Lightning Double Header .

Bowen will get a few ..... we aint got no next star..

I heard a football commentator once say" the game will be based on defence and the team that concedes the least amount of points will PROBABLY win"

Great insight!

Nice Game thread again Jack!

Have been following Sydney for a few years and have always lost money when I have backed them. On the other hand when I have won money on the NBL it is when I have backed Adelaide.

C'mon 36ers!

I have zero confidence the Kings walk away with a win tonight, but happy to be proven wrong. :/

Shut up Homicide...

Great to see Gaze decided to make zero adjustments re: Bogut and DJ - just try the same thing again and hope for a different result, I guess.

triger happy game, nice to watch

The 3rd foul on Bogut was huge. Pretty shitty call too, IMO.

Bogut too slow for the NBL, and can't defend the perimeter or the drive.

Stop talking JUNK Homicide!

Yesterday's prediction:

"Matchup of Bogut & DJ, in Adelaide, will be farcical. Anyone know what the NBL record is for fouling out?
I reckon Bogut will be benched, with 3 fouls, within the first 4.5 minutes, assuming he can make it that far."

So, off by about 7 mins?

Kings getting lit up by Teys? This is COMEDY. Lisch looks a bit more confident though.

high scoring affair

if this pace would be played with the 12 minutesin the nba , the average scores would be like 150 -142

If Teys is going to hit turnaround Js, welp, good luck to him. More Teys highlights tonight than the last 3 seasons combined.

Guys, how tough is it on the road?

Wear is awful.

Bench is OK, but Gaze needs to stop playing them all at once.

How high quality is this game. So good!

Wear is just out of his depth. Surely he will be gone come Monday.

Lisch looking a bit more aggressive tonight.

Sobey is one helluva player. I really believe he can play NBA. Style would suit him a lot.

Hopefully Randle stays in the league. Brings real excitement.

36ers need to start testing out Kickerts defence more now they are in man to man.

Can always rely on NBL refs to call a foul on a shot block.

Wear is awful.

Like the commentary team said, can't remember ever seeing nobody realise it was penalty shots in a professional game. 5 point swing after that, too.

The game itself isn't too bad either!

Pretty sure Bowen would start over Ferguson in OKC.

So would Teys

Deleon playing great but Homicide's man crush is getting a bit annoying.

Is Bowen wearing Randle's spare shorts?

Where are the DeLeon haters?

The next couple of Sixers opponent's owe the Kings a drink for DeLeon getting a license to spray up bad contested shots, I know that much.

Wear is absolutely terrible. Surely first import gone.

Teys was lucky then, newley with a very avg move, bht replay suggests teys moved under newley when he was in the air

Well, I feel a lot better about this loss than the home opener. If Teys and De Leon are going to play like that, so be it. Much better effort in the 2nd half from Sydney, and probably Bogut's best overall performance in a Kings jersey (including preseason).

Wear has to go. Get another import 4/5 and play Pineau more while the new guy gets up to speed.

More commentary gold.... John Casey in Adelaide "I tell you no one here would be disappointed with an overtime except for Adelaide fans"

Anyone feel like Boguts and Gazes body language doesnt look too good?

Always looks like they're in disagreement/difference of opinion.

Does either team know how to play defense?

Bogut looks a lot like every Kings fan in the stands each home game.

Homicide cranked it to Deleon too much during the commentary

Watch Sydney drop Wear and make a push for Mitch Creek haha

Bogut is slow to defend the perimeter, screen and roll, or the drive to the basket.
I've been saying Wear needs to go since the pre-season. Kings needs 2 more imports, the likes of Prather and Wesley. Kings would be Wrong Again if they think they can win with 1 import - in Randle.
Bowen should start. Deng Deng should be in before Pineau.
Give Adnam more minutes in place of Lisch.

I know DeLeon was good tonight but he is the ultimate no no yes player. I just don't want hat on my team. Teys has been great, respect to him.

Great game. Was at the game tonight. Very high standard. Can't believe Gaze didn't sit Bogut when he got his second. Should have given him a rest until just before half time. Everytime Kings came the Sixers responded. The 5 of Randle, Lisch, Newley, Kickert and Bogut is very classy. If they can get them on the court together more often they can completely blow teams away. Bench depth a bit thin, so they really rely on those 5. Getting another decent import is probably a bit difficult with what they have spent already. Joey has really toughened DJ up. Keeps playing like this, a few more years left in him. I don't know who this Teys guy is and where he came from. A great pickup for the Sixers.

Deleon holds the ball too long, not really going anywhere. It's okay if he hits those shots, but I don't like the chances of that happening too often.

Closer than I would have thought.

BUT, lets recap.
This is a Sixers squad that everybody conceded is weaker than last season. With a couple of rookesi who will take time to get up to speed.

Vs The Kings whom their coach claimed was the most stacked in NBL history, and an old squad that is expected to get injured and tire.

Gaze failed to capitalise on Skips sneaky music in the third. I believe the Sixers don't lose once Moscow is played in its entirety.

As soon as that song started and the next Sixers ball swished through the net, you call a timeout and kill the stadium mood. Not Gaze, he just sits there with his clipboard having Apollo stadium flashbacks thinking where have I heard this tune before

It was an excellent and fun game to be a part of as a fan from the stands. A lot of massive plays, great pace and energy. From a spectator standpoint you couldn't ask for much more.

Sydney really needs to cut Wear and Gaze. It's beyond a joke right now. I don't see Bogut suffering through much longer under his coaching and you can see the body language between the two is very poor. I also think, despite all the hype, that Sydney doesn't have the horses to win it all. Their best players are old and their bench are fringe development players.

Sixers shooting last night was just too good. The Kings will start winning games with that awesome 5 they have, don't worry about that. It will just depend wether Lisch and Bogut can stay healthy. They started to really play some quality basketball last night, they just ran into Teys and Deloen. Who would've thought.

FM -

he just sits there with his clipboard having Apollo stadium flashbacks thinking where have I heard this tune before

Yeah, Bogut's reaction to Gaze’s instructions always looks questionable. Can’t see both lasting the season unless they win 90% of games from here.

"Deleon holds the ball too long, not really going anywhere. It's okay if he hits those shots, but I don't like the chances of that happening too often."

That's a perfect summary of DeLeon's game, but I actually thought he was much better last night, that was as decisive as I can remember seeing him. Perhaps part of that was the level of defence he was playing against, but I thought he had a good balance last night of giving it up quick and going to his own shot when he had a little space.

Wear is pretty much Kickert minus the ability to shoot.

Which pretty much leaves NIL.

Good game to watch, i thought the 36ers did a much better job of denying Randle the ball. Keeping him under 20 is a result. Clearly they let a few others off the hook a bit given the scoreline though.
I don't know why Sydney didn't have Bowen on the floor more. He played well against the 36ers last week, but felt like he saw less time this week. When he was on the court he was lively and also knocking shots down so surely he's a better option than Wear?
I had real concerns for a while there that it was going to turn into a DeLeon v Randle pissing contest but thankfully the 1 on 1 play kinda devolved and it went back to team ball.

The wright reign has been a helluva lot more fruitful then the previous administration buddy. Some spud called Marty Clarke lead us to two wooden spoons and a second to last. Bit harsh to judge him on championships when he works on a shoestring budget compared to the eastern states

His record thus far, 5 seasons, 0 championships.

Havent Adelaide had the most wins of any team in the last 4/5 seasons?

So 7 teams should sack their coaches at the end of the season then

Winning a championship is one measure of success. If you reach all your other measures but fall just short of the championship the year can still be a success even if you walk away disappointed. Of course, if that happens a number of seasons in a row it probably stops being a success.

In terms of Adelaide, the last two seasons have undoubtedly been a success. In 2017 they were widely expected to finish bottom two with a young roster, but won the minor premiership.

Last season they made the GF and may well have won it had Childress not got injured mid-series. So I expect they were pretty disappointed, they achieved success by a lot of measures, including the fact it was players they'd developed who largely got them there.

During his time in Adelaide, the Sixers have made 2 championship series, while their traditional rivals out west have won 3 banners.

How do you define success? As a general rule, it shouldn't include regularly being not quite good enough.

Not in the five-year period in which Wright has been coaching Adelaide.

So basically only the Master Coach Trevor Gleeson will be left!

Anon #710195, so to summarise your position is "I don't like Joey Wright, therefore he's a bad coach"

It takes a lot of things to go right for any team to win the championshiop but certainly having the finacial support to bring in guys like Ennis, Prather (Perth and Melb version), Beal (the Perth version, Even Jawai, hasn't hurt a couple of teams.
Adelaide, with a seemingly lower budget have been the best team to be a supporter of for the past few seasons. They play an exciting, energetic brand, and have bought in young guys that have developed infront of our eyes.
If the most successful current coach is Trevor Gleeson I'm sorry but I wouldn't swap.
Dean Vickerman is OK, but he had a pretty loaded team on a big budget and they are not as good to watch as Adelaide.
Joey's not perfect but he's giving us a team the enjoy watching, and once again we can see we are in with a real shot.

I don't think we're ever going to agree on the definition of the word 'success'.

It is different for everyone.

Just like the word beautiful. Some people will find Kate Upton beautiful, but there are also others that find Tess Holiday 'beautiful' too.

Similar with basketball and the NBL.

Perth Wildcats fans and organisation would consider winning a championship a success and anything else a failure. Fans like those of the Hawks and Taipans may consider making the playoffs a major success.

We all have different interpretations and we shouldn't really invalidate others.

Feels like some people hold Wright to an arbitrarily high standard to retroactively fit an argument based on personal opinion. He complains! They all do. Have you watched an NBL game?! I'm not sure how you can raise culture when the 36ers look to have a fantastic team chemistry/culture which is a critical component of his job!

I can't work it out because the arguments just don't logically work. And for Adelaide coming from the doldrums of Marty Clarke, why hold the bar high at all? That was an absolutely miserable era. To go to exciting, team basketball and with a pretty solid record in that period is success of some level.

I find Gleeson annoying (as an example), but he's been successful. I think Bevo has had success, all things considered.

I'm really curious about the abject Joey-haters. Are you an Adelaide fan? A random other fan? Were you personal friends with Clarke? Is your surname Radford? Did you buy the 36ers, upgrade Joey's salary and then regret it?! Does it go back to Brisbane or Gold Coast days? Are there personality traits in Joey that you find especially disagreeable as a rule to the point that you can't abide any moderate success from him?

I'm really curious about the abject Joey-haters. Are you an Adelaide fan? A random other fan? Were you personal friends with Clarke? Is your surname Radford? Did you buy the 36ers, upgrade Joey's salary and then regret it?! Does it go back to Brisbane or Gold Coast days? Are there personality traits in Joey that you find especially disagreeable as a rule to the point that you can't abide any moderate success from him?

It was a regular-season game, not the grand final.

The only thing that saved Marty Clark being a Triple Wooden Spoon Crown holder is the reinvention of the Sydney Kings.

At least Marty has moved on, Sydney has stayed there.

Right, ultimately the championship is a special thing - ra ra ra. But sport is about smaller wins along the way. And about entertainment. It's a broader thing for fans - being satisfied with effort or results against expectations. Do you tell your straight-A kid who wasn't dux of the school that they weren't a success that year? Is Gleeson not a success because he hasn't won a championship in every single year? I don't think it's that black and white when you're judging a coach or a player. Is Charles Barkley not a success because he never won a championship? You'd be holding a pedantic measure of it to deny him a label of "success".

And even then, you win a championship and people will engineer the discussion to include spending, or inheriting a talented core or having an owner willing to make moves. Or NZ wins but it's only because Martin got injured. Or you were denied because such and such owner spend double on their team. Or owns multiple teams. Or the league!

As a coach, you are amongst a mix of parts with a few things out of your control - injuries, odd calls, era, whatever. But for an injury last year, that was a 36ers championship IMO. Even with the injury, but for a dud call, same thing. Didn't happen, so be it. But wouldn't mean that as a result I up my judgement of a coach for it.

Isaac, not a fan of the coach's behaviour. All round it's more than just being a bit of a complainer. Drimic's elbow, coach brawling, Teys and Larkins second rate thugs, Sobey flopping, constant berating of officials, a team that just can't find a way to get across the line, sanctions for inappropriate communication with a league official - culture? Culture reveals itself in many ways.

Gleeson, Wright, Lemanis, Beveridge and Vickerman are all very good coaches. As was Fearne. Paul Woolpert really emphasised to me when I used to interview him how good the level of coaching is in the NBL, and I'm sure that goes to assistants as well who do a lot of the preparation.

Because there are so many quality established coaches in the league it makes it very hard for new coaches to come into the competition. That is why Sydney and Melbourne in particular threw lots of money around for years but didn't have success, then Melbourne finally gets someone who can coach and knows the league and they succeed.

It will be tough on Kevin Braswell this year, coming into the league cold. It will be interesting to see how Mike Kelly goes, he's done a long apprenticeship and knows the league inside out. That said, Vickerman was in the same boat, got his first season badly wrong but then quickly made the adjustment and won two titles his next two seasons.