"They're the team you don't want to face"

They haven’t beaten Melbourne or Adelaide yet this season, but third-placed South East Melbourne Phoenix refuse to let that stall their championship ambitions.

During Monday's episode of NBL Overtime, Phoenix coach Josh King explained he has the utmost confidence that this year's squad can create history and deliver their fans the club's inaugural title.

"I believe if we can stay healthy and like any team, we can be playing our best towards the end, we'll have a chance [of winning the championship]," King said on NBL Overtime.

"But there's a lot of things that we have to get better at between now and February, middle of February, end of February, to put ourselves in that position."

NBL champion Pete Hooley echoed Kings' sentiments, calling the Phoenix 'a side no one wants to face down the stretch'.

"They're going to be a really tough team to beat and they're the team that you don't want to face," Hooley said.

"You talk about them beating up on the other teams, and in the NBA right now, it's kind of like the Detroit Pistons or the Houston Rockets, where you see them on your schedule, you're like, 'man, we're going to play the Phoenix'.

"If you're coming off a back to back, you play Thursday, you've got to go to Melbourne, or the Phoenix are coming to town, you're pissed off, because they're going to play one way, they're going to get up and in, and you're going to leave that battered and bruised.

"If you don't look after the ball, you're going to cop a loss."

The next team to deal with that physicality and top three defensive rating is Illawarra, in the two sides' first game back after the FIBA Break.

And despite not playing a game for more than a week, King is confident his squad, who are 9-4, can continue their franchise-best start and rhythm going.

"The thousand dollar question is how do you keep everybody into some type of rhythm and with wind in the lungs, but also giving them a break," King said.

"I can't say I have the perfect answer considering some guys had some time off and we obviously had some guys with the Boomers.

"We've got guys that are banged up like every team. But hopefully when we tip the ball up on Thursday night [in Illawarra], we're getting back to the way we were playing."

Thursday's Round 11 fixture between Illawarra and South East Melbourne tips off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.