Rakocevic making his presence felt

Last time the Adelaide 36ers played the Sydney Kings, Nick Rakocevic watched on from the sidelines while serving a suspension.

The Kings got the better of the result that night in Canberra, as they did when the sides met earlier this season in Adelaide.

But in the three games since then, Rakocevic has made it his goal to repay his side for not being there to help.

He has averaged 12 points and 9.7 rebounds in those games including hitting back-to-back double doubles in the games against Illawarra and Cairns.

“Me not playing in the Sydney game, you know, Coach talked about how it affected us,” Rakocevic said after training on Wednesday, on the day of his 28^th birthday.

“Obviously I felt bad that I let the team down, and I wasn't able to play that game, so I wanted to make sure that at least the next two games that I came out, you know, they felt my presence…

“I'm really glad that I had those two games, and I feel like I am getting more adjusted to the team and to the role so, I'm just going to continue to do what I need to do to make us successful.”

The Serbian American wears his heart on his sleeve when he plays and his passion for his teammates and his new home city is on show every time he pulls on the jersey.

But since being suspended, Rakocevic has learnt to harness his passion and focus it on the right things.

“I'm always gonna go all out,” he explained. “But I feel like in terms of reacting to certain things, I feel like I need to do a better job.

“And that was one of the things that me and Coach talked about, you know, just not reacting to things.

“If games are going to get chippy and things like that just not having a reaction or not doing anything that's going to jeopardise the team.

“That was really the only thing that me and Coach talked about was kind of just staying focussed on what's important.”

What’s important this week is getting one back on the Kings – the only side the Sixers haven’t beaten so far this season.

While the Sixers are top of the Hungry Jack’s NBL ladder with 17 wins from 21 games, the Kings are quickly moving up the rankings, now into third place after six straight wins.

But Rakocevic doesn’t feel like it’ll be a statement game for whichever side wins at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday night.

“I think we just need to keep being us, you know, just keep being the 36ers,” he said.

“Just do everything that we've done this season to make us successful. I think we just need to keep doing that.

“Keep remaining positive and, you know, no matter who we play, whether it's Sydney or Melbourne or whoever it is that we play, we just need to come prepared, the same way like we're playing anybody else.

“I think that we're continuing to build, trying to build this to be a championship team so we take every game seriously, and take every game like we're trying to build something.”

The Sixers will look to defend home court and start 2026 the right way against Sydney on Friday night from 7pm ACDT.

If you can’t get to the sold-out Adelaide Entertainment Centre, you can catch the game live on ESPN on Kayo or Disney+.