Adelaide Unwilling to Give Up on Finals Fight

The Adelaide 36ers are reeling. After being in the driver’s seat for a play-in position come season’s end mere weeks ago, four straight losses have left them with only a slim chance of playing any part in the post-season at all.

Last night’s loss to the Brisbane Bullets follows on from defeats against Perth, Tasmania and New Zealand, and there’s a common theme across all four contests. Adelaide has lost the first quarter in each of those games.

The Bullets ran out to a seven-point lead at quarter time, and while Adelaide won the second half it wasn’t enough to avoid the overtime defeat.

"We came out sloppy,” Adelaide guard Anthony Drmic said post-game. “We talked about how we need to start games better and have that assertiveness through the entire game. We didn’t come out that way.

“We’ve been like that all season. We’ve shown patches. We’ll have a five-minute patch where we put 15 points on a team.

“Tonight hurts. We needed tonight.”

Adelaide now sits in eighth position on the ladder, two wins behind South-East Melbourne in sixth and Melbourne in seventh – however they do have a game in hand over both Melbourne-based sides.

The 36ers have one of the toughest runs home in the entire NBL to close out the season following Thursday’s loss. Clashes with the top two – Cairns and Sydney – are sandwiched between games against one of the most in-form sides of the competition in United.

Despite looking like rank outsiders to make the play-in, Drmic has faith in his team’s abilities to elevate and play a role in the post-season.

“I truly believe we can beat anyone in this league when we show up and play the right way,” Drmic said. “It’s just putting it together for 40 minutes.

“It’s a tough run but I think we can do it – we just have to come and play.

“Four games to go, if we can get them all we put ourselves in a position where we can make the playoffs, so that’s the goal right now.”

Head coach CJ Bruton also believes in his team’s ability to turn it around, and says they can do so if they start to play “the right way”.

“We’ve had glimpses when we pus the ball and we move it and we share it through hands you’ve seen the really good side … we weren’t able to close the deal tonight,” he said.

“Right now it’s focusing on us and making sure we play the right way and do everything we can to get it done. You saw today when there were loose balls both teams were desperate. They both dove on the ball and they were both after it.

“You’re supposed to do those little things to show you’re hungry and you want to win … that’s just part of the game.

“We’ve been Jekyll and Hyde all season and we clearly had our patches again … I was proud of the fightback but that doesn’t change the result we had.”

The 36ers host fellow finals-chasing outfit Melbourne United on Saturday night.