Round 19 Preview v Perth Wildcats

The Adelaide 36ers will look to reward their home fans in the best possible way at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre up against the Perth Wildcats on Sunday afternoon in their last match in front of them for the season.

The oldest rivalry in the league resumes on Sunday in Adelaide with the Sixers determined to reward their home fans while the Wildcats simply need to win to stay in the race for top spot.

How each team reacts to the absence of some superstars gives this clash an extra sense of intrigue as well with the 36ers without Josh Giddey and Isaac Humphries for the rest of the season while the Wildcats will be without two-time MVP Bryce Cotton and potentially captain Jesse Wagstaff again.

The 36ers got a taste of what things were like minus their starting centre and point guard on Friday night against the Illawarra Hawks in their second last home game of the season. 

The Sixers had won their previous four matches at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre by double-figures, including against the Hawks and Wildcats, but Friday night was a game to forget with Illawarra taking full advantage of a lacklustre 36ers outfit.

The end result wasn’t too bad on the scoreboard with an 81-73 end result but coach Conner Henry had no trouble labelling it their worst performance of #NBL21. 

Making it more frustrating that the three best performers on the night were captains Daniel Dillon, Brendan Teys and Daniel Johnson who have a combined age of 99.

The 36ers now have one more home match to go this season and it's Sunday against the Wildcats and while there isn’t finals to shoot for, they simply must put in a better performance than Friday to reward their loyal fans who have continued to come out in impressive numbers all season long at the Entertainment Centre.

Seeing how the Wildcats handle life minus the likely MVP for a third NBL season Cotton is going to be a fascinating case study during Sunday's game too. Everything the 'Cats run offensively has Cotton as a centre point of it, but he was ruled out of the game after hurting a groin during Friday night's victory over the Cairns Taipans at RAC Arena.

Adelaide coach Conner Henry was as frustrated as anyone with the way Friday night's game against Illawarra panned out especially when he was hoping the extra chances provided with the absence of Isaac Humphries and Josh Giddey would be gratefully taken advantage of.

It turned out Daniel Dillon was the only one to do so and Henry now is looking for an improved all-round effort on Sunday against the Wildcats in their final home game of the season.

"The reality is this was our worst played game of the season. Our effort wasn’t acceptable by any means, the starters were very poor except for Dan Dillon who at the advanced age of 35 plays some quality minutes, pushes the pace and really has a high level of 'give a shit' at the end of the day. It was a disappointing loss outside of that," Henry said.

"Even when Ice was down with injury earlier in the season and we missed Giddey for a couple of games, we always felt like we still had enough talent and would keep putting up a good effort. We often would not get quite over the hump or faulter down the stretch, but they are no longer with us so we have the same squad and the effort needs to be there. 

"The sense of executing the system and the scout has to be there. We did that for the first five minutes or so before they started to pick us apart and then we made some adjustments to try and stop the bleeding. 

"But we weren’t able to and I look at the level of minutes, and again we all should just be able to play at a higher level of intensity no matter how many minutes you get. Minutes are earned and that's what we'll keep doing from here on out. 

"It's really the only thing we can do so whatever minutes that the lads get, they need to play hard during those minutes and good things will happen for everybody from there."

Sixers captain Daniel Dillon has been patiently waiting for more opportunities this season, but the 35-year-old showed that he still has plenty left in the tank with the 2008 championship winner delivering 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

He enjoyed that opportunity and is also now hoping for a better all-round team performance on Sunday against Perth.

"Obviously Giddey has been amazing for us throughout this season and we kind of have been running off him so I just tried to do what I could. I tried to push the intensity on offence and to get us into the offence pretty quickly, which seemed to work in some stretches," Dillon said.

"But we just played a little up and down. When we were lacking on defence we weren’t running as much, but I just tried to keep the intensity going. Unfortunately we got down at the end of the first quarter and we did try claw back at the end of the third, and start of the fourth but we couldn’t quite get over that hump. 

"Obviously our bench came in with Teysy, Mudronja and Jack, and they gave a lot of effort on the offensive and defensive end to give us a bit of a boost. But it's hard when you put yourselves in a hole and you are fighting uphill all game. You feel like you are wasting a lot of energy but credit to Illawarra for coming in and giving it everything."

It was now six weeks ago when the old rivals Adelaide and Perth last met, and on that night at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, it was a night to remember for the 36ers as they took away the 15-point victory on their home floor.

It was the type of performance against their old foes that the Sixers threatened to deliver back at the NBL Cup when they were up by 26 points just before half-time, but in typical Perth fashion they fired back and broke their hearts. 

But this time on their home floor and having had a week's preparation since beating the Illawarra Hawks, the 36ers were determined to make a statement across four quarters and they did that.

The Sixers shot out of the blocks on fire racing to a 22-11 lead and they never did surrender the advantage but just as impressive as the offensive output, was the defensive effort. 

The 36ers held the Wildcats to just 68 points on 26/71 shooting from the field and 8/34 from deep while Sunday Dech was instrumental in holding Bryce Cotton to just the 10 points on 3/15 shooting.

Captain Daniel Johnson was at his unstoppable best delivering 28 points and eight rebounds on 11/14 shooting from the field and 4/6 from beyond the arc. 

His teenage point guard Josh Giddey was brilliant too with 13 points, 12 assists and six rebounds while going 3/6 from downtown with import Brandon Paul building in confidence with 20 points including going 5/12 from deep.

Keanu Pinder might have been the most exciting sign with 12 points, four rebounds and four blocks. His night was summed up in one play midway through the fourth term. He firstly flew from nowhere to secure an offensive rebound.

He then backed down his opponent and then finished unconventionally with his left hand. And then up the other end he swatted away a Bryce Cotton floater. It was what he's been promising all season.

HUNGRY JACK'S 2021 NBL SEASON – ROUND 19

ADELAIDE 36ERS v PERTH WILDCATS
Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Sunday 2.30pm ACDT

Broadcast – SBS Viceland, SBS on Demand, NBL TV, Twitch