Brisbane Bullets shoot down Adelaide 36ers in dying seconds of clash at Adelaide Arena
ADELAIDE was resuscitated twice against Brisbane on Sunday but there was no coming back from Cameron Gliddon’s killer blow in the final three seconds of their clash at Adelaide Arena.
ADELAIDE was resuscitated twice against Brisbane on Sunday but there was no coming back from Cameron Gliddon’s killer blow in the final three seconds.
Having already fought back from 12 points down late in the third quarter then seven down in the final two minutes of the last, Adelaide was silenced by Gliddon’s game-winning three-pointer from the corner in a career-high 30-point performance.
Scores were level with 3.6 seconds to go when Gliddon made the inbound pass to Cameron Bairstow who gave it straight back, and after losing Anthony Drmic in traffic he made the jump shot over Jacob Wiley to win the game 93-90.
So was that a defensive breakdown or was Gliddon simply too good?
“Defensive breakdown all the way, we’ve got to get to the guy, we still had a foul to give, everyone of us knew we did, it’s only three seconds, they can’t pass it, we should have been all over the ball, I’m not sure what happened,” coach Joey Wright said.
“But we didn’t lose it on one play, we lost it the entire game. We had a lot of opportunities to stamp our style of play and just didn’t do it.
“Everybody in basketball focuses on the last play, it’s every play before that that really influences the game. But great teams compete throughout the game and on the last possession, right now we’re not competing on any of them.”
The 36ers have now lost four of their past five games including back to back defeats to the Bullets and are running out of excuses after they returned to their home court after a big month on the road.
Wright says he believes in his team and it’s a long season but concedes right now they have leadership issues - himself included - and team culture problems they need to work out.
The team spent an extended time behind closed doors after yesterday’s game and captain Daniel Johnson warned of dire consequences if things don’t change by next Saturday’s clash with Sydney.
“We talked then and everyone knows where they’re at and what they have to do, we have a week of training to work on it and if we come out and do the same thing again there’s going to be hell to play so hopefully we can fix it,” Johnson said.
After twice dragging his side back into the game with 18 points in separate runs to finish the third and fourth quarters, Nathan Sobey played through a corked thigh in the closing stages but should be okay to play the Kings next weekend.
The Sixers will also be hoping Ramone Moore, who has missed the past four games, recovers from a calf injury to give them a much-needed spark.
The problem is right now they’re only showing spark in patches through players like Sobey, Brendan Teys and Adris De Leon’s hustle on defence and Harry Froling’s aggression in the paint.
The best big-man on the court was Brisbane’s Matthew Hodgson who despite his team losing the rebound count 49-36, played with renewed intensity and poise to drop 15 points while setting effective screens and blocking three shots against his old team.
Adelaide started strongly and closing on half-time led 55-42 but the Bullets dragged themselves back into the game thanks to Gliddon and Adam Gibson’s long-range shooting.
Brisbane’s latest import Lamar Patterson was quiet on debut with four fouls in just seven minutes of court time.
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