Phoenix star is "what every team needs"

Fresh off their Seeding Qualifier victory over the Perth Wildcats, the South East Melbourne Phoenix head to Adelaide full of confidence.

A big reason for that is their suffocating defence, spearheaded by Damian Martin Trophy winner John Brown III.

While the competition’s league leader in steals (2.1) and offensive rebounds (3.3) only had four steals to his name, he caused havoc with his relentless nature, forcing Perth into 12 more turnovers on the night (17-5).

It’s because of this that many, including NBL commentator Peter Hooley, believe the Phoenix are set to cause an upset over the home town Sixers.

“The South East Melbourne Phoenix are primed to go in there [Adelaide] and cause the 36ers a lot of headaches,” Hooley said on Monday’s NBL Overtime.

“Granted, they've had a lot of time to fix potentially some of the key issues we saw from them in the last month [in their last matchup], but John Brown III is the player every team needs.

“He's been a revelation, and you can see why there were reports recently about the club trying to lock him up on a multi-year deal.

“He is more unique than any other player in the league, with the way he’s a defensive menace, providing relentless pressure and physicality, which wore Kristian Doolittle down last week.”

Fellow NBL Overtime panellist Felix Von Hofe agreed with Hooley.

“I could not be more impressed with John Brown III this season,” Von Hofe said.

“We've said it time and time again, and we sort of hop on about how good he is defensively, but it's more than that.

“It's the little geeing up at the crowd. Everything he has is what Melbourne United needed [against Perth]. He’s what every team needs.”

While Brown III is the ‘one player’ Hooley is keeping an eye on, the NBL champion explaining there are seven players from the Phoenix that can hurt the Sixers, including Brown III, Nathan Sobey, Owen Foxwell, Jordi Hunter, Wes Iwundu, Angus Glover and Ian Clark.

“Any of those seven could have their night [on Tuesday] if they wanted to, because Adelaide’s defensive identity is non-existent,” he said.

“Any of those guys could potentially turn the corner and get a layup. That's somewhere where you think, hey, rather than just getting through our system, Adelaide isn't putting up a fight defensively. What do we do here? Thankfully, they could try and get a lot of transition points, so it doesn't matter. But that's something to watch.”

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The other commentator who was extremely impressed by the Heartland club was 1990 NBL MVP Derek Rucker.

"I thought they [Phoenix] just came out there and absolutely put it on Perth exactly the way you’re supposed to," Rucker said on Monday's episode of Moments That Mattered, presented by Mitsubishi Motors.

"They were on brand. [Nathan] Sobey was cooking, [Owen] Foxwell was really good and I just thought that was exactly the type of performance you need.

"Don’t mess around, don’t give Perth any chance, advance to the next round, play as few games as possible and get ready to go out there and put it on Adelaide."

Tuesday’s Game 1 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre tips off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.