Championship rematch is ‘personal’ for 36ers big man

Nick Rakocevic is playing the basketball of his life to open NBL27, but all he cares about is winning with the Adelaide 36ers, and that includes exacting revenge in his return to Sydney.

Rakocevic was a key piece for the 36ers in their run to the Championship Series a season ago, but he has had to take on even greater responsibility so far in NBL27 with Isaac Humphries sidelined with a knee injury.

Not only has he stepped up, he is starring with 20.5 points and 11.7 rebounds a game on 56 per cent field goal shooting. But the team isn’t winning, and that’s what matters to him.

Rakocevic and the 36ers will now try to arrest a three-game losing slide, following Wednesday night’s home loss to Melbourne United, against the League-leading and undefeated Kings.

“We’ve got to go get ’em, and that’s all the motivation we need,” Rakocevic said.

“That’s where it ended on the last game of the season with the championship, and that’s all the motivation that anybody on the team should have.

“I think it’s a personal game for everybody that was part of that, and that’s 90 per cent of the guys.

“That’s how I look at it, and that should be our mentality going into that game. They ended it last year for us and took it away from us, and we need to go there, and we need to make a stand.”

Since leaving the University of Southern California, Rakocevic has built a solid professional career.

The only season in which his numbers rival what he’s doing to start NBL27 was at Magnolia in the Philippines, where he averaged 21.7 points and 17.9 rebounds a game.

With all due respect, the NBL is at a different level, so what he’s doing now with the 36ers is mighty impressive. That includes his 33 points, 14 rebounds and 2 assists on 15/25 shooting in 33 minutes on Wednesday despite some early foul trouble.

He is still finding areas to improve, though. He went 3/8 at the free-throw line and is now 9/28 (32 per cent) for the season. At the end of the day, he’d trade numbers for wins any day of the week.

“It’s great that I’m playing pretty well, but at the end of the day I came back here to win a championship,” Rakocevic said.

“That was my reasoning for coming back here, and we were so close last year, and that was the main thing.

“Although I’m playing well, to me it’s not enough, and I can do so much better and way more.

“Starting with my free throws, I’ll bring that up again. It’s always good when you’re playing well and the ball’s going in, but I came here to win with this group of guys, and that’s my main focus.

“I’m just trying to rally behind everybody else because I know what they can do, and we just haven’t shown it as a team yet. But I’m fully confident that we’re gonna figure that out.”

Sunday’s Championship Series rematch between Sydney and Adelaide tips off at 3pm AEDT, live on ESPN.