Fri 19th Nov - Riders v Phoenix 7:30pm

Mockford has come out hot again, which is important. Bit worrying though that despite that and a solid start from Teddy and with the riders not hitting much of anything that it’s only a two point game

Probably game over now, clinical from Riders

Looking at the stats Bakkai ended the game with 4 fouls,
It looked to me that he got 2 T’s on the trot at the end of the 3rd quarter, which would get him tossed out of the game,
He clearly lost the plot Which seamed to knock the excellence performance out of the Nix,
Marc Loving took full advantage and clipped the wings of the Phoenix single handed.

I love a game when tempers flair and handbags get thrown.....It makes my night.

The obliteration of Nix in the first few minutes of Q4 was lovely stuff. Worth watching again.

Quite right. My son and I were saying at the end of Q3 that the performance of both teams had been pretty unremarkable and it really could go either way unless someone stepped up. There had been signs in that Riders had created plenty of shooting opportunities but lucked-out, but that could easily have continued. The handbags do seem to have rattled Nix and maybe they lost focus. Have to say that I thought Bakkali behaved like a complete twit and let his side down badly. Riders certainly looked like a different team for those few minutes.

We won despite no DN-H and pretty much without Walker who went MIA in this game. Is he injured because he looks a shadow of his previous self this season? We will struggle to beat other teams with virtually no frontcourt.

Strange post that. I can only assume that when you were watching with your son it was sitting in the front room watching the BBL Player and possibly even the recorded game. Wasnt how I saw Bakkali's contribution to that period of time. However let's just stick to the facts by looking at the FIBA  stats and the old saying of  " I was there" He came on court 3:30 to go in the third, was fouled hit two free throws then committed a foul resulting in a technical. Carried on playing till approx 40 seconds left, Crandell and him involved in altercation resulting in a second technical and a DQ for two technicals. There wasn't an unsportsmanlike at all. It did appear that Crandell was particularly aggressive in his inappropriate language but obviously the referee failed to hear it. As it happens the person in the next seat was about 3 metres away at the time and saw/heard it all unravel.
He is obviously not suited to job of going out to "groin em ", have you any suggestions from your squad who we could sign to do that job for us? TBH I can't think of anyone in your team either, just looked like a game between 23  very committed  professional athletes.

Yeah whether he was deliberately sent on to throw his weight around or whether he just lost the plot whilst he was out there it's hard to argue that's not what happened.

Sets an illegal screen that puts Geno on the floor. Then kicks out at him whilst he's on the floor. Then squares up to MacKenzie. Gets a tech.

Then gets involved with more pushing and shoving and squares up to a Riders player again to get his second T. Then has a pop at the refs on the way to the bench. Another T was called at the time but we only got the 1 shot (I can never remember the rules on shots for bench Ts/Coach Ts in these situations) and statcast only mentions the 1 tech.

Then on the way out has a pop at Rob. Then after disappearing round the back of the stand he comes storming back round to have it out with Geno and has to be dragged back off the court.

At the very least he's lost his head.


From our perspective I'd like Geno not to get involved. Having already picked up a T of his own for booting the ball off the court after a turnover he can't afford to risk getting himself caught up in that sort of stuff. I can understand why he did, and that sort of edge seems to fuel him, but another ref...Keith...might have enjoyed sending him packing and in what was a tight game at the time we needed him on the court.

He only got one tech at the time of the incident.

Hence one foul shot.

Also I thought it was McKenzie (coming to the defence of Crandall) who was just as involved in ‘squaring up’ as bakkali was.

1 shot per technical. Player or bench.

Couple of other thoughts to ponder on this. Without being sizeist ( if that's the word) what did McKenzie think he was going to be able to do against a 6 foot 10 inch centre? Presumably he felt that Crandell was not going to be able to handle the situation and that he needed to have McKenzies support. Hmm, not sure about that. So why no double T involving any Riders players?
Missed the bench technical mentioned, on which bench was that given?
Regarding the issue of Bakkai sent on to push people around, if you're that size playing centre and you're not doing that, a coach is likely to drag you off pretty fast. Prime example Jordan Williams bullies everyone under the basket, an amazing player.