Everything clicks for Phoenix as King’s message lands

Forcing turnovers, wearing teams down, crashing the offensive glass and generating more shot attempts is exactly how the South East Melbourne Phoenix have built their identity. That approach was on full display in Wednesday night’s Seeding Qualifier.

Everything the Phoenix have prided themselves on under coach Josh King came through emphatically to open the NBL Finals at John Cain Arena, where they produced a dominant 111-94 win over the Perth Wildcats to set up a Playoffs clash with the Adelaide 36ers.

The tone was set early. The Phoenix grabbed all six offensive rebounds of the first half and forced the Wildcats into 11 turnovers before the main break. By half-time they had already built a 17-point lead, piling on 64 points thanks largely to 18 extra shot attempts.

Those trends continued across the full four quarters. The 17-point victory came with South East Melbourne finishing with 17 offensive rebounds to Perth’s eight, forcing 17 Wildcats turnovers while committing just five of their own, and attempting 28 more field goals.

What pleased King most afterwards was that the win was built on the defensive pressure that has become the team’s identity. Even while shooting just 8/31 from three-point range at 26 per cent, the Phoenix’s relentless defence and effort on the glass left the Wildcats with no answers.

"We've talked about it all year long and we've gotten away from it a little bit from time to time, but we want to win the game on the defensive side of things, and we want to wear teams down," King said.

"I thought for the most part we did that tonight and after the first quarter we pretty much had the game in control for the last three quarters. It was one of our better defensive efforts for the season.

"We didn’t shoot the ball well tonight from three and everybody asks what do you do when you don't shoot well. You've got to play defence and hopefully that's a message to our team that you can still win the game if you don't shoot it well from deep if you play defence.

"It's something that the guys did a really good job of trying to recalibrate in the break and it's something we really talked about in our practices. Credit to the players for focusing on that side of the ball.

"Hopefully it's something we can continue to do moving forward because we're going to need to in this next series."

Phoenix co-captain Nathan Sobey, who finished equal third in MVP voting after one of the best and most consistent seasons of his 329-game NBL career, delivered again in the Seeding Qualifier.

He produced another strong performance with 24 points and seven assists, shooting 9/18 from the field with just one turnover, while the Phoenix were +26 during his 30 minutes on the floor.

However, Sobey’s focus remains firmly on chasing that elusive championship, and he was particularly pleased to see the Phoenix rediscover their defensive edge.

"I think the first half of the year we really set the tone on that end of the floor (defensively) on how we wanted to play, and we've said it a few times now that it's kinda dropped off a little bit," Sobey said.

"So for us to come out and do it in a pressure environment in a Final to get us into that next stage is awesome to see from the group.

"It's a great response understanding what needed to be done tonight and really coming out and executing."