Adelaide 36ers vs. Sydney Kings
When: 7:30pm (AEDT), Saturday 2nd November
Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
Broadcast: NBL TV, SBS On Demand/Viceland, Twitch TV
Last times they’ve met:
Rd 2 2019/2020: Sydney Kings 102 (Newley 18, Tate, Kickert 16, Moller 12, Ware 10) defeated Adelaide 36ers 80 (D Johnson 26, Randle 16, Drmic, Moore 10) at Qudos Bank Arena (The Kingdome)
In Adelaide- 10 Nov 2018: Adelaide 36ers 81 (Froling 23) lost to Sydney Kings 93 (Newley 26, Randle 23) at Titanium Security Arena (The Fortress)
SIXERS SHOT BACK INTO HISTORY
January 20 2016: Randle reigns over Kings in “new” Fortress
January 20 2016 remains one of the most iconic games in Sixers modern history, the stranglehold over the Kings was under threat and they were planning to steal the match in the newly refurbished “Fortress of Sixers.” Enter the game where most Sixers fans fell in love with the “Ant-Man” himself Jerome Randle…
He produced a season-best and NBL career-high 41 points at 76 per cent, with 5-of-7 threes running down the Kings in a blistering final term. For almost three quarters the Adelaide 36ers played not very Sixers basketball with the Kings ahead 65-55 with 2:42 left in the third period, Sydney took control of the contest through a first half in which Adelaide seemed to be riding as passengers maybe knowing they’d just get over their bunny team at home yet again.
The Sixers through the dazzling display of Randle blew the Kings lead of 17 points at the final change to kingdom come romping home to a 96-89 finish. The biggest highlight of the quarter was when Randle put ex-Sixer defender Jason Cadee in the spin cycle bringing the crowd and the players to be merely spectators in the “handles” Randle show.
Adelaide 36ers 96 (Randle 41, Ere 19, Creek 15) defeated Sydney Kings 89 (Childress 27, Garlepp 16, Cadee 14, Prewster 10)
Key Match-Ups:
Jerome Randle vs. Casper Ware Jnr
Lets be honest, Casper Ware Jnr has had the wood over the Sixers for many years and rarely has a bad game against them, he averages a career 16 ppg against the Sixers. He is by far in the top three best 2-way guards in the league and that spells trouble for the Sixers however the match-up the Kings always dread as the above shot back in history shows is the Randle one. He averages for the Sixers a staggering 24 ppg against the Kings in his last 6 games prior to this season for them so this ensures to be a compelling match-up of not only which teams aggressive point guard can score but also which team’s defensive men in Kevin White and Sydney’s newly signed replacement player former Sixers import Deshon Taylor can put the stocks on them.
Daniel Johnson vs Andrew Bogut
While the above match-up is a case of King v King, in the chess game between the Sixers this match-up is always an intriguing one and one worth watching. They both play distinctively different styles of offence and defence and in the past DJ has always checkmated Bogut however the last few match-ups including the recent one in Round 2 has seen the points either split even or go to the Bogey man. He is much more fit and has better help side defence to support him this season. Now that he’s adjusted to the “NBL” style of officiating after a few years back, DJ won’t find it so easy and simple as dragging Bogut out to the perimeter on pick and pops, rolls and weak side cuts as he used to.
Harry Froling vs. Daniel Kickert
Froling has been a bit of a thorn in the side of the Kings last season and generally has good games playing against a much smaller bench front court for the Kings. This season they have a bit of extra coverage in that area but the main one that will give Froling a few headaches is Kickert. His offence has the potential to spread the Sixers defence allowing back up forward Craig Moller to crash the O-glass for boards and scores.
The Last Play
Its seems just when we finally reached a breath from the “Revenge of the Ex-Sixers” series, the Kings spring the surprise yesterday of signing Deshon Taylor to the line-up so guess that story line is up again in what is proving to be one of the richest NBL seasons for back-stories in a decade. His signing is a big one for the Kings as they look to start a new reign over the Sixers in Adelaide. The undefeated Kings are going to be one of the toughest match-ups Adelaide face all season and with the basketball IQ driven mind of Will Weaver at the helm, the Kings have all the pieces in place to cause the Sixers their first loss at home. I think this is going to be a really tight contest fought all the way to the finish and after all is said and done, its the Randle vs Ware match-up that will decide this one. History says Ware is the man in Adelaide and I think his 2-way play may be just the slight difference but I hope for the Sixers sake a bit of Randle magic can hoist the Royal blue colours up in the Ken-Cole-sseum.
Kings by 3pts
*This article is a duplicate of an article written for publishing for And The Foul.net and may appear before or after publishing
CROSS OVER DRIBBLE 