Preview: South East Melbourne v Perth (Round 16)

When: 2pm (AEDT), Sunday 22 January, 2023
Where: State Basketball Centre, Melbourne
Broadcast: 10 Peach; 10 Play; ESPN; Kayo; Foxtel; Sky NZ
LIVE SCORES & STATS

Who won last time?

Perth 103 (Cotton 27, Travers 19, Thomas 14) d South East Melbourne 96 (Creek 22, Broekhoff 18, Williams 12) – Round 7 at RAC Arena

The Wildcats gave an early indication of their NBL23 firepower by racking up 83 points after quarter-time to cruise past South East Melbourne in Round 7, their 28-14 second term and a classic 32-point performance from Bryce Cotton ultimately the difference. The Phoenix trailed by 18 early in the final term but rallied late, 24 points in the final nine minutes from Mitch Creek and Trey Kell adding some respectability to the scoreboard.

What happened last game?

Perth almost destroyed the scoreboard at RAC Arena on Friday, running up 111 points on Sydney, the NBL’s number one ranked defensive team. Their 35-point final term – including a 17-0 run – brought the 13,000-strong crowd to fever pitch. The Phoenix silenced the packed Launceston crowd clinically on Wednesday, Gary Browne the architect and Mitch Creek the sledgehammer as they held Tassie to 75 points and moved back into the top six.

What’s working?

Browne town – The maths is pretty simple, South East Melbourne are 11-5 when Browne plays and 2-7 when he doesn’t. When the Phoenix win, his assist-to-turnover ratio is 3.0, when they lose it’s 1.6. In victories he pinches 1.6 steals, while in defeat that’s 1.0. The Puerto Rican point man allows SEM to explore hard in transition without playing rushed and provides a disruptive defensive pest. He’s dished 14 dimes in two meetings with Perth, so expect flat shows early to make him prove he can shoot over a hand.

The big five – The Wildcats are 8-3 since the Thomas-Manek-Travers-Webster-Cotton quintet first started together. While Travers is currently sixth man, that ‘big five’ contributed 96 points at 50 per cent and 27 assists on Friday. Who can be the sixth wheel? Tai Webster is the obvious option, but so far Perth are -24 with him playing and +28 with their recruit seated. Can he get comfortable in their schemes at both ends and make a positive contribution? His past two games have delivered 14 assists without a single turnover.

What needs stopping?

Sharing is caring – Most teams are very happy with a two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio. Not Perth. The 'Cats dished 30 dimes on Friday while throwing it away only six times, a five-to-one return. They meted out eight assists in their final-quarter barrage, six of those from Cotton. Given Bryce has splashed 59 points in two meetings on the Phoenix at 11/23 from range, while also dealing 12 helpers, will we see Trey Kell III on his hip forcing him to finish at the basket? Because doubles and hard shows open up Perth’s capable shooters and passers.

Phoenix free throws – Last time these teams met, South East Melbourne went to the foul line an incredible 37 times. Eight different Phoenix players took the trip, led by Kyle Adnam (6/9) and Creek (8/8), while Cotton, TaShawn Thomas, Corey Webster and Mitch Norton all finished on four fouls. Simon Mitchell’s men are currently averaging 25.8 free-throw attempts, the most by any team since Adelaide took 26.3 per game in NBL19. Perth give up the fewest charity shots (16.5), but that has increased to 23.2 in their past five games.

Who’s missing key men?

The Phoenix have a full roster besides the absent Zhou Qi, while Perth are waiting on a pre-game fitness test for Mitch Norton.

Who’s matching up?

Mitch Creek v Brady Manek – Expect Thomas to defend Creek as much as possible, but at the other end South East Melbourne will want Williams matched up with TaShawn to keep Sauce closer to the basket. That leaves Mitch chasing the sharp-shooting Tar Heel around, and if Manek can connect from deep he makes Creek think twice about leaving early to rebound-and-run. Brady had 21 points on 5/7 from the arc in Perth’s win over SEM, but just four points on 0/3 in their Round 4 loss.

Ryan Broekhoff v Luke Travers – Take out his 15 scoreless minutes on an injured ankle in New Zealand and Travers has averaged 12ppg at 70 per cent inside, 15/24 outside (63%), 5.6rpg, 2.4apg and 1.0 steals in his past seven outings, in addition to the deflections and tip-outs he provides each and every night. His battle with Broekhoff could be a pivotal one, the Phoenix 6-1 when their ‘3-and-D’ small forward grabs five or more boards and 8-2 when he hits multiple treys.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LT PUT HIM ON A POSTER!!! <br><br>? Watch live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/uX56Bvln5S">pic.twitter.com/uX56Bvln5S</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1616394579007377408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 Who’s saying what?

If you think Perth coach John Rillie is a contented man after his team’s huge win over the ladders leaders at a packed-out Jungle, you’re wrong.

“I think we were just a little too loose,” he said of the third term.

“It’s easy to get enamoured with the scoreboard and the crowd and the momentum, but the team that wins the championship is the team that consistently does their stuff.

“During that period we weren’t consistent, we were lax, and we've got to get that out of our game.”

Of course, there was plenty he liked, the Wildcats outstanding on the boards and their offence reaching 90 points for the 10^th time in 11 games and making the Kings dizzy with their ball movement.

“When we play with a nice pace about ourselves and share the ball, we’re a good offensive team,” Rillie said, understatedly about his team’s first-ranked offence.

“Now we still have some possessions where we massage the ball a little too much for my liking, but when we move it and get into the paint, everyone benefits when we move the ball with great pace.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">?‍??‍??‍? <a href="https://t.co/pZgRMS4tis">https://t.co/pZgRMS4tis</a> <a href="https://t.co/Xz6ej4AXE8">pic.twitter.com/Xz6ej4AXE8</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1616390051411406849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Not every game will be a track meet like against Sydney, however, especially backing up on the other side of the continent less than 40 hours later.

That’s especially true against a Phoenix side who controlled the tempo, controlled the glass, defended with purpose and did so many little things well to take down Tasmania on their own turf.

“Any time you control a team to 18 points or less in a quarter you're going to be proud of that effort,” Mitch Creek said afterwards.

“Junior Madut, no points, no assists, two rebounds and he’s +16, it’s the effort of the guys who don’t always show up on the stats sheet.

“Reuben Te Rangi comes in and hits a huge three in transition, gets deflections, wall-ups, Tohi Smith-Milner’s come in game after game. I'm just so proud of the guys that work tirelessly.”

The stars were doing the unfashionable jobs too, Gary Browne picking up the ball full-court, Ryan Broekhoff with a game-high seven defensive rebounds, Creek with five o-boards and Trey Kell keeping Milton Doyle to 35 per cent shooting and then dealing five dimes at the other end.

“He was tremendous tonight and the job he did on Milton who’s probably for the last month been a top three player in the league, I thought he subdued him significantly,” coach Simon Mitchell said.

“Trey was really important for us, not just from that standpoint but as a secondary ball handler, taking a little bit of heat, bring the ball up safely and getting us into stuff.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rowdy starting on a high from deep! ?<br><br>6?? points so far from <a href="https://twitter.com/RBroekhoff45?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RBroekhoff45</a> ?<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://t.co/RSgCBmCOTa">pic.twitter.com/RSgCBmCOTa</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1615631651182374912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 18, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They’ll have to be at that level and better against a Perth team seemingly capable of scoring from anywhere on the court.

“It’ll be a great challenge, they're playing some really good ball,” Mitchell said.

“They're a different looking team to everybody in the league right now, with that three-guard punch they’ve got going, there’s still plenty of depth on that bench as well that’s ready to go.”

Creek knows South East Melbourne’s offence will have to connect better than the past couple of games – where they’ve shot a combined 43 per cent on twos and 12/51 from the arc – but he’s not worried about that.

“You look down and Trey goes 1/7 from three, I go 0/5 this game, I was 0/6 last game, I'm going to keep launching that baby,” he said.

“I shoot the absolute skin off the ball at training and I put the work in, I put the reps in, I'm going to keep shooting them, I back my teammates to make these shots.

“We had the right possessions to get the right shots and that’s all that matters. You do the right thing for long enough good things will happen.”

The one thing the Wildcats are worried about is complacency, knowing they could be third on Sunday night with a win, or clinging to a top six spot on percentage with an L.

“I can like where we’re heading but I think we’ve still got room to improve, keep getting better. We’re playing well but with how we started the season, if we have a hiccup we’re not out of it yet,” Rillie said.

“Great win, and we've been stacking some good wins, but sometimes you tend to relax when you’re feeling good about yourself and everyone will feel good about this one, but we’ve got to reload for Sunday.”