Refreshed Humphries eager for first playoff experience

Adelaide 36ers co-captain Isaac Humphries says the FIBA break has come at a good time for him personally and the rest of the team leading into the club’s first home final in eight years.

Humphries battled knee soreness late in the campaign but still averaged near career-best numbers in nearly all key statistics.

His 13.4 points per game was his best return since his club MVP season two years ago, and he has formed a neat partnership with six-time league MVP Bryce Cotton since his arrival in Adelaide in the off-season.

While the Sixers side has had its best win-loss season since 1986, three wins and three losses in the final six games saw them slip to second on the ladder, but retain home court advantage for a Semi Final series.

Speaking after training on Tuesday, Humphries said the group has struck a balance between time off and training hard as it waits to find out its opponent.

“I think we needed to find the balance of actually taking a little, just a little break, mentally, physically,” he explained, “and then also getting some work done as well.

“We've sort of just broken up the week, tried to reset ourselves, and I guess we're just waiting to see who we play, so there's not much to really do other than just get ourselves right until we know exactly who we're going to play, and then we can focus in a bit more on that.

“It's been a good little balance and just a bit of a reset, which is what we needed.”

The Sixers will play the winner of Wednesday night’s play-in game between South East Melbourne and Perth, but Humphries doesn’t have a preference of who he’d rather play.

“I’ve never been a bracket guy,” he laughed.

“We’ve played them a fair bit, both teams throughout the year so whoever it's going to be, will be a battle and it'll be a fun experience, and we'll just see what happens.”

Humphries is the club’s longest serving current player, in his fifth season in Adelaide across two stints.

Yet he has never played in the playoffs, and he expects to lean on Championship winners like Bryce Cotton and DJ Vasiljevic for their big game experience.

“I've never played in the playoff series before,” he said. “I've played a lot of basketball everywhere so that's wild to me, but someone like Bryce having that much experience in that field and a few other guys on the team who have experienced it as well, obviously, will come in handy.

“But I mean, I think that's all just such nitpicky stuff.

“It really is who's going to show up and play.”

He said having the Ignite Cup final last week gave the group an opportunity to enjoy a big game atmosphere together for the first time.

While they didn’t get the result, he said there were a lot of learning opportunities to emerge.

Tuesday night’s first semi-final game will also be the first time the side plays at home in the playoffs since 2018, and while he isn’t sure what to expect, he knows the locals will be as vocal as ever.

“We haven't had a playoff game at home for a very long time, and I've played here for a very long time and I haven't experienced it,” he explained.

“It'll be a first for me, but I know exactly how the Entertainment Centre can get and how loud it can get when we're doing well, and when we need a bit of a boost so I only imagine it'll be pretty special in there that night.

“We're always about our fans being our sixth man, and stuff like that, so I think that would just bring the juice, and we always want to put on a good show and give them a win because they support us so much.”