Imagine how epic it will be on here if the Sixers manage to lose this one.

Hawks will show some spirit and have ago but it'll be the same result. This is sixers chance to show some real team performance at both ends.

Sixers by twenty.

If super-Kai starts at all 5 positions simultaneously 36ers are in with a chance

Siva out for the season.

Harvey will continue to chuck crap up.

Frazier will go back to his Wildcats self.

This club is trash.

Hawks by 7

This will be a massacre. Adelaide showed some positive signs in cairns obviously minus the choke. They are starting to click and the Hawks are just good for the first quarter before their lack of talent starts showing

Sixers by 21

Another sellout for the thirty-lucky-to-make-sixth-place-ers

Waiting for Jack

Hawks putting up a good show. 36ers by 3 at the half.

Hawks are doing well, Adelaide are just missing that defensive instincts. I'd like to see more Dech and Drimic play together.

Oh oh! 36ers 3rd quarter start look poor.
It couldn't happen could it?
A Hawks win???

Yep defence optional

How tf is this game close. Worrying for Adelaide.

Johnson is having one of his horrible defensive games. He's not on his own though

36ers making Hawks look world beaters.

Dent turns the ball over throwing a shit pass as he has been blatantly hacked from behind, no call, Dech has an abysmal entry pass thrown and gets the smallest of nudges if that from Dent, foul on Dent...

Early in Burton's coaching career but here’s a test. 36ers stinking up the joint at home. Should be winning by plenty but will be really lucky to win

Problem with Franks in the five is that he's a poor defender as well. They making Deng Deng look like a world beater. Deng, happy 31 birthday for yesterday.

Why is Clarke on the bench? Bruton clueless

DJ is a much better scorer and rebounder than Franks and they are both are terrible defenders. At least DJ has some basketball IQ. Franks not so much.

I say again. Bruton clueless. Give the players a kick up the ass. 89-81. Takes a timeout. It's too late.

Mccaron has been woeful.

@Dunknan. 100% correct. Out of his depth tonight

It's amazing how much more leeway one team has over another in nbl games, especially reaching in... surely Illawarra deserving of a few more calls here.

I feel bad for the Hawkies that their lead evaporated so quickly.

New attendance record set for Adelaide of 9,308 surpassing last week's 9,263.

Good finish for 36ers. Feel a bit sorry for Hawks. Played well

"I say again. Bruton clueless. Give the players a kick up the ass. 89-81. Takes a timeout. It's too late."

Guess it was that late , 17-0 run

I miss Jick you know. He disappeared when Cam Bairstow retired

Looks like CJ passed that test huh

Congratulations to hawks, Brisbane should see what heart means.

CJ got be more ruthless
Cleveland should be made captain tonight
Mccaron should start on bench, I can pull a bloke out the crowd to dribble the ball up and now a liability on D.
Clarke should start at point
More time for Sotto
Johnson plays for Johnson
Drag players that are not playing D, no second chances
Spent a lot money on players but so has Brisbane and Sixers still might play finals
Sign Cleveland and Clarke for next season asap.

Against a severely weakened Hawks that were also down Frazer, 36ers were pretty woeful.

Interior D still a pisstake that will get absolutely ruined against any competitive side, 36ers end up conceding almost 100 against the worst team in the comp is an awful sign.

MM shoot the damn ball, stop giving up open shots. Franks stop forcing it and find a way to work yourself into the game.

Cleveland is a god damn saviour. Cleveland is the 36ers only real hope at the moment.

Cleveland saved this game for 36ers.

Mccarron was absolutely terrible on both ends. Watching him run a break is absolutely cringe, just make the simple play.

Mitch is just such an infuriating player to watch. So many turnovers late and always looking for the flashy pass over the simple one. On the other side if they are not trying to lock Cleveland up they are crazy, every comeback he is the one leading the way on both ends. Why do we watch this team :-)

Cleveland is signed for next year. Both he and Frank's signed 2 year deals.

Nah they are basically options the player can take up (and rarely ever do).

Do the extent a player is locked into the next year, they can easily get out of it anyway. It's really about establishing a good relationship like Perth have with Cotton and doing everything conceivable to make sure Cleveland actually wants to stay next year, including fending off big $$$ offers from other clubs in the NBL and overseas.

How to offload MM and Sunday without wasting a lot of money? Drmic and DJ still the 2 best non USA import players.

You are winning nothing with DJ, Dech is very useful. Sixers need new quality 4 and 5 men.

Too much money for Dench is why DJ is still one of the best Non US players. Cut Dench and you can play DJ off the bench and have better players starting in 4 and 5. Cut MM and Keep Clark should be easy decision . Keep Drimic and AC

I'm interested on peeps understanding / interpretation of the rule where a foul is called for a defensive player being where the offensive shooting player lands. I get the reason why it came in and think it’s excellent and will prevent serious ankle injuries.

On Deng Deng’s last 3pt attempt for the game, he jumped from behind the 3pt line around 60cm (?) forward into Hyrum Harris’s space where he had moved closer to him in his close out, but was around 30cm behind the 3pt line when Deng landed. To me this jump forward is unnatural and is deliberately trying to get a foul out of the shot.


Anyone else agree or see it differently and why?

I see exactly as you saw it, why was that space Dengs, he landed on Harris foot, so Harris was there first. A jump shot normally goes straight up, sometimes a little forward but it's now ridiculous as they are jumping more than half a meter and or kicking there legs out. If Deng was on the floor first then that’s his space but he wasn’t there first so imo it was an offensive foul.

Don't know how Robert Franks has escaped criticism for the whole season.

In Brisbane last year he played as a swingman/ point forward type, mostly on the perimeter. He was active and aggressive, but also still managed 9 rebs a game.

That's dropped to 6.3r this season, whilst exclusively playing the 4/5.

He's seemed disinterested, he's walked a lot, doesn't crash boards, doesn't really play d and is pretty passive.

If I had to guess it's a combination of not having the ball in his hands, and maybe not liking Bruton, and he checked out pretty early on.

Cleveland nust be the most athletic in the league and always puts effort on both ends no matter what but Clarke saved the day for Adelaide. Those two consecutive 3s were clutch and dampened the spirit of the Hawks. But it's a 2-17 team and is missing it's key players?

Hawks past three games, all missing key players:

v Adelaide 95-103
v Cairns 89-96
v Perth 97-107

They are certainly fighting the season out despite having a horror run with injuries. Credit to them.

I see exactly as you saw it, why was that space Dengs, he landed on Harris foot, so Harris was there first.

If Harris is there before Deng elevates then it is his cylinder and no foul, but if he moves into it after Deng elevates then he is taking Deng's landing space.

Agree, Crazy8

It's happened throughout the season, but I put up with it. Even late in a close game, when MM was trying to pull them into a huddle after a timeout, Franks looked at the cameras and everywhere else but NOT into the huddle. That suggested enough about his attitude - he’s a pro just doing his job, rather than someone fully invested in the team.

@koberukz.... Un, gymnasts and divers seem to do it without much difficulty? ;)

I noticed that with the HH foul on DD.

Deng deng basically kicks his legs out and draws the foul as a result. I wouldn't want where a player extends their cylinder by kicking out called as a foul tbh

Adelaide were lucky that was the hawks because if it were any other team they would've lost handedly with that effort. That was terrible

Froling and Harvey are just not smart or wining type players. They take dumb shots and are out of control when there is a pressure.

Illawarra will be regretting signing Harvey to that three year deal - with the budget cut can't put a decent team around him and Froling

The observations about Franks are spot on. Minimal effort in the boards and almost DJ poor on D.

If you want an example of his piss poor effort check out the Hickey end to end basket. When he reached the halfway line and Franks just slowly jogged along beside him.

C Def Import/Sotto or Aussie?
F DJ/Harris/Galloway
F Cleveland/Drmic
G McCarron/Dech
G Clark/Marshall

Next years' 11 man roster plz

Sixers got lucky. They need to make real adjustments.

Dech ahead of Mccaron. I'd be letting DJ go, to ingrained in mediocre of Sixers, need new out look.

Good point re DJ.

As long as he stays in the team, it will hold back the team from being an attacking beast that moves the ball better and uses a wider variety of ways to score. He will also be a brake on CJ being able to make Sixers HIS team.

Similar vein to Bogut, Baynes, Wagstaff etc - if there's no simple fast break basket, the rest of the team has to wait for that player to make it up the court before they can run their sets.

FIBA rule 33.6:

"A player who is in the air
A player who has jumped into the air from a place on the court has the right to land again at the same place.
He has the right to land on another place on the court provided that the landing place and the direct path between the take-off and landing place is not already occupied by an opponent(s) at the time of take-off.
If a player has taken off and landed but his/her momentum causes him/her to contact an opponent who has taken a legal guarding position beyond the landing place, the jumper is responsible for the contact.
An opponent may not move into the path of a player after that player has jumped into the air."

Second and last paragraphs of the rule cover the situation described above.

I might become a hero in the Phillipines saying it, but I'd risk playing Sotto a lot more to try hide Adelaide's weaknesses on D and boards, and lack of physical play.

Certainly has his own weaknesses, but his effort, physicality and length is worth 20 mins/ all his fouls

PJ, interesting!

I think it's a 50/50 call that should have been let go because there’s no way Deng should be allowed to kick out the legs to create that landing space. I get if moving forward there’s gotta be a little space but that was ridiculous.

HH may have leaned in slightly which means he wasn’t totally in the right either.

I want that kind of situation left as a no call since it was really Dengs fault for going way beyond what’s reasonable in kicking out his legs

There is a difference between a scoop and shoot action and a legitimate kick out, search for contact motion.

I'm with KET, sometimes it’s just a no call, just let it happen if simultaneous, it’ll also try keep defenders on there feet. A defender now just hits the floor hoping for the call.

I wouldn't be too worried about the Sixers. They've won 5 of their last 6 and had they won NYE they'd be tied with Cairns at 12-8.

Plenty to be excited about.

Anytime you contest a jumpshot, it's imperative to land sideways if you're going anywhere near where the shooter is taking off. It’s called landing space and if you invade it, it’s a foul. Some leagues are even more strict and would call a foul plus a T. Some would merit you an ejection. I go with ejecting players for that infraction.

Manu, the problem for the 36ers is they've really really pushed this championship or bust narrative and I don’t think you can be a championship contender unless you finish top 2 or you finish 3/4 and come in to the end of the season with huge momentum and in a win anywhere anytime zone. Even then it’s hard to win away in finals if you’re 3/4.

Adelaide won’t make top 2, those two positions are ruled out, maybe not mathematically but certainly in terms of realistic possibility.

5th/6th won’t do it IMO. Adelaide don’t have much room to lose any games if they want to make 3/4, including needing to win against Cairns, Tassie, Perth away.

They’re going to have to take on a challenging away schedule and essentially not lose a game because a lot of those are double-win/double-loss games.

Adelaide don’t even have percentage to help in the case of same number of wins.

Best case scenario is they only lose to NZ today, Sydney away and win every other game and hope that claims them 4th spot, relying on SEM and others losing a couple of games.

Yeah good point KET, putting the pressure on themselves.
But honestly I think they win today and would be very slight favourites in Tassie. Top 4 is very much expected, for mine.
If they suck though, and miss play-in, will the Sixers cut him loose a year early?

I think we can cross out the sixers for a championship, and it would make a mockery of the league if they somehow did win it. The Hawks aren't an NBL level team right now and they put the Sixers to shame for 99 percent of the game. There is nothing I can see that suggests the Sixers are doing sanything of note this year? A chance to make the six? Possibly. A chance to win it all? Not a chance in hell.

You'd hope management is looking at our clear weaknesses and has plans to address them next year.

To be honest I think that risks really becoming a Carlton scenario - underachieve, never learn how to win, continuity is replaced by revolving door.

I get why there would be the itch to make a change because doing the same thing and expecting a different result is foolish. I'm not sure they’d necessarily benefit from cutting CJ though.

Post-Smyth they went Ninnis, Clarke, Wright then a bit of stability before CH, CJ. That’s enough revolving door in 15-20 years IMO.

Then you have guys like Drmic (originally), McVeigh, Pinder who were either pushed out or not valued fairly or not given the proper development treatment.

A club that succeeds needs to value their players fairly, put in the effort to develop players that have potential, keep a semblance of continuity. Give players time to establish roles. I think that ends up building culture more then anything else.

I’d love to see 36ers work hard to keep Cleveland and Clark. I fully expect Franks to leave to Europe or somewhere. Not that Cleveland/Clark wouldn’t also get those offers.

I don’t buy that the 36ers can’t succeed with DJ, but I think next year will be his last year of really having the talent to be a starter.

Replace Franks with an import interior defender and try to keep Sotto if possible and see what happens from there.

I believe Johnson has tried hard to improve his D this year, the problem is it's so hard to change at his age. He’s ball dominant as well. If he is out contract I’d move him on, try for a player like Marcus Lee.
Franks imo has been horrible, who knows why, can still turn season around though.
Clarke and Cleveland are must keeps.
So with the above Mccaron still plays point, chase someone like Ben Ayre to keep pressure on.
If Johnson stays and no import five chase import point, pass first.
The ball is still in Sixers court for balance of season, the nucleus of the team is there, just needs a bit of refinement.