Phoenix has to be the sole focus: McCarron

Adelaide 36ers captain Mitch McCarron said his side needs to only prepare for Thursday night’s home match against South East Melbourne Phoenix.

After ending a four-game losing streak with an 89-80 win over Illawarra Hawks last Saturday night on Brett Maher Court, McCarron said all energy is on the Phoenix battle, even though the 36ers back-up 48 hours later at home against Perth Wildcats.

“We want to roll on, but streaks happen one at a time,” McCarron said.

“We have Phoenix coming in and we will worry about Perth after that, but if we get the win Thursday night, we will be feeling good.”

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McCarron said Adelaide will need to continue their defensive intensity, which held the Hawks to 80 points, to stop a Phoenix side with a lot of offensive weapons.

“They have a lot of talented scorers and even in their losses they have been putting up a lot of points, so we have to keep them out of transition,” McCarron said.

The 189cm guard believes the victory against Illawarra could spark the side moving forward, with Adelaide hosting a double-header at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre this round.

“I think the boys will take a lot of confidence from that (Saturday’s win),” McCarron said.

“We locked in defensively and pushed through the bad patches offensively and came out with a win.”

Adelaide head coach CJ Bruton said he had ‘a few choice words’ to his side at half time last Saturday night and McCarron said the coach had every right to not mince his words.

“He came in with an energy about how we were playing and good on him as we have a standard we are trying to hold at both ends of the floor and we weren’t upholding that in the early parts of the game,” McCarron said.

“He has got every right to call that out, and the boys responded.”

McCarron said he was pleased to see NBL Next Star Trentyn Flowers shine in a final quarter display which brought the Adelaide Entertainment Centre to a frenzy.

“It was awesome to see some guys make some shots, obviously Trentyn was incredible for us and really found his spot on the three-point line,” McCarron said.

“But, we had lots of little contributions on both ends of the floor which sparked little runs.”

Adelaide will host South East Melbourne on Brett Maher Court at the Entertainment Centre on Thursday night from 7pm.