn't even last the first half before we were losing on aggregate.
No one to blame but ourselves. We just didn't show up tonight. Creek was the only guy out there really fighting. And he missed like 6 free throws to erase his good work.
Sobey played 11 mins to fill in for Randle. That was like replacing LeBron with Adam Gibson for the Cavs. He padded his stats late, but he was 3/12, having made his last couple shots. Our lack of guard depth was clear for all to see tonight. It's fine when you have Gibbo and Randle playing 30+ mins.
Ebi's hot streak came to an abrupt end. Shots just weren't dropping. To be fair to him, he played more or less the same game as the last couple weeks, just without the results. So I give him a reprieve. Yes learnt that of late.
DJ was just pathetic. Soft/absent on D, no heart on offense, all his bad tendencies with none of his good.
Gibbo was ok. That's about all we can expect from him these days. He's not a quality starting point guard in the NBL anymore, he's just a good secondary guard behind a dominant import.
Joey really hates Teys it seems. He drags him for every little thing, but lets everyone else get away with the same things.
Credit to NZ though. They knew what they needed to do and just went out and executed. Doesn't help for us that Jackson was unconscious from outside. But after he's made 2 or 3, maybe put a hand in his face? We just continued to pay him no respect, which usually is fair, but change the game plan if he's making shots, don't just let him rain 7 3s on you.
Webster and Pledger were fantastic.
No idea how that team lost 7 games out of 8, that's just a mystery.

Hendo you hit it all on the head for me. Not one positive out of that performance. Shameful display. Man that crocs loss and even the buzzer beater loss at home to the taipans just kicked in well an truly!

Just way too much one-on-one play from Adelaide, everyone except Creek and Walker to an extent were rushing instead of reading how the defence was collapsing. They did fight back to their credit, but Webster and Jackson hit some big shots when it mattered and Pledger was like the old Pledge, that was great to see.

23 assists to 12 for the game, that about sums up the 2 styles of play. No one wanted to step up within the offense, instead it was just a very selfish one on one approach from everyone, including the bench warmers for god sake! Sobey took some very poor shots 3 seconds into the offense, confidence is one thing, stupidity is another.

Haha, well played sir.

Well I know Adelaide fans won't agree, but for everyone else this brings the season back to life for the last two rounds. Cairns v Adelaide on Friday becomes huge, and so does NZ v Cairns on Sunday, especially if the Taipans beat Adelaide.

We could go into the final round with Adelaide 14-12, NEw Zealand 13-13 and Cairns 13-14. It's quite possible all three teams could own one of the splits too.

The well played sir was for anon, but what Kobe said was spot on too.

I hadn't even considered the possibility that Cairns could make the Playoffs. That would be a curveball.

DJ looked lost mentally, that was his 200th, the script was written for him to own that game with Randle out, no one would've been upset if he had taken 25 damn shots, yet he was trash. Something is not right with that man this season, tough to watch him go into his shell. Anyways real frustrating game, poorly executed game plan whatever it was meant to be, and that issue with Nelson Larkins was very poor too. Kid looked gutted, and Joey looked amateur in that sequence.

DJ's record against NZ has been really good too. He was bad, but it was odd they kept going to him down low instead of pick-and-pops or face-ups where he could use his mobility.

It was like the whole thing, from planning to execution, was just one big disaster for the 36ers. It was like the R1 Adelaide v NZ game but in reverse!

Joel mastermind tonight.

Lose the game win the series. We just hit Bevo back with his own game plan.

6ers for fourth. Illawarra now defiantly stuck in 2v3

Come on Apple the guys name is joey

What on earth are you talking about?

how a kid gets 3 seconds and is subbed off is beyond me. wasn't even a panick stations moment.

tonight, many things went wrong but doing that shit, well respect goes out the door.

Total tools should become the new sponsor of Joey after that rubbish.

I thought at the time it might have been an offence/defence sub. The foul resulted in free throws, so there was no more D to be played and Joey went back to his offensive lineup.

Didn't someone argue Adelaide was the form side of the competition?
I guess that's now not true? Lol

Kobe24, DJ in his 200th had an opportunity to own the game like a boss. He could have made Pledge-hammer look ordinary and Ch. Jackson look like a lumbering beast. Instead, he let that opportunity slip away.

You do have to give Ced Jackson some credit. Sure the D wasn't great at times but he still has to hit the shots. Given it was a career night from beyond the arc and almost a career night scoring-wise, huge props to him.

Anyone see the sniper that shot Randle on Saturday at the game tonight? Bone bruising and he is out for two weeks, give me a break, this bloke talks the talk and has all you fools sucked in, Sydney's coach gave him some lip, he cried, gets pushed around against Wollongong, he cried and sits out the next game. He has a heart as big as Gibson and DJ!

Reckon all players and coach need to be drug tested, how any team could play so poorly with a play off birth to be secured is amazing, and why a coach would put his talentless development players on the court at all in this game is a joke, hey might not be able to win but get it under 15 points fool and get the series

6ers roster is weak, no question.

Full of midgets with no game and the bigs are ordinary.

Creek and Walker have potential.....and Randle is a beast.

The rest are varying degrees of rubbish.

What about the sideline play alley oop to Petrie at the end!!!!

Anyone read the scout (as Shane heal would say) Petrie can't bloody jump

I could have sworn school was back, but given some comments here maybe not...

Well I think Joey was MIA tonight.

Perimeter shooting defined the game and its result.

NZ shot well from the perimeter, particularly for half a game with as many free and open looks as they wanted. They appreciated our generous courtesy. A late christmas gift!

Sixers were not offered open looks at all, so no one tried to push the issue and swiftly no one wanted to shoot from range. No one worked for it, no plays were set. All players who have been able to get open looks when Randle forced a more openly spread defense found their confidence lacking and regressed back to repeatedly driving into the densest areas of defense to the ring. Over and over and over and over etc, etc, and over.

Over to you Joey,time for strategy, time to coach!

Outcoached, outplayed, umpired......

There were a few moments with individual efforts that were entertaining but

Lets put it behind us, we must win in Cairns.

Come on Joey

Come on Adam. Lead this team!

Come on sixers.

Anon'901

"Hope Teys is played on Webster from the get go to hustle him and take the charges. Under-utilised this season and he can quietly hit the treys and has a great finger role."

Would you mind explaining to those of us on this forum, not familiar with such things, what role Brendan Teys' finger plays in the Adelaide 36'ers?

I'm only asking because you seem well versed.

And to make things worse Marcus Camby has popped up! Guess it was all a one off game of error, Nelson had it coming to him, Ebi was due for a quiet game, joey knew what he was doing every other game and we should all just get behind him and the team and think happy thoughts. I'm done, this game has killed off any good positive hope I had in the way they DIDNT go about it sadly.

NZ own the split on us now right?

KET - yes

Has he ever had a dominant game where he has won us the game without someone else leading the way for him??

6ers +/- for last night:

Carlin +1
Larkins 0
Ere -5
Johnson -7
Hodgson -8
Petrie -12
Teys -12
Creek -14
Gibson -16
Walker -17
Sobey -20

Sobey came on when we were 8 down and closing, left the court when we were down 22. Had a period there where he shot and lost us the ball 3 times straight (including 2 times when he just jacked it up), , sandwiched by two 3's by the man he sagged off on.

Feel sorry for the bloke, all the athleticism and energy in the world and barely literate in reading the pace and stage of the game.

Was it just me or did Webster and pledger seem to spend a lot of time camped out in the point without ever been called for it?

-20 in 11:33 is sadly exactly what I was expecting it to be for Sobey.
We more or less broke even in the 28:27 he wasn't playing.

How do you get scouting wrong after 3 previous games in the one season? Surely that wasn't the problem. Johnson is the softest 7 footer I've ever seen in my life, just nudge him and he goes flailing to the ground or puts up cheese.

Didnt the 36ers just give Joey the coaching job for life?

It was so frustrating and disappointing watching the capitulation to New Zealand, especially knowing what is potentially at risk.

I could have understood a loss given the circumstances but to also lose the advantage of the points split, man talk about walking the tight rope with a really dodgy safety net.

I had hoped to leave last nights game knowing that at the very least the Sixers had a finals spot locked in and that the next fortnight was a case of just how high the Sixers could climb before the finals. Perhaps the players had a similar mindset going into the game.

I'm not going to doubt their intent or endeavour however the Sixer players seemed totally overwhelmed and struggled to work as a cohesive unit for 35 minutes. Credit to New Zealand they hardly missed a trick.

I dont see them winning any of the road games, they had no idea what they were doing last night! And yeah, Matthew, they felt the need to lock Joey up long term, only reason I can see this having happened was to try and use that as a key factor in resigning Jerome Randle. Going to be a bitter pill to swallow if they miss the playoffs now, based on such a weak effort last night, when the playoffs were there for them to lock in.

Caps fan, im with you, he jacked it up back to back posessions within 3 seconds of the offense, and missed both times. Then was unable to make a mends on the defensive end. The game died off real quick after that, I understand the green light syndrome, but he needs to check himself and his abilities before getting that sort of rush of blood again!

Certainly a good example of a game being played above the shoulders. The effort certainly appeared to be there but was it 24 of 36 foul shots? Get that up to 32 of 36 and we would stil own the series!
When Gibo, DJ, Ere and Pech are all missing free throws you know its not a lack of skill but an indication of where their head were.

they felt the need to lock Joey up long term, only reason I can see this having happened was to try and use that as a key factor in resigning Jerome Randle.

You seriously think this is the case??? That's the only reason he's been re-signed??? Be upset at the performance last night but ffs, keep some perspective. Joey was coach of the month for Jan and everything was looking pretty smooth up until last night - he's taken the Sixers to the playoffs every season he's been in Adl and is a championship coach. I for one am glad he's here long-term, at least I know Adl will be a competitive team each year, something it wasn't under the previous guy.

But the sky's always kinda falling with some..

As a long time NBL observer let me buy into the Joey debate.

Joey is a one trick pony. His only go to is to have at least individual who can create off the cuff in his team and to roll with the/those individuals. When he has talent he just lets it loose and lives or dies but the success of that individual talent.

His only success so far is with the salary cap piss taking Bullets and I would bet that even Marty Clarke would have won a 'ship with that lot.

Look at the recent Randle article giving Joey the love and see which other players offered him support. Ira Clarke, Randle, Wilson, Ubaka. Deleon would have probably weighed in with a bit of tongue action himself if asked. Why. Because each of those are let loose by Joeys "system" (hell I could tell the payers to set picks for Randle and watch him perform and take open opportunities. Those type of players love the limelight.

Not noticing any praise in the story for roll players or players Joey turned into stars or made significantly better.

Joey gets at least one star individual scorer and a decent support cast and he is in business. Those teams will win just on talent but will lose games because he never has plan B.

Has he improved DJ, Creek or Walker for example under his tenure.

While I am on a coaching rant an observation from last nights game. 6ers are in a fouling situation toward the end of the game to try and bridge the split deficit. Breakers have the ball and pass it to Cedric....in a fouling situation...seriously....these people are paid to coach and play.

As a long time NBL observer let me buy into the Joey debate.

Joey is a one trick pony. His only go to is to have at least individual who can create off the cuff in his team and to roll with the/those individuals. When he has talent he just lets it loose and lives or dies but the success of that individual talent.

His only success so far is with the salary cap piss taking Bullets and I would bet that even Marty Clarke would have won a 'ship with that lot.

Look at the recent Randle article giving Joey the love and see which other players offered him support. Ira Clarke, Randle, Wilson, Ubaka. Deleon would have probably weighed in with a bit of tongue action himself if asked. Why. Because each of those are let loose by Joeys "system" (hell I could tell the payers to set picks for Randle and watch him perform and take open opportunities. Those type of players love the limelight.

Not noticing any praise in the story for roll players or players Joey turned into stars or made significantly better.

Joey gets at least one star individual scorer and a decent support cast and he is in business. Those teams will win just on talent but will lose games because he never has plan B.

Has he improved DJ, Creek or Walker for example under his tenure.

While I am on a coaching rant an observation from last nights game. 6ers are in a fouling situation toward the end of the game to try and bridge the split deficit. Breakers have the ball and pass it to Cedric....in a fouling situation...seriously....these people are paid to coach and play.

Snooch he is okish, but not as good as many think. He isnt a great tactician of the game, and i would be surpirsed if he hadnt won the Coach of month award after what Randle has done to this league, and for that 36er team. Like Fstos is alluding too, its not hard to let a star guard go green lightish on the competition! He is good, not great is my view. Not basing this purely on his no show last night.

Anon Randle was limping last night, he wasnt rested, he is injured. I mean c'mon, thats just silly talk.

Totally apologise misread, i thought you were another one of those ones! Crazy huh, at full strength the 6ers are good and have been even great of late, but no guarantee to win even with Randle, Joey wouldnt be that confident to be resting a superstar! Side note, i guess missing the last 5 games and playing sparingly in the Hawks game, probably opens the MVP voting back up too.

Has he improved DJ, Creek or Walker for example under his tenure.

Well Walker only got here this year, Creek has improved yes, and DJ has too (that's not to say DJ doesn't still have limitations, but he's certainly improved under Joey). Teys has certainly improved under Joey.

Wright's winning record is close to 60%. Like I said, you know for a fact you are going to get a competitive team under Joey every year. I'm more than happy to take that.

I actually think this season Creek, Teys and even DJ have all regressed. Not saying that is Joey's fault, but he hasnt continued to help the grow. Creek cant make a Free Throw, DJ is scared of demanding the ball and wanting the big moment and Teys is stuck on the bench.... behind Sobey of all players.

Didn't dis-regard the challenge they face, simply placed optimism and faith in the playing group getting it done last night against a team that has been shaky this past month. It would have put fans a little more at ease had they won or at least kept the loss below 16 points.

They couldn't and looked a long way off. Have fans lost their optimism and faith? Not me, but it did take a bit of a hit last night.

I bet Melbourne and Cairns fans will be a little less optimistic too about their teams beating the Breakers (even if they won't admit it). Last night I witnessed the "Dynasty" version of the Breakers.

Joey is a good coach whose teams pretty much always play to their level and have good success. That's something not to be sneezed at. But he's not a great coach who can make his team equal much more than the sum of its parts, and that's part of the reason his teams are usually just off the pace of the best.

To be fair, Anon, when Randle went down the first time, pretty much everyone thought it was season over for him. Knee injuries don't just go away in a couple days, even the minor ones. You only had to see how he was walking last night to see how far away he is from being able to play at his normal level. It's only 10 days until our final game (away to Perth, that we'll likely lose anyway, even with Randle).
Suggesting we rest him for this week and next, given the circumstances isn't exactly an outlandish statement. NZ had lost 7 out of 8 games recently, they had internal issues, they were playing terribly. It wasn't unreasonable to expect that we could go into that game and at least lose by less than 15 to close out the split, and even maybe win the game. We'd won 7 games out of 8 heading into that game. As bad as NZ had been, was how good we had also been. We had 2 wins on NZ and a 15 point season lead. Only a real disaster would really bring NZ back into the equation.
Now that we've lost by 22 (which is exactly the disaster we needed to avoid), the need for Randle intensifies tenfold, but heading into that game, in the state Randle was in, with the circumstances at hand, suggesting that we don't risk aggravating the injury and keep him out for the 2 weeks wasn't exactly unwarranted.
If the game was live against Perth and/or Illawarra and he was up to it, he'd play. If we did our job last night, they would have been dead rubber games effectively. If his knee was anything but 100%, I'd rather err on the side of caution with it, rather than rush him back, play 10 mins, then injure it again. And then see him miss the Playoffs. If it comes down to having to win that Perth game to make Playoffs, Randle would find a way to get up for it.

Well put Paul. Just irks me a little that he has such a good rap on him at times and I tend to over compensate with the criticism.

I think he loses composure far too often as well.

Snooch. I really don't see any fundamental improvement in DJ, Creek, Walker etc and watch every game.

My biggest disappointment though is that I don't see any development of their individual basketball IQ's. Probably reflects on the coach not being great in that department either IMO. For 3 very talented athletes they have little feel for the game.

DJ has improved in one area. Rebounding.
If anyone suggested that DJ would win the rebounding title this season by almost a whole rebound per game, you'd get laughed out of the thread.
He's probably regressed or stagnated in most other areas.

Couldnt agree more with Paul and fstos on those various points. Frustrates having so much potential sitting there and such robotic skill sets. Creek, if he had improved his shot and bball IQ would be in Europe by now, he has freakish athletic ability, but it stops there.

I just remember the days that DJ would appear as quiet as last nights game, but by the end of it, youd look up and see 25 points plus by his name and he would have had the opposition big in foul trouble all night. Scary to think last night 2 of thr Breakers bigs fouled out but were not dented at all on the score board. DJ offered nothing last night, and i really hope he is pissed at himself for not taking advantage of the situation. The table was set for him to feast and he went hungry.

In other news, Ebi nursing a calf injury and Gibbo a foot. Both will play against Cairns but haven't trained this week.

Not really good for the Sixers chances..

Not being a Joey defender but if he had the budget of the top 2 teams where do you think he would be. MU and PW are supposed to be spending more than 1.7 on their rosters. Sixers would be more than 30% away from that