Round 1 Preview v SE Melbourne Phoenix

If the Adelaide 36ers weren’t fired up enough for the start of the NBL season already, they sure will be hungry come Sunday afternoon to bounce back from Friday night against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

The 36ers hosted the NBL season-opener on Friday night against Melbourne United and things actually started well. Daniel Johnson was on fire and didn’t miss a three-pointer while putting up 16 points in the opening half and 27 for the night. 

The youngest player in the league and the first Australian Next Star player Josh Giddey made an encouraging debut too, and the Sixers were leading at half-time and still early in the third quarter against the team many pundits predict to be championship favourites.

The final 17 minutes of the game didn’t go to plan with Melbourne going on two separate runs of at least 12 consecutive points on the way to the 24-point victory, but the good news for Adelaide is that it's a short turnaround to Sunday.

A near capacity crowd with the restrictions of 6539 turned up on opening night and now the Sixers are back at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix with the chance to immediately bounce back.

DJ, GIDDEY DO THEIR BEST ON DIFFICULT OPENING NIGHT

DJ'S CORNER – PLAYER COLUMN VOLUME 3

HENRY BACKS THREE-MAN LEADERSHIP GROUP AS CAPTAINS

By the end of the game on Friday night, there was a lot that didn’t look good from a numbers perspective including Adelaide being outrebounded by Melbourne by 16 boards while United also collected 18 offensive boards for 19 second chance points.

Melbourne also dominated inside with 46 points in the paint to 22 while the 18 turnovers from the 36ers was a number too high for coach Conner Henry's liking too.

Ultimately the biggest discrepancy was United ending up taking 15 more shots for the game than the 36ers, and so often whichever team wins the possession game ends up the winners on the scoreboard.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what frustrated coach Henry the most from his team's offensive performance either. 

Sharing the ball, moving the ball and being patient to wait for the right shot has been a focus of setting up the team's offensive structure for this season, but Henry grew frustrated when he saw so little of that on Friday night. 

So often a possession would consist of the ball handler dribbling the pressure out of the ball and either then going himself, or there'd be one or two passes on the possession before either not an ideal shot being taken or the ball being turned over.

Making sure that is a one-off occurrence will now be the focus for the 36ers coming into Sunday's game against a Phoenix team making their first appearance of the season, and led by Mitch Creek everyone in Adelaide knows they can't be taken lightly. 

Henry will also look for better production from imports Tony Crocker and Donald Sloan, but ultimately it's about just following the plans through a lot better.

"I'm not going to make a whole lot of excuses but they have been here two weeks and they didn’t look good in the system, but they had looked good in bits and pieces in the pre-season and in practice," Henry said.

"But overall when we can all touch it and when we all can share it, the ball is going to find a good shot. Tony is going to play better, Donald will play better and if we can get it through hands and trust each other, we'll look a lot better. It's a little bit of growing pains. 

"I hope we can turn it around on Sunday but it's a long season ahead of us. A lot of people will hang their heads here and write us off very quickly, I don’t see that happening. 

"We have too good a guys and that second half didn’t go how we wanted it to, but I'm not panicking or putting my head in the sand. We'll go and watch film, and figure it out."

Sunday Dech was a prized free agent signing for the 36ers in the off-season and he has always been a player showing leadership and experience beyond his years. 

He showed that he's already a young leader in his response to Friday's loss to Melbourne and how he is approaching bouncing back against the Phoenix on Sunday.

"It went bad for us on the boards as well and giving up 56 to 38 is inexcusable so that's something we'll watch the film on and address, and come back stronger with on Sunday," Dech said.

"It's been a year of ups and downs, and adversity, and this is no different. We are going to go watch the film to see where we went wrong, address it and then come back on Sunday and play harder.

"There's no excuse for that performance but if we come out on Sunday, play the right and address the things we need to address, and keep learning then we'll definitely be able to play better."

2020/21 Hungry Jack's NBL Season Round 1

ADELAIDE 36ERS v SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX
Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Friday 2.30pm ACDT

Broadcast – SBS Viceland, SBS on Demand, NBL TV, Twitch 
Tickets available by clicking here 
Adelaide 36ers memberships are available for more information click here