Basketball On The Internet.

SERIOUSLY now. After last night's NBL loss by the 36ers to Illawarra in Wollongong, you have to start wondering if some sort of crisis meeting is not overdue in Adelaide. Maybe it's past the time club leaders sat down together to discuss whether the team's best chance at a championship is simply blowing away in the wind.

Is it possible Andrew Bogut is simply psychic but had his weeks confused when he speculated on X (formerly Twitter) about a 36ers crisis meeting? Because, lord knows, the club sure is in need of some external stimulus after dropping out of first place with its 99-100 loss to the hustling Hawks.

Last night's staggering road defeat after blowing a 16-point buffer means the 36ers now are 2-5 in their past seven outings.

And not much joy came out of the two wins either, one of them - the 107-74 road rumble over the whine cellar's Brisbane Bullets - costing the team a suspended Nick Rakocevic for the 20-point home humiliation last round by new league leader South East Melbourne.

That prompted this:

The other win was a 112-110 overtime gift escape in New Zealand after the undermanned, struggling Breakers turned over their final possession and Bryce Cotton swished a match-winning 3-pointer.

Despite finding himself more open for a match-winning shot than at any other time in his stellar NBL career, last night Cotton was astray and Adelaide was dropping into second on percentage.

Its win-loss record and percentage is now at 21-9 and 105.68, behind the Phoenix at 21-9 and on 110.08 per cent.

Sydney is sitting in third on 20-9, a game in hand and with a percentage of 111.32, Melbourne and Perth next on 18-11 and separated by 0.67 of a percentage point.

South East Melbourne host the Kings on Sunday after Melbourne hosts Adelaide tomorrow.

United is experiencing a similar form fluctuation and racing to find the solution, giving tomorrow and Sunday's results the potential to send the 36ers crashing to third.

When Bogues brought the 36ers' situation into the public arena, the club was quick to respond but never addressed just who were the "leaders" to which the NBA champion and Kings assistant coach was referring.

Centre Isaac Humphries, a recognised team leader, distanced himself from any such meeting occurring. But leaders can also mean a club's executive or its management, no?

Humphries is as trustworthy as they come and one of the team's three co-captains. Its seven vice-captains, three developmental captains and the captains of the S and C department and medical staffs were clearly not consulted.

Adelaide's grievance with Bogut having the audacity to make commentary on its situation was rightly one from which the NBL stayed clear.

Wisely too. It's not as if Tasmania's Scott Roth didn't make comments about Sydney's Brian Goorjian recently, Dejan Vasiljevic having an opinion on Xavier Cooks, Kendric Davis happy to bake his former club. Look around. It happens all the time.

I mean, if we want to be petty, you could say many halftime or post-game TV interviews requiring a response means a player will be giving an opinion which most likely references the opponent.

You can't call for a ban because you don't like what was said. 

The fact remains this is by far Adelaide's most talented team since Joey Wright coached it to Grand Finals in 2018 and 2014. Cotton's mere presence means it should be semi finals bound at worst, raising the trophy for the first time since 2002 at best.

The pressure absolutely is on coach Mike Wells because his team clearly has the talent.

It's a worry whenever club ownership says the coach has "the board's backing" or epithets to that effect. If you back him, your club and fans don't need reassurance. Look at the Kings when Goorjian was copping outside heat after a slow season start.

No-one had to say the GOAT had his club's support. You knew he did. 

There's only one way to silence the doubters and skeptics and that is by winning. Which is why, even before last night's latest wasted opportunity, it was evident Adelaide has a crisis.