Phoenix strive for 'perfection'

South East Melbourne's first half against Cairns was one of their best of the season, scoring 64 while holding their rivals to just 39.

But the Phoenix took their foot off the gas in the second half, only winning by 11 points at the Cairns Convention Centre.

As such, head coach Josh King has called on his team to produce a more complete 40 minute performance moving forward.

"The guys in the locker room probably get frustrated with me sometimes, because I hold on to every play," King said in Friday's post-game press conference.

"Every play has a life of its own, every half, every quarter.

"I always want it to be perfect and I know it's never going to be perfect, but I just felt collectively the energy wasn't the same in the second half.

"The ball got a little bit sticky, we weren't moving as much.

"[In saying that] I thought we did a really nice job of looking after the ball. In the last two games, we had 22 turnovers and 19 respectively and then at half time tonight we only had one, before finishing with six. We did a much better job of taking care of the ball.

"It's a standard you set and it's something you're always working on. You're always being evaluated and our habits weren't the best in the second half. Nonetheless, I'm still proud of the way the guys showed up in the first half and did enough to get the win."

While the Phoenix are known for their defence, being second in the league at 107.4 defence rating on the season, Friday's win represented the fifth time in seven games the Heartland club has scored more than 100 points.

"I hear we don't have enough firepower on offence, and that we are a defensive-minded team," King said.

"There's two sides to the ball and we want just as much to be good on defence as we want to be good on offence.

"We have a lot of weapons especially when the ball is moving and we are sharing it like we were in the first half.

"Again, I didn't think we did a bad job in the second half, it just got a little sticky.

"[But] we want to be a tough, physical team that again focuses on the defensive side of the ball first and then kind of lets the offence get going from there.

"There's been no coincidence that when we have our best defensive performances, we also have our best offensive performance. The game is all connected and we want to strive for perfection on both sides of the ball."

The Phoenix, who sit in second with an 8-3 record, next travel to Brisbane on Thursday to play the Bullets from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.