Sydney vs Adelaide thoughts

Monday 07 February 2005

There's already a pretty decent game recap here so I'll just stick to some observations

* Laura Summerton is not a big time player. Once again, she disappeared when she was needed.

* Erin Phillips will be a future starting Opals point guard. I see some people are touting her the best point guard we have now but please, she's had one good WNBL season and no international experience. Experience is *very* important on the international stage.

* It was good to see Snelly posted up often. While perimeter defenders can deny her the room to shoot, they usually do not have the strength to stop her in the block.

* As strange as this sounds, the Flames should have looked for Snell more. There was often a mismatch down low with Seward or Lamshed on her and the rest of the team would just not see her calling for it.

* I love watching Trish's 17 footer. Dare I say it's Augustus-like? ;) Also, it seems like she gets open so easily.

* Late in the game, the Flames were rushing their offence which led to some silly turnovers. Bec MacKinnon needs to slow it down and recognise that there's no need to rush it if the margin is only one basket.

* Eva needs to stop jacking up the threes. Please. I love her aggression though - she doesn't take shit from anyone. Maybe she needs to tone it down a little when directly in front of the refs ;)

* Watching Muss go at it with Erin Phillips was fun as well. Muss played hard and I can't wait to see her play when healthy. She was still a bit tentative off the dribble.

* Sydney's perimeter D is the obvious weak point. Erin Phillips had way too many open shots and often she'd waltz into the lane with little resistance. A healthy Muss could keep up with her but Sydney just have to play smarter. This is my biggest fear against Bulleen - we'd see a repeat of game 1 of the regular season series where Bulleen destroyed Sydney in the first quarter with a barrage of open jumpshots.

* Evidently cracked ribs didn't hinder Chris Lucas' form - he was very vocal. It became quite annoying after a while. I much prefer Karen Dalton's style - cool, calm and collected.

* I hate soft fouls. If you're going to foul someone, foul them hard to prevent the 'and 1' situation. No piffy slaps on the wrist please. Sydney were guilty of this several times. Also, please no clumsy pushing fouls that serve little purpose.

* The scoreboard people were ATROCIOUS. How hard is it to keep track of the correct score and fouls on players? They better be replaced next season. I'd even volunteer to do it (provided they train me of course).

* The refs were a bit better than normal. Sharon Arnold was as solid as always but her partner made some truly bad calls.

* Barring improvements to Wilson and Gilbert's games, Sydney really needs a lead guard. A healthy Muss could be it but they just need some more direction in the backcourt.

* Why did Adelaide lose? Nobody stepped up to help Phillips in regulation. If somebody did, they probably would've won it in regulation. They slapped on the D late but Phillips still wasn't getting any scoring help. Snell and Fallon's finals experience was the difference for Sydney.