R13 Preview: Sydney Kings v SE Melbourne Phoenix

When: 3.00pm (AEST), Sunday 11 April 

Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Sydney 91 (Vasiljevic 19, Hunter 15, Newley 13) d South East Melbourne 85 (Creek 22, Wetzell 16, Le Afa 15) – NBL Cup Week 3, Melbourne

The only game between the Kings and Phoenix so far this season took place during the NBL Cup in Melbourne with Sydney prevailing over South East Melbourne 91-85. It was an important win at the time too for the Kings who had lost their previous two matches while it made it consecutive defeats for the Phoenix at the same time.

Names like Jordan Hunter (15 points), Shaun Bruce (10) and Brad Newley (13, coming off a scoreless game) bobbed up to contribute for the Kings. Then there was Casper Ware who came to life with 11 points in the third quarter and DJ Vasiljevic was tremendous with another 19 points too on 3/5 shooting from three-point territory.

Mitch Creek was again terrific for the Phoenix with 22 points, nine rebounds and three assists. Yanni Wetzell fought hard for 16 points and five rebound with Reuben Te Rangi adding 13 points, Kyle Adnam 10 and Cam Gliddon nine.

The now

The South East Melbourne Phoenix are still hunting their first ever win against the Sydney Kings when the two top four teams do battle at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday afternoon.

The Kings have won all five previous meetings with the Phoenix but only one of those took place this season and that was the aforementioned contest at the NBL Cup. Now Sunday's game will be their first of three battles over the next 11 days as they back up also in Sydney on Thursday and then in Melbourne on April 22.

The Kings actually come into the game following a home loss to the Perth Wildcats on Thursday night to mean they have now lost three of their past four matches to have fallen below .500 again with a 10-11 record coming into hosting the Phoenix on Sunday.

Sydney had appeared to be building some momentum with three consecutive wins coming out of the NBL Cup, but three losses in the last four games has put a halt to that even if all three defeats have been at the hands of the one opponent – the Perth Wildcats.

Sunday will also be the first game for Sydney to play without standout rookie DJ Vasiljevic after he ruptured his Achilles during Thursday's loss to the Wildcats.

The Phoenix have suffered their own injury blow with Ryan Broekhoff ruled out with a groin strain following Friday night's two-point loss in Wollongong against the Illawarra Hawks which began their NSW road trip this weekend.

South East Melbourne had been in some outstanding form prior to that loss on Friday, having won six of the past seven matches and even still they are well placed in third position on the table with a 12-9 record coming into this string of matches against the Kings starting on Sunday in Sydney.

The stats

- The Kings have had the most consistent starting five this season, until now. DJ Vasiljevic has been part of that starting line-up but his season is now over with his ruptured Achilles. Sydney has had the same starting five for eight straight matches coming into Sunday's game.

- The Phoenix will have been stewing over giving up a 17-point lead to the Hawks on Friday night to lose. That's the first biggest lead South East Melbourne has ever held during a game that they have gone on to lose.

- Cam Gliddon is now an NBL veteran of 248 games but fascinatingly he has never won a game at Qudos Bank Arena either with the Cairns Taipans, Brisbane Bullets or yet the South East Melbourne Phoenix. He is 0-7 at the venue in his career and on his last three visits has shot just 1/12 from three-point land.

The key men

Didi Louzada – Now admittedly he is under a little of an injury cloud coming into Sunday's game but really for the Kings to do anything special this season, he needs to be the man to step up the rest of the way. DJ Vasiljevic has surpassed all expectations this season and likely would be leading the race for the Rookie of the Year right now, but he is out the rest of the season and somebody needs to pick up the slack. Now Louzada is the one the Kings need to call upon. He is in his second season as a Next Star and if he wants to prove he has an NBA future, this is the time he needs to find consistency and needs to start providing more than just the occasional flashes that he's producing at the moment of what he's capable of.

Kyle Adnam – He continues to be in career-best form and he will lift for the challenge of taking on his former Melbourne United teammate Casper Ware once again while also wanting to continue producing to avoid losing too much of his significant role to Keifer Sykes who is now back healthy and playing for the Phoenix. Sunday will be the 50th NBL game for the Phoenix and Adnam is the only player to have appeared in each of those as he continues his stunning form. He scored another 22 points in Wollongong on Friday making it four times this season he's gone about the 20-point barrier. In his first 121 NBL appearances he only scored more than 20 points on two occasions. However, one of those was a 24-point outburst against the Kings last year at Qudos Bank Arena.

The quotes

Upon reflection to Thursday's loss at home to Perth, it was the self-inflicted wounds that coach Adam Forde was most frustrated about. Now improving in that area for Sunday's game with the Phoenix will be a significant focus.

"There were a lot of self-inflicted wounds by us. We had nine turnovers in the first half and we just settled for a lot. We talk about some of the stuff that we highlighted at the start of the season in terms of coming out of timeouts and executing certain sets, and things we go through with video and work on in practice," Forde said. 

"We do it and then it gets a little bit diluted on the next possession, more diluted the next possession and before you know it we are nowhere near running what I'm asking. Then we are turning the ball over or taking crap shots, and it's disappointing that is still happening when we are 21 games into the season. 

"This is the thing we have to get better at. We have 15 games left in the season, we're past the halfway point and we have to be better. Missing foul shots is one thing, shooting threes and missing them is one thing, that happens in a game. But we are suffering from a lot of self-inflicted wounds which we should be able to do a much better job managing."

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell isn’t concerned about the fact that the Phoenix have never defeated the Kings heading into the game – after all they had never lost to the Hawks before Friday night either.

"Illawarra had never beaten us either before this game so those things don’t last forever. I'm not too concerned about the fact that we've never beaten Sydney before," Mitchell said.

"A couple of times last year we had some games at home where we lost in overtime and lost on the last possession to them so it's not as though we haven’t been in those games against them. It's not a place that we fear, it's a team we do respect and we just have to play a lot better basketball if we plan on getting a win against them."

Kyle Adnam has been a real shining light for the Phoenix this season, but he was glad to get Keifer Sykes back alongside him on Friday as he looks to fix up a couple of little things in his own game too.

"It has been an awesome opportunity for me to get this extra responsibility but you see Keifer's value on both ends of the floor for us," Adnam said.

"To have him back is awesome and what we've seen all year with us whether it's been through injury or whatever, we've had guys step up and fortunately I've had that opportunity and feel like I've made the most of that. But in saying that, in this game I feel like I turned the ball over a little bit and had a few breakdowns so it was definitely a disappointing result."