Phoenix defensive maestro an absolute steal

In one half of basketball on his NBL debut, John Brown III showed exactly why the Perth Wildcats wanted him so badly three years ago and what a defensive monster he will be for the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Brown has been a defensive powerhouse wherever he's played and even broke Manu Ginobili's single season steals record in the EuroLeague, so it's no surprise to see him a dominant force at that end in his Hungry Jack's NBL debut.

The 33-year-old had five steals and three offensive rebounds in the first half alone on Saturday night, with the Phoenix forcing the Cairns Taipans into 15 turnovers and a 59-35 lead.

South East Melbourne turned that into the 114-77 victory with Brown ending the night with 14 points, six steals and four rebounds in just 24 minutes.

"JB is a guy that's played at high level places and he does have more to his offensive game than I think a lot of people know, but the reason he has done that because of that defensive energy he brings and the tenacity," head coach Josh King said.

"Hopefully it rubs off on our team when you see a guy diving for loose balls and playing with that much aggression you want everyone else to pick it up too."

His teammate Angus Glover was tremendous in the 37-point win too, with 18 points and five rebounds, but he instantly noticed the presence and intensity that Brown brings and the tone he sets for the entire Phoenix team.

"Since the day he got here at the start of pre-season I've felt it and I think everyone else has felt his presence out there," Glover said.

"He's always full of energy regardless if he's on the floor or not, and everyone feels that for sure."

In the bigger picture, Glover is loving the chance to be part of a team that goes out and plays full-court, high pressure defence constantly, where all players drive themselves to exhaustion and then can call on the next man.

"It energises even more when we get some rewards for what we're doing and that's our DNA to pick the ball up 94-feet and work our arse off until we have to ask for a sub with a next man up mentality," he said.

"It just makes everybody want to do it even more and for them (the Taipans) to have 15 turnovers in that first half was good, but we weren’t satisfied if they got zero in the second half, we wanted to go do it again.

"They didn’t get 15 again, but at the end of the day we still pushed them out of their stuff and we were pretty happy with the game."