R8 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix vs Sydney Kings

Saturday, March 6, 2021

Mitch Creek, Kyle Adnam, Casper Ware and DJ Vasiljevic - four of the hottest players in the Hungry Jack's NBL will go head-to-head as SE Melbourne and Sydney look to get back on the winner's list.

When: 8pm (AEDT), Saturday 6 March

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time
Sydney 99 (Ware 24, Tate 17, Newley 14) d SE Melbourne 96 (Adnam 19, Roberson 19, Creek 14), OT, Round 19, Melbourne Arena

Despite going 0-4 against the runners-up last year, SE Melbourne gave the Kings all they could handle, John Roberson finding enough space against the drops defence to drop 20 triples in the season series, while Kyle Adnam went 15-of-21 from two-point range in the final two meetings via his wicked pull-up. While both were outstanding in this classic late in the season, it was a Deshon Taylor overtime three that broke the Phoenix at the death.

The now
SE Melbourne lost it late again in their Round 8 opener against Perth, and have now dropped their past three single-figure contests. In those games they’ve been down by an average of 10.7 points at three-quarter-time and got within a basket each time before falling short. The Phoenix haven’t lost two in a row this season though, and have only claimed back-to-back wins once, highlighting their potential, inconsistency and lack of ruthlessness.

Tight losses to Perth, Melbourne and Cairns have left the Kings floundering a little at 5-7, despite playing some of the best basketball in the competition since the start of February. They only face the top two in one of their next five games, meaning this stretch is the opportunity to get above .500 before a run of home games. To do that, however, they’ll need to fix their leaky interior defence, something Mitch Creek will be keen to exploit on Saturday night.

The stats

- In their past three losses, Sydney have given up 59 per cent shooting from inside the arc. In all other games they’ve allowed just 48 per cent

- The Kings have scored 92 or more in four of their past five games, after scoring above 87 just twice in their opening seven

- In games following their wins, the Phoenix allow opponents to score 94.2ppg at 49 per cent. Following losses, they allow just 80.2ppg at 43 per cent

- In outings after wins, SE Melbourne have forced just 8.4 turnovers and been outscored by 21 on points from turnovers. Following defeats, they have forced 13.8 miscues and been +17 on PFTs

The key men

Casper Ware – Casper’s former understudy Kyle Adnam has been rolling the past two games, taking what the defence gives to rack up 37 points, 16 assists, 7 steals and just 5 turnovers. While Ware might be in for a long night dealing with Kyle’s guile, he can cash in on the absence of Keifer Sykes’ defence at the other end. He has averaged 24.4ppg and 4apg over the past eight games – shooting below 50 per cent only twice – and a red-hot Casper could be a game-winner the Phoenix have no answer for.

Mitch Creek – Somebody stop me! That must be what Creeky is thinking, having averaged 24ppg at 52 per cent, 8.8rpg and 5apg while dropping two triples per night in his past four contests. Creek has averaged 17.3 shot attempts and 5.5 free throws over that stretch, up from 12.8 and 3.9 in his first eight games. The question for Sydney is who can guard him with Jae’Sean Tate gone and Xavier Cooks sidelined? Nobody. They’ll need to deny supply.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">"He's a special talent at the four...play-maker first and scorer second." - Coach<br><br>29 points / 9 rebounds from Mitch Creek willed us over the line yesterday! ??<br><br>Tickets from $10 to tomorrow night's game: <a href="https://t.co/SDUoTajucX">https://t.co/SDUoTajucX</a> <a href="https://t.co/Yn2Z3zkKu2">pic.twitter.com/Yn2Z3zkKu2</a></p>— South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1363674037096910850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The quotes

It was a good poser that needed to be asked – what did Casper Ware think of DJ Vasiljevic’s rookie of the year credentials – but so straight was Casper’s response that it ended up in the silly question pile.

“You might call me biased but you might as well give him the award now if you ask me,” Ware laughed.

“He’s been playing great, for a rookie just to come in with his poise and the way he goes about the game is really good.

“To have that guy alongside me is fun for me to watch, to just sit on the side and go, ‘He can probably score better than me’.

“Just to see that is really cool. But I’m quite sure that’s going to turn into wins and you're going to see even more of him coming later.”

Opposition defences are seeing plenty of this elite backcourt pair right now, averaging a combined 46.8ppg in their past five games as they carry a huge load for the undermanned Kings.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Add another triple to the tally 3?<a href="https://twitter.com/DejanMv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DejanMv</a> out to 27 points on 4/4 shooting from beyond the arc <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/PCuXtpOijs">pic.twitter.com/PCuXtpOijs</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1367379880799707137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“It’s hard, I want to get them a little breather too,” coach Adam Forde said.

“Casper plays 33 minutes, we sat him out for a stretch in the second just to catch his breath after playing the whole first, knowing he needs to play out the game, and DJ plays 39 minutes.

“Casper’s workload in terms of scoring and defending and being our point guard, it takes its toll and it’s taxing, so ideally we need that third or fourth person to step up, it changes night to night but we need to get better.”

One journalist asked where if it’s tough not having that extra offensive wheel to help them get over the line in close games, but Ware was having none of it.

“Not at all. We’re a team, we win as a team, we lose as a team, whatever we do is as a team. Big night, horrible night, I just want to win and we’re going to do that as a team,” he said emphatically.

“We’re not going to go in and talk about we need somebody else to step up, where going to go in and do what we can do to fix it as a team. There’s no one guy as an individual that’s going to fix this whole thing.”

The reality is they need to fix things at the other end.

Coach Forde’s aggressive defensive schemes have brought disruptive results that fuel their offence, but that approach also risks opening up the interior and forcing rotations, which in turn open up offensive rebounding lanes.

This is something Cairns, Melbourne and Perth have all capitalised on, grabbing 38 per cent of their available o-boards, leaving the Kings -11 in the possession game across those three close losses as the absence of Xavier Cooks continues to bite.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cam Oliver taking his frustration out on the ring ? <a href="https://t.co/o1NPcbya6x">pic.twitter.com/o1NPcbya6x</a></p>— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1367361760936685572?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“That was unfortunate, 22 second chance points, which was consistent for them throughout the game,” Forde said after falling to the Taipans.

“X is still our number one rebounder but the reality is we don’t have X for a while. This is what we talked about is it’s not who’s not in the line-up, it’s who we've got and this is where we need to collectively do a better job.

“I wish I didn’t even bring up X, it’s not an excuse, it’s where our faults lie and it’s something we need to improve and work on. Part of that is desire, there is a lot of technique with rebounding, but part of it is you either want to go and get it or you don’t.”

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell isn’t backing away from his team’s rebounding faults either, knowing this squad is a contender if they can find the consistency Perth have made their trademark.

“When you play Perth there are two things you cannot do, under any circumstances, you can’t turn the ball over and you can’t miss out on box-outs – we just repeatedly self-inflicted wounds in that first half,” Mitchell said after their at-the-death loss to the champs.

“I think it was 12 offensive boards we had given up at the half and we only had 10 rebounds. That’s disastrous for us. We've got a bit of character in we’re always going to have a crack and try to bring it back but it’s just disappointing that we continue to dig these holes.

“We’ve got to find a way around it, we can’t sit back and say we’re looking forward to Gibbo coming back, and we’re looking forward to Keifer, it’s got to be the guys who are suiting up.

“We’ve just got to do better, and we've got to find a way of turning the switch on very quickly.”