Officially the first game on GO too.

I think it will be Sydney by one point in 5 OTs .

Sixers in a close one say 4 points.

Sydney comfortably.

Bogut is going to trouble Adelaide's bigs. Tactics against him will be interesting.

Pre-game interview: Gaze basically admitted it would be easier if his players coached themselves.

Has Lisch lost a yard permanently? Last year lots of us thought he was just injured/ overplayed.

Agree with above, smart move Isaac.

Entertaining game so far.

Obvious hook against Lisch.

Hammer calls it soft.

Good work, Shane.

Who is ADL?

Sixers struggle when Joey plays both rookies at the same time

Yeah it's been 3.5 games and I don't think this kid is going to understand what makes the burgers better at Hungry Jacks. Just not sinking in. He keeps asking the same question all the time

Wiley looks like a deer in headlights out there. Strange cause he dominated preseason.

So Wiley's kinda terrible.

And Frohling is... tall, I guess?

I'd ask why Sydney's offence seems to consist of nothing other than transition hoops and Randle iso ball, but then you only have to look at the sideline for the answer, don't you?

Over that First Ever ad!!!

DeLeon will be the death of me.

Game is also being broadcast on ABC radio. Nice

Agreed re: DeLeon

Cameraman in the stands adjust your exposure you hack

Looks like they're playing in a taliban cave.

Again Sixers 3pt % is sub par. You can't win close games with poor 3pt shooting. It has been the same issue which cost them last season.

Wasn't a flop.

Wiley might be a 4th quarter specialist

David Wear needs to be delisted. Gaze is still a terrible coach.

double double to Wiley with that last rebound in final secs.

If you had to have a drink everytime they said "gotta give Adelaide credit" you'd have alcohol poisoning

Gaze waited too long to take the time out. Sixers went on a 10 to 0 run (81 -75) which gave them all the momentum.

I too thought Gaze's pre-game interview with Heal was a concession of his obvious shortcomings at this level.

Well Wiley's final 5 minutes made a fool out of me...

Well all he hype of he Kings team and hey lose first up.
Simple fact Gaze cannot coach.
Completely out done by Wright.

Sydney's offence was horrible! They will be slow on transition defence all season. They need a coach that will maximise their advantages and hide their many deficiencies. Watching them was like watching someone push shit uphill.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing in that Kings timeout....sounded like Gaze just drew up a play that nobody had ever seen and spent the whole timeout attempting to explain it....and failed.
Not ok at this level, Bogut and the Kings board will have to move on this asap.

Some of the camera work was really substandard in this one.

I'll give Kings more time to gel but I had them fifth before the season and I didn't see anything to change that.

Gaze is a DOPE as a coach. He said pre-game having big names was good because the players rely on talent and skill when they get out there. How about COACHING them you clown?

Sixers pulled that one out of the fire! Wiley came up huge after struggling to make an impact for the first three quarters. DJ and Sobey looking like a great 1-2 punch, but Sixers need more from the rest, especially their bench. Drmic had a better game, but Moore not doing enough yet. DeLeon worries me - defensive liability and an erratic shooter. If he doesn't make a bigger impact soon, I hope Sixers ownership pulls the trigger. Ideally need a bigger wing player so they can get away with defensive switching like they did last year. Really missing Childress’ defensive smarts and leadership so far this season.

I’d be worried if I was a Sydney fan. Lisch looks old out there and Bogut’s lack of foot speed is easily exploited by any big who can shoot. After looking good in preseason, Newley didn’t have much impact. Randle and Kickert look good and so does Bowen, but that’s about it.

Sydney unfortunately seem to lack a game plan. If not for Randle's individual brilliance making up for Sydney’s stagnant offensive scheme, I think it could have been worse. I think it was Carfino who mentioned that the Sixers seem to have control, even though it was tight on the scoreboard, and I agreed with him them, even when Syd pulled away, as you had to assume they would revert to the mean eventually (Adelaide helped by taking some poor shots themselves during that run, and not picking up guys in transition).

D.J. was a bad match-up for Bogut, as you would expect - a mobile big causes some headaches for slower paced big men, and Gaze’s PnR defensive scheme has always been poor because of slow footed centres he tends to employ (Maric, Humphris and now Bogut). It’s no wonder Adelaide have 10 straight over them with their uptempo style that exposes Kings poor transition D and lack of bigs able to defend out to the perimeter.

DeLeon is a worry though. His misses were bad, contested shots in the half court. They were far better off with Sobey as lead ball handler because he either attacked the rim, or played a good two man game with D.J. I thought Drmic bounced back with his activity nicely in this game, despite still not finding his shot yet.

Gaze’s body language when the writing was on the wall was horrible too. I love the bloke, as a player and personality, but as a coach you can’t live and die with every game like that. Joey might be animated (to put it nicely) but he always seems to have his players back. Gaze appears to be telling his guys that they’ve caused him grief.

I'm on 512! Thanks Daniel Johnson!

Andrew Gaze cannot coach. Being a good player, and the son of a good coach, does not mean you have what it takes to coach. It's time to end the experiment. JVG has been doing things for the sizzle and not the steak for a long time, and it's probably time he gets his marching orders as well. And it isn't about this one loss, it's about the culmination of two years of the Sydney Kings looking exactly the same no matter what the personel is.

Bogut will probably physically dominate most bigs in the NBL who are likely to do their work in the paint, but Johnson is a different beast and Bogut really has no reliable way of defending him. Nor does Kickert. They will have to put Newley or Bowen on him, really. And I don't think Bogut can play the kind of minutes they had him out there for, and their bench is particularly weak. Adnam and a multitude of Dengs is not going to get it done.

Gaze said in an article that they were "exposed" by Adelaide, and they were. He was. Bogut was. Their whole system was. Bogut is not going to be a 30 minute-per-game player in this league, and offensively his contribution is going to be minimal for the most part. Whether he is going to be worth his asking price is going to be a question, maybe for publicity he might be, but for results, not so sure.

Adelaide played Adelaide basketball, and didn't ever get too emotional either way no matter how the game was going. They might not have the flash of Randle or the star=power of Bogut, but they're deeper and have better coaching.

Hogwash, Sydney easy right? ;P

My worry was how poor Moore was defensively in both games so far, especially against the Kings. Lazy footwork, hands down, no intent. Most of Sydney's made threes cane against his slow close outs, hands down and poor awareness. I want to be cutting a video of his defensive plays and having a little chat to him....

A disappointing start to the season, but not unexpected either. I was hoping the Sixers won the opener vs Perth because I couldn't see them dropping two straight. Some huge 3s from Wiley late, but to be honest I never felt confident even when the Kings had the lead in the 4th with how we were defending.

I would have liked to have seen Deng Deng used against the DJ/Wiley combo because Bogut and Kickert/Ware just don't match up well, but he never hit the court. Ware had some bad shots down the stretch and fumbled a gimme, but overall he's a pretty good rebounder and, questionable offense aside, seems fundamentally OK... just probably not what you want from an import, though.

Laaazy Moore does not put his hands up and seems to choose when he defends. The difference with the Sixers was Wiley hitting the two 3's. If they had hit one or two against Perth they would've won that game too.

They made shots and got the w, throughout the season there's games if he made that shot. What's you're point? You make it you win you don't you lose. Not that hard, Sydney missed a lot of easy one's, so they should've won?

Cavalo, wishful thinking on my part. Most of the round hasn't gone to plan

If wagstaff didn't go 1 for 10 perth would have won buy more, you're point is irrelevant. Perth took adelaide out of their comfort zone for once, was a very well coached game by trev, joey did the same to gaze, was one step ahead

The solution to Sydney's problems - a decent coach. Obviously. Find one who can utilize his players and this team wins a championship easily.

Urgh here come the cocky Perth fans after one win where they played decent. Doubt they can keep up that scoring output for long... we all know by mid-season Perth will be relying solely on Cotton to get you wins again and score 20 points a game...

Well FMD that didn't take long.
I know I said that Gaze would get found out (again) but I thought it would take longer than one game.

And Bogut. Can't adapt to the NBL and fouls out. Who'd a thunk it eh?

Randle is a star.
But what we saw today was the difference between Randle coached by Joey, and Randle playing for Gaze.

I don't think it really matters whom coaches Randle, at least at the offensive end, he is individually brilliant, and at least in this game did not force his hand (compare to DeLeon’s admittedly limited performance - took bad shots and wasn’t involved in the team offence). Randle made good decisions more often than not.

The Kings problem was more that you can’t rely on Randle all the time, and apart from him, the Kings don’t really have another player who you can throw the ball to to 'get buckets’. With their personnel they need a strong structured offence that takes advantage of their players strengths. Unfortunately, in that regard, Gaze is serverly lacking. The Kings in the half court are hard to watch at times. Personally surprised that Bowen wasn’t given more minutes. He was great, and looked to attack the Sixers at the rim in his final stint. I feel like that is a vulnerable area for Adelaide without a true rim protector.

That's partly my point.
It's ok to adapt your plays around a star player. Joey, Trevor, Vickerman, Bevo, all do it well. Gaze now even looks like "dead coach walking," like he knows he's gone and is just waiting for the phonecall.
He should just man up and pull the pin.

The Handle belongs in the NBA, and without him, it would have been very embarrassing.

I've been watching Bogut all preseason, and I thought he was saving the real beast for the 1st game. But I now think he is a washed-up overrated over opinionated player. Please Kings, don't run the clip about Bogut before the game. It is an embarrassment to the Kings and the NBA.

Just get the rebound, rise up and stuff it - non of this rubbish attempt 5 tip-in misses.

Sack Gaze thread set to take ovee from the sack Joey one. The convo with Bogut in the last spilling on to the court Face Palm !

Once again why have David Wear when you have Daniel Kickert? JVG what were you thinking??

@ Cats 4 life
I am just referencing for the fact that the Sixers play an inside game, but it is the 3pt shot which wins or loses for them, yet Joey doesn't recruit guards who are 3pt shooters. They have been lucky that DJ is such a good 3pt shot and rely on Sobey so much. Moore rarely shoots 3's, Shorter was not a great 3 shooter. When Deng was hitting 3's last season it made a huge difference.