'Only the first set': 36ers back grand slam response

Saturday’s Championship Series loss to Sydney may have been by a historic margin, but at the end of the day, it’s still only 1-0.

That’s the mentality Dejan Vasiljevic and his Adelaide 36ers have going into Game 2 on Friday night.

“It’s only Game 1. If you lose by one point, or you lose by 44, you’re still down one-zip,” Vasiljevic said during Adelaide’s media availability on Wednesday.

“When I played for the Kings, we lost our first game against New Zealand, and we were able to bounce back and win the series. You just have to take a game at a time.

“Treat it like a tennis Grand Slam [for example], you've got to win three sets, and we’ve dropped the first one.

“Plenty of people drop the first set and bounce back, so that’s our mentality.

“We’re trying to push this as far as we can. We’re trying to win but know we’ve got to take it one day at a time.”

That approach has been stretched over six days, which Vasiljevic believes bodes well for his Sixers.

“[Straight after the game] we didn’t really address much, it was just more like, all right, let it sink in because when you get dropped by 44, everyone’s got emotions going high and we just all need to chill,” he said.

“We then had a good film session on Monday and watched what we needed to do.

“[Since then] the practices have been unreal, probably some of the best for the season. We’re just getting ready to go because we want that edge.”

>> Championship Series schedule, tickets & how to watch

In terms of adjustments, the Sixers are planning two main changes on the defensive side of the ball.

“I’m not going to reveal too much of the information, but obviously, stopping KD (Kendric Davis) and stopping those threes [are key]. They got too many wide-open threes,” Vasiljevic said.

“[Then] Offensively, we didn’t move the ball enough, so figuring out different stuff there, as well as shot selection and rebounding”

One trump card in the back pocket for the 36ers on Friday will be their home crowd at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, which marks their first Championship Series fixture in the city since 2017-18.

“Obviously, we played over there [in Sydney], and it helped them a lot. It was loud. They had 13,000, and ours holds 10 and a half, and it’s going to be full,” he said.

“It’s going to be sold out, and it’s going to massively help us like it has throughout the whole year.”

The NBL26 Championship Series, between Sydney and Adelaide, continues on Friday from 7.30pm AEDT on Friday, live on ESPN and 10 Drama (Adelaide and Sydney).