Cheatham happy but not surprised with season-best showing

Some might have been surprised by Zylan Cheatham’s season-best showing in Sunday’s match against Melbourne United.

But the 21-point, 12 rebound and nine assist performance is not a surprise to the man himself.

One of the less heralded signings in the Adelaide 36ers’ off season, Cheatham is fast becoming a fan favourite at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for his athletic dunking and team-first play.

He’s the NBL’s leading rebounder with 10.7 per game so far this season, but until the Melbourne game, his scoring output had not stood out.

“(I’m) happy but not surprised,” Cheatham said of his game against United.

“I mean, I put in the work, and I know what I'm capable of for sure.

“I kind of do what’s expected of me every weekend, so that weekend it was expected of me to score and do a little bit more.

“I was definitely happy with that performance, but I want to build on that for sure.”

While pleased with his side’s ability to compete at a high level and take “a really goood team down to the stretch”, Cheatham identified key errors and a little luck that might have changed the 81-80 result.

“That that offensive rebound, that lucky bounce, I'd say that's for sure luck, but for us, I mean, you look at the course of the game, I mean, we miss free throws, I could think of even personally, I missed the box out in Finn Delaney got an offensive rebound.

“It comes down to those little small plays that add up, and that's kind of what we're trying to focus on, is cleaning up those little mistakes and not making mistakes going forward.

“Obviously, that's a really good team at the top of the table, but we got our own work cut out.

“I've said it before; I don't think we've even scratched the surface.

“I think we're still making little mistakes that really good teams don't make.

“We're still getting chemistry with our guys and figuring out our offence and defence and stuff, so I think we still got a lot of work to do.”

And that starts with preparation for a big Indigenous Round game back at home on Sunday against the reigning champions Illawarra.

Cheatham said the focus was on protecting the home Adelaide Entertainment Centre court.

“When it comes down to playoffs and making it, it's one or two games that decide the difference,” he said.

“So, when you get those home games, you’ve got to take care of home court for sure.”

The Adelaide 36ers take on Illawarra on Sunday from 4pm with limited tickets still available.