Phoenix Undone by "Lack of Fight"

South East Melbourne head coach Simon Mitchell says it isn’t quite time to hit the panic button after his side’s loss to the Brisbane Bullets on Monday night.

The Phoenix have found themselves pulled back into the logjam of teams competing for the play-in positions on the ladder after rising as high as third in the table only a matter of weeks ago. Monday's loss to Brisbane has pushed them into seventh-place – crucially out of the finals spots.

Brisbane entered the game as one of two teams that are mathematically out of contention for finals, along with the Illawarra Hawks.

“There were some really good signs tonight. It’s not all going to be the depths of despair,” Mitchell said post-game.

“We’re really disappointed with the result. Usually when you … get 11 more free throws, 10 more field goal attempts and you outrebound someone by 22 you put yourself in a pretty good position to succeed.

“Some of those dollies we missed around the paint came back to bite us. That second quarter when we were incapable of getting over screens – that’s the one that hurt us.”

Only Melbourne United has played more games than South East Melbourne in NBL23, however with the Phoenix not only playing the first game of Round 16 but also playing a fellow play-in contender in Tasmania, they have the opportunity to assert themselves on the finals race.

After the clash with the JackJumpers South East Melbourne round out their season against Perth, Cairns and Sydney.

“We get to play teams that we’re in this dogfight with and that’s great,” Mitchell said of South East Melbourne’s run home.

“It’s like a double-win. We can go in, get the win and the loss for them mounts up.

“We’ve got to go and take care of business.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Full house at the State Basketball Centre ?<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/xU3MBGN5Ke">pic.twitter.com/xU3MBGN5Ke</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1614907840413720576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Centre Alan Williams was his usual dominant self in the paint against the Bullets – however early foul trouble restricted him to just 21 minutes for the game.

After picking up a foul in the opening minute of the game, Williams was then called for a technical just 20 seconds later after engaging in a heated discussion with a referee.

He says if he had his time again he would have acted differently.

“It was totally inexcusable for me to go after an official like that, and it’s definitely not the image I want to get across,” Williams said.

“I definitely felt like I let my team down there early … and we were really inspired in that first quarter even after my blow-up … I’m definitely disappointed in myself.

“When you’re playing a team like Brisbane … I think a knock on them is it seems like they don’t care. They care and they showed that tonight.

“We didn’t have that fight for four quarters and I think it’s as simple as they outfought us.

“It was definitely a battle, but I think it was lost on our end by that lack of fight.”