R5 Sunday Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix v Perth Wildcats

When: 5.00pm (AEDT), Sunday 14 February

Where: State Basketball Centre, Melbourne

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

The last time

Perth 106 (Blanchfield 22, Mooney 18, Cotton 15) d South East Melbourne 75 (Adnam 24, Moore 18, Creek 16), Round 5, 2021, State Basketball Centre

The result might not have been much of a surprise, but the final margin and dominance shown by the Wildcats sure sent a message that the defending champions can't be underestimated in #NBL21. Staring down the barrel of a third straight loss against a Phoenix team who had beaten them last up in Perth and handed Illawarra a first loss, the 'Cats were a dominant force. Their defence shut down the Phoenix holding them to going 29/70 from the field and 5/21 from deep. But the old Wildcats trademark of dominating the boards was back and Bryce Cotton finally got plenty of help with Todd Blanchfield (22), John Mooney (18), Jesse Wagstaff (12), Kevin White (eight), Luke Travers (eight) and Mitch Norton (seven) all lightening his burden.

The now

It might be the same venue and the same round of #NBL21 when the Phoenix and Wildcats have a rematch at the State Basketball Centre on Sunday from Thursday night, but that's about all that's going to be the same. Victoria's five-day lockdown means there will be no fans in attendance at the game and as we saw in the last two games of last year's Grand Final series, that provides quite the unique and eery atmosphere at an NBL game. Which team copes best with the different environment and atmosphere has a big chance of coming away with the W.

The way both teams are feeling coming into Sunday is now dramatically different to Thursday too. South East Melbourne was on a high going back a few days having likely delivered their best performance in franchise history to beat the Hawks going back to Sunday. Then playing the Wildcats for a third time already in a matter of weeks, they would have liked their chances but as coach Simon Mitchell said afterwards, they undid all their hard work and lost a lot of the respect they earned.

The Phoenix just have to bounce back and it needs to start in the effort areas. They can't afford to be outrebounded again by 14, they can't let the 'Cats get 16 offensive rebounds and they just need to play better defence. Should they do all of that then their offence should naturally flow better, but they do need more from Cam Gliddon and Reuben TeRangi. The free agent signings combined for just one point on 0/7 shooting in Thursday's loss.

The Wildcats unlocked a lot of answers to their keys to success this season with their performance on Thursday, but now they need to back it up. The 'Cats know they can rely on Bryce Cotton to deliver and they are quickly learning that John Mooney is a walking double-double, and is perhaps a more dangerous offensive weapon than many hoped while being the dominant rebounded expected.

But for the Wildcats to get another win and improve to 3-2 heading into the NBL Cup, they need others to continue to stand up. Todd Blanchfield and Clint Steindl need to be aggressive and looking for their shot, Luke Travers and Jesse Wagstaff have the big task again against Mitch Creek while having to be dangerous offensively, and Mitch Norton has to do a good job running the ship. But all that happened on Thursday so now Perth just needs to replicate that on Sunday.

The stats

- Take out the one-point loss on the buzzer back in Round 3 in Perth and the Wildcats sure have enjoyed life so far against the Phoenix. Perth has won the other five meetings with South East Melbourne and done so with an average winning margin of 22 points with two victories by the tune of 31.

- The Phoenix have only managed to score fewer than 80 points four times over the 35-game history of the franchise. All four of those have been against the Wildcats including the 75 points on Thursday night. South East Melbourne is averaging 80.3 points in three games against Perth this season but 96.2 in their other four games.

- Cam Gliddon has only scored in one quarter out of the last eight he's played in with the Phoenix in the win over the Hawks and loss to the Wildcats. But that a stunning 15-point third quarter against Illawarra to break that game wide open.

- Neither team has changed their starting line-ups so far this season. They are the only teams in the league to have done that.

The key men

Yanni Wetzell – You could easily pick out a host of Phoenix players here. Mitch Creek can be a match-winner, Keifer Sykes is ready for another battle with Bryce Cotton and Ben Moore is equally important in this discussion. But Yanni Wetzell has to do a better job up against John Mooney on Sunday if the Phoenix are to beat the Wildcats for a second time this season. The rookie has had a good start to his professional career but just four points, three rebounds and two steals in Thursday's loss while Mooney delivered 18 points and 13 rebounds doesn’t read well. It's the rebounding that stands out, he needs to be getting more boards himself and trying to limit what Mooney engulfs if South East Melbourne is to prevail.

Todd Blanchfield – The Wildcats just looked a much better and more dangerous looking offensive outfit with Blanchfield being more aggressive. The same was the case in the first game of the season when he also scored 16 points in a 12-point win against the Phoenix. Then on Thursday, he went for 22 points on 8/12 shooting from the field and 4/7 from beyond the arc, and it was instrumental in the eventual 31-point triumph. He just needs to be aggressive and taking double-digit shots every game for the Wildcats to be successful.

The quotes

South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell was far from happy following Thursday's 31-point loss at home to the Wildcats. But now to turn it around, quite frankly he needs his players to follow what the coaching staff is asking of them better.

"First and foremost, we can talk about as a coaching staff until we're blue in the face and we can throw numbers out there and show video, but there has to be a buy in from everyone from a defensive standpoint to secure the ball," Mitchell said.

"When you secure the ball you don’t need to go and make contact with an opponent first to keep them from getting the ball. I thought when the whips were cracking we were really poor with that. It doesn’t matter how much we talk about it, you just need to go and do it, and it felt like each and every possession there was one guy looking to take a break. 

"Things that are easy to do or not to do, I think we chose the easy not to do pathway. That was incredibly disappointing. We are a young franchise trying to earn respect in the NBL and whatever respect we may have conjured from the win over Illawarra is straight out the door and we start back at scratch now. We are fighting and kicking and screaming, and we've to go back to basics."

Mitchell does have faith in his team bouncing back quickly from a heavy loss given they have shown they can do it previously, but he is fully aware it needs to start by making a statement at the defensive end.

"Last year we got a smack in the mouth over in Perth early in the season and then we flew back, and beat Adelaide. We've shown that we do have the ability but at the same time Adelaide's a hell of a lot of different a ball club from Perth," Mitchell said.

"Last year they were a little bit more free-flowing so we could get a little more up and down and it suited how our team was constructed a little bit more. We know we have these guys and they are going to line up to beat us in the mouth again, and it needs to be a physical stand. It needs to be an attitude and it needs to be a statement from us that we're not going down like that.

"Firstly we have to get stops so that a guy like Creeky who excels in transition and Ben Moore does as well so we need to get stops to allow them to get out and run. We were incapable of doing that in the last game and if we got a stop or a partial stop with the shot going up, we were incapable of securing the defensive board and getting out to run," Mitchell added.

"To get those guys going that's where we've got to do it. It has to be done at the defensive end first and then the offence will flow and follow afterwards. As far as getting them shots in the halfcourt, we just have to be aggressive against their 1-2-2 zone and attack the rim. We got spooked by it a little bit to be honest."

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson is now not only the most successful coach in franchise history but also the longest-serving, and he was left most delighted with his team's defensive performance on Thursday even if their offence put up 106 points.

"The defence has been pretty good the past two games against United and then this one. That's really set the tone for us and then we got in a bit of rhythm. Our offence is still coming along with new guys and we just have to keep working on the little things with the timings, the cuts, the angles," Gleeson said. 

"I was pretty pleased with our defensive intensity out there. It's all about playing the right way. There's no secret that what we say is to pass the ball to the open man. I don’t think we were doing that and we were putting too much pressure on Bryce by just passing him the ball and watching. But now we are involved, we're cutting, we're screening and moving the ball. That shows up on the scoreboard."

Todd Blanchfield was one of the stars for Perth in the win on Thursday but he is expecting a vastly different and harder to beat Phoenix team this time around.

"We obviously played them twice in Perth and we were able to get up in the first game, and then they made a lot of changes for game two and came away with the win by one. Credit to those guys but again we played really and took a massive step in the right direction on the last game, and we have to expect South East to come out and make those changes again," Blanchfield said.

"They obviously have a very good coaching staff and a very good group so they won't go down wondering I suppose. They'll make changes and be on the front foot, and we can expect a few guys to be more aggressive and on the front foot. But on top of that we need to be able to make adjustments as well. 

"We can't just sit back and be happy with ourselves, we have to continue to improve. There's obviously a lot of positives from that big win and we did a lot of things well, but there are a lot of things to improve on too being such a new group. We've addressed that stuff and we need to make adjustments because Phoenix are going to come back on Sunday with a full head of steam, and they'll be out there hungry for the win."