How to watch & talking points: South East Melbourne v Illawarra

South East Melbourne Phoenix v Illawarra Hawks
Wednesday, November 11, 7.30pm AEDT
Victorian State Basketball Centre

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What is the Ignite Cup?

The in-season tournament is played across 20 Wednesday night games, with every result counting towards the regular season ladder. A unique quarter-by-quarter scoring system decides a separate Ignite Cup ladder.

For NBL27, the tournament evolves into a four-team Ignite Cup Finals Series at AIS Arena in Canberra. The teams will battle it out for a share of $550,000 in prize money, the largest in League history and up from last season's $400,000.

>> Ignite Cup, NBL27: Schedule, tickets, rules & more

How to watch

Watch every NBL27 game live on ESPN.

>> How to watch ESPN

Tickets

>> Ticketing information

How to follow & live scores

Live scores, stats, breaking news and game highlights are available via the free NBL App.

>> Visit Game Centre | Download the free NBL App

Rosters

South East Melbourne

Depth chart:
PG: Mays (IP) / Daniels (NS) / Davidson
SG: Sobey / Glover / Ryan (DP)
SF: Schwartz (IP) / Krebs / Foster
PF: Morin (IP) / Goodrick
C: Hunter / Aliir / Biggar (DP)

Illawarra

Depth chart:
PG: M.Doyle (IP) / Hickey / Adnam (NRP)
SG: Harvey / Narkle
SF: Swaka Lo Buluk / Grida / Patterson (IP/NRP) / Blanchfield
PF: Martin (IP) / Days (IP) / A.Doyle (DP) / McGregor (DP) / Peatling (out)
C: Froling / Maker / Macdonald (DP)

Missing in action

South East Melbourne

Hunter Goodrick - Knee - Round 9

Illawarra

Mason Peatling - Foot - Season

>> View full injury list

Talking points

Stop the slide

South East Melbourne has struggled for consistency, losing their last two games to slip to 4-7.

Nathan Sobey is still the man driving them and arrives off a season-high 33 points against Sydney, including 6 three-pointers.

But the Phoenix need more than one hot hand to turn their season around.

Right now they look heavily reliant on staying hot from deep, so if the threes dry up in this one, can they still fight their way to a win?

The Phoenix have reportedly parted ways with import Skylar Mays. Who steps up to fill the void?

Can the Hawks find a defensive edge?

Illawarra had found some life with wins over Perth and Cairns, but Adelaide snapped that two-game streak with a 106-78 win on Saturday, dropping the Hawks to 4-9.

Defence is the glaring issue: they’re conceding a League-high 103.8 points per game and allowing opponents to shoot 49.4 per cent from the field. The positive is how tight NBL27 is.

In a season where anyone can beat anyone, a road win over a struggling Phoenix side would put them right back in the mix.