Wells laments inability to close out game against Melbourne

Adelaide 36ers Coach Mike Wells has described his side’s tough loss on the road to Melbourne as “playoff basketball”, lamenting the final possession that cost the win.

The Sixers went down fighting to the unbeaten United side, holding a two-point lead until the final seconds when Tyson Walker hit a clutch three pointer, leaving the visitors 2.5 seconds to find a winning basket.

When that fell short off the hand of DJ Vasiljevic, it sent the John Cain Arena into raptures, with the score finishing 81-80 in United’s favour.

Despite seeing his side slipping to 5-2, Wells was excited about what he saw from his team.

“I thought you saw playoff basketball,” he said after the game. “Finals basketball, right?”

“I thought you saw two really good teams kind of figuring it out. Throwing a lot of punches at each other, basketball wise.

“Trying to figure out where the strengths and where the weaknesses were of both teams…

“I just thought there was a lot of really good things for us as a young group on the road in this sort of environment. I'm an extremely excited about where we're at today and where we're going to be.”

The Sixers had lost on each of their last eight trips to John Cain Arena and won only three times against United in 21 visits. While Wells said in the lead-up that history would count for little given his side’s significant roster turnover in the off-season, the poor record at the venue continues for now.

After going down earlier in the season to Sydney, Adelaide responded well and Wells said his side would learn a lot from the loss to United and aim to similarly bounce back.

“I loved a lot of the things we did, but, you know, probably the difference (was) 17 offensive rebounds for them, 17 turnovers for us,” Wells said.

“That's not a winning formula on the road. But I will say that they got 16 three-point attempts in the first half. We got it down to eight (in the second).

“We contested, we didn't foul. We just needed to close one more possession.”

After sinking a club record 53-points in his last outing against Cairns, Bryce Cotton was guarded strongly yet somehow only attracted five free throws. He finished with 22 points, two rebounds and six assists and was well supported by the athletic Zylan Cheatham who provided several highlights.

Cheatham had been threatening a break-out game in Sixers colours since his move to the club in the off-season and his 21 points at 78% from the field to go with a game-high 12 rebounds as well as nine assists nearly guided the side over the line in hostile territory.

“He's a different kind of player because he has so many offensive talents and defence, right?” Wells said of the 29-year-old.

“He's a very talented player, he's unselfish, he's all about the team on both sides of the ball so for him to be able to get the ball in his hands and play make a little bit, and those half rolls.

“If people are going to probably put two on Bryce then, you know, that's going to allow him to operate like that at times.”

The 9-0 opening to the season is Melbourne’s best start to a campaign since 2015-16.

The Sixers are back home next Sunday against Illawarra in the NBL’s Indigenous Round.