Gleeson: flat Sixers lacking pop, missing shots

Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Trevor Gleeson has lamented his side’s lack of energy and inability to make enough open shots in their home loss to New Zealand on Sunday evening.

Nick Rakocevic hit a career-high 29 points and pulled down 16 rebounds, had three assists a block and two steals in a huge night for the big man, but he couldn’t inspire his side to victory.

The 88-72 loss was the Sixers’ first at home to the Breakers in three years.

After the game, Gleeson said his side created enough open looks but wasn’t energetic enough on the boards, seemed flat coming out, and was too slow in transition.

“We have to do execute better, and we had some wide open looks too,” Gleeson said.

“We’ve got to knock these down. I thought we had some good execution and we got the shot that we wanted and we missed and then we’ve got to have energy on the glass, and we didn't.

“We'd get the shot but then we’ve got no energy on the glass and I think that's what our fans want to see, is energy nonstop.”

He said despite playing two games in less than 48 hours including spending much of Saturday travelling back from Illawarra, the side needed to bring more energy to get the home crowd involved.

“I thought we were a little flat coming out,” he said.

“We didn't have the pop and the energy that we needed, and especially at home, you know, we wanted to get the 10,000 fans up there rocking, but we didn't have any pop to get them rocking.”

The Sixers found it hard to score in the first half on Friday night and less than 48 hours later their troubles seemed to continue.

John Jenkins found his range with a couple of triples and Bryce Cotton was at least getting more shots up, hitting four field goal attempts in the first quarter – the same amount he managed for the whole game against Illawarra two nights earlier.

But it was the Breakers who started the stronger leading by four points at the first break, with former Sixers’ captain DJ Vasiljevic hitting 10 points in the first quarter including 2/3 from three-point range.

The home side had a five point run to start the second period and took the lead for the first time in the game and in a seesawing quarter it was Nick Rakocevic getting it done for the Sixers. He hit 17 points and five rebounds for the quarter, making two key steals as well, though with Parker Jackson-Cartwright finding his way into the game, the Breakers still held a six point advantage at half time.

The scoring slowed in the third with the Sixers outscoring their visitors 15-12 but still trailing into the final break.

Chasing threes to get back in front, the home side continued to miss and then got burnt in transition.

When Matt Kenyon fouled out for just the second time in his career and with time ticking away, the Sixers had no answers as the Breakers pulled further ahead.

They would finish 16 points behind, and tellingly shot at just 20.69 per-cent from three-point range and just 42.86 percent from the free-throw line.

“We've got to get in the gym and make some shots,” Gleeson summed up.

“In Wollongong we had 22 per-cent from the three, and today we shot 20 per-cent from the three.

“We'll go back and see how we're creating shots and executing.

“You know, you keep a team in the 80s, which is pretty good, that our offence was pretty half court stuff, so we want to play up tempo a little bit more.”

The Sixers won’t have long to review the game, hosting Melbourne United in an Ignite Cup game on Wednesday night.

That game tips off at 7:00pm ACDT at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre with limited tickets still available.

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