DJ and Creek still out for this one. Will be tighter than a Japanese train carriage.

Tip off at 7, WNBL game early on.

Woeful Wollongong v Accident (prone) Adelaide

Adelaide with a weak team due to injuries and really need to get this one in the bag early to keep in touch with the big boys of the league. Illawarra with a lot of road trips early seem to be lacking the chemistry that a team needs to be competitive. Maybe it's time to put the keys in the fruit bowl and see what happens. Alternatively, maybe they could bond over a BBQ at Jim's.

Danger game for Adelaide. They need to get tighter on D and spread the workload.

Time for a spoonful of cement Adelaide, and time to pluck a Hawk

Adelaide currently rank 1st in points per game, with 91.0, and last in points allowed, with 97.7. Illawarra are 3rd in PPG with 85.1 and second last in PAPG with 86.0.

Anyone for a high scoring match?

Why are the Hawks the favourites with Bet365? Is Randle not playing?

Illawarra are 3-5, average margin of -0.9. Adelaide are 3-4, average margin of -6.7.

Last time these two teams met, Illawarra won by 4,370.

Wilson Sting, DJ is not playing is why they are favourites. Expect Hawks to pound the ball inside

I'd just like to say that, as always, I'm eternally grateful to Boti/The Advertiser for including the all-time head-to-head records of these teams, but not anything to do with this season. It really gives fans all the relevant info about these teams, in their current forms, that they could possibly want.

That is, in their pre-game infographics, for those unaware.

Won't help them Brunson when your centre is a marshmallow.

@twenty four - did you try reading the story?

AJ Ogilvy so soft mentally

Sixers were $2 to win?

$2?????????

They are in my multi but what the fuck are the bookies thinking

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

21 free throws to 5? lololololololol

Hodgson a little bit of a double double in 14 minutes
Don't hurry back dj.....
(I think Tracy York used to coach lightning as well as sixers assistant....)

Bookies put up 36ers as favs although money came for the Hawks so they started favs.

Punters must have been thinking;

No Creek
No DJ
Potential Randle injury that may slow him down

Looks like the game will be close.

Hodgson has gone into beast mode

Holyfield's been shot by Marvelle's sniper

Some are just clueless, it's up to the NBL and the clubs to inform people by marketing and creating a narrative like we're used to from NBA, NCAA etc.


Well. 36ers finished horribly.

Hodgson: Great rebounding, it'd be nice for him to continue to develop like this. If only he could finish off right next to the basket better, too often he misses point blank when the defence isn't contending. Those are the times you dunk it instead - it took David Cooper a few years to figure that out and when he did, he became far more effective.

Sobey: Great drive to the basket and he's got a sweet little jump shot. Carried us quite a bit, even with his rebounding as well. He just needs to put away the three point shot for a while and focus on getting baskets from his strong drive or his little jumper. If you're going to airball a three, then maybe give it some time before trying again.

Teys: Struggled today, and apart from two nice midrange jumpers, he shot badly, really badly. Those airballs... Teys needs to put away his three point shot until he has confidence and momentum - that means hitting some midrangers first and waiting for that right time to chuck up a three.

Jacobsen: Needs to hit his freethrows. Not a great shooting game today.

Randle: Wasn't his best that's for sure, struggled to hit from range and struggled with the zone.

I only caught the 4th Q, but hard to believe the Sixers don't have a single zone attack set in their playbook.

Hey Mike - nice early crow.

Went to water as soon as they went to a zone. When the other team goes zone this is when you need Ferguson and Drmic to step up and start hitting shots.

Hodgson: Great game, still do not rate him. Has a good game every now and then otherwise reminds me of a poor mans Paul Rees.

Sobey: You have talent, have a heap of offensive moves but you need to pass sometimes. Everytime he touches the ball he jacks a three or drives, the only time he passes is when he gets cut off on a drive, to predictable.

Jacobsen: Ok import, first year of pro ball so ups and downs are expected. Unfortunate we are one of the cheaper teams as we can not afford to replace under performing imports and can not afford any better than Jacobsen.

Ferguson: Really need to add something other than a 3 point shot to your offensive game. Would not kill Joey to try and get him more involved, especially on drive and dish and on the break.

I think its time for Joey Wright to go. He has served us well but considering you we can not compete financially with other teams we need to be better defensively.

Actually -- its not hard to believe the Sixers don't have a single zone attack set in their playbook.

Against a Zone:

Stage One : get into offense before the Zone sets up.

at this level IMHO that means

1) in-bounding the ball from the baseline to the high 45's and one dribble passes to get the ball up to the ring quickly.

2) getting your "slows" to screen out / hinder the other team's slows from getting down court.

Stage two : drive the seams and kick the ball out and around with two consecutive quick passes - after drawing help

Stage three: if/when your "3" shot goes up - only one 'safety" - 4 committed offensive re-bounders

The telling point for me was Joey screaming at them constantly in the 4th to take the ball to the rack which would have been a good tactic considering the foul trouble the Hawks were in. But they just kept on putting up 3 point bombs that weren't dropping.

If I was the coach I'd be a mite pissed at how they played in the last.

As someone said above, basically you take away Randle and you severely limit Adelaide's offence.

Hodgson stepped up tonight on the boards and he needed to, but it wasn't enough. But he needs to start doing it consistently because we need more than just DJ who can rebound.

Poor effort by Adelaide.
Hug effort by Hawks!
They did a great job hanging in there... Oscar, Harris, Conraad hit a cnumber of big shots just to keep them to keep them in touch (still down 5 or 6) and then caught the tide at the right time as thirty sixer's fell in a hole offensively. Courtesy of Hawks zone and impatience by Sixers.
And they did it without their big guy who had a shocker while Hodson was all world for Adelaide.

Adelaide would stand a chance in games like this if they had a coach who understood how to teach offensive sets, rather than rely on a gun player to break the opposition D by dribble penetration on every play.

They actually have players with good skills, just a crap coach.

Sixers shooting % was a just woeful. Couldn't hit a basket. Hodgson was the only player above 40% from the field. Their 3pt % was something else again, if they play blindfolded next game they would probably make more than last night. The Hawks had 5 playerr shoot at better than 50% from the field, with Foreman 3-4, Norton 2-2 and even Cody Ellis hit 3-5 from 3pt range.
Randle just did not look right.
I don't know how they can explain such bad shooting, field goals, 3pt and even the free throws as professionals is just abhorrent. Saw at least three airballs.
The other issue was Hawks had three players in foul trouble. AJ and Hollyfield were both on 4 fouls. Hollyfield was benched as insurance in case AJ fouled out, yet he never got another foul. Sixers have always been bad at attacking and finishing off players on 4 fouls.
Hodgson and Jacobsen put in so much effort inside, for all the other players to let them down offensively.

On a side note though,it's great to see travel being called this season. Just a shame the easiest call of a player rolling around on the floor still doesn't get called.

36ers aren't playing that badly for a side without Creek and DJ, our two most experienced players.

Even as a full strength side, the expectations by most with a clue was that Adelaide would struggle to do much better than wooden spoon.

I guess much is helped that Randle has been a bit of a freak of nature for us, particularly against Perth.

Seems we gonna do some zone attack sets at this week's training , as we didn't know what to do , last nite , here.

In Joey's defence, from what I saw he was instructing them to run and go at the zone but his guards - esp Randle and Sobey - didn't respond and were far too passive.

It was an embarrassing capitulation in the final quarter. To be in front all game to only be blown away in the 4th and at home by the then 2nd to bottom team is totally unacceptable.

I know we're missing two of our Top 3 players but Randle just never looked like he had his head in the game and we just don't get enough out of other imports.

36ers should have won, even with Randle well held. Had plenty of opportunity in the middle of that last quarter. 5 or 6 stops in a short period of time but rimmed out every shot we took on the back of them. Should really have been a 12-zip run. Ended up totally junking it in the end, throwing up silly 3's to try to reel in the deficit.

Hodgson and Jacobsen worked harder than I've ever seen our bigs work. If they keep playing like that we'll win games.

I don't think we're too far off the mark considering we're two starters down. We're not getting blown off the court in recent weeks which is a good sign, we just have to find a way to get over the line.