How to watch & talking points: Adelaide v South East Melbourne (Round 5, NBL26)

Thursday, October 16, 2025

adelaide 36ers

south east melbourne phoenix

The Adelaide 36ers will look to rebound against an in-form South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Adelaide 36ers v South East Melbourne Phoenix
Thursday, October 16, 7.30pm AEDT
Adelaide Entertainment Centre

How to watch‍

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Talking points

Cotton’s bounce back
‍It was just the 12th time in 262 games that Bryce Cotton was held to under 10 points in a game, which tells us that it’s unlikely to happen again anytime soon. Although he comes up against a very strong defensive team in South East Melbourne, expect the 36ers to put more emphasis on making life easier for their five-time MVP.

King's prepartion
While many are predicting Cotton to have a big game, expect to see Josh King use a similar strategy that Sydney did to keep him quiet. King is a defnesive mastermind and would no doubt have studied the tape to figure out his best plan to blanket the five-time MVP.

What they're saying

36ers wing Matt Kenyon on his team not making any excuses for their first loss of NBL:
‍"We had a good start [to the season] and then obviously had a bit of a rough one on Saturday but it's a good learning lesson for the group, I think especially early on.

"We have no excuses in our group and it's tough but at the same time everyone has these moments throughout the season and [we'll learn from this] and move on.

"In any professional season, it's a lot of highs, a lot of lows, but if you can stay in that middle area and just keep chipping away day to day, you'll be in a good spot come the end of season."

Phoenix import Wes Iwundu on getting ready for his NBL debut:
‍“I’ve done pretty well to try to prepare myself as much as [I can] to get adjusted for [this opportunity] in Australia.

“I plan on playing on Thursday or the Saturday game, either way it goes, I'm sure coach (Josh) King and the staff will have a good plan to kind of get me fitted into the system and to the style.

“Coach King, who I was familiar with from the German BBL League, knows my game and I trust him to put me in the right position to be successful in this league.”