Wells says playoff defeat will spark NBL26

Adelaide 36ers head coach Mike Wells says Sunday’s playoff loss to South East Melbourne Phoenix will drive the club’s off-season plans.

The 36ers led by as much as 20 points during the second quarter before being unable to halt the second half momentum from the home side in an 85-75 defeat at John Cain Arena.

Wells will return as head coach for the NBL26 campaign and said Sunday’s loss was a mini version of the season.

“It’s been a hell of a learning experience, and a journey and Grant (Kelley, executive chairman) made my dreams come true to become a head coach,” Wells said.

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“The second half will haunt me for the next six months,” Wells said.

“I don’t know if we could play a much better first half.

“But a five assist, 30-point second half with that defense wasn’t anywhere where it was in the first half.

“It’s a hard one to sit here and digest.”

Wells said the game was a tale of two halves and his side wasn’t able to respond to the pressure from the home side after the main break.

“I thought we were organized a very detailed in the first half and I thought their pressure got is out of comfort zone and sped us up,” Wells said.

“Got to give their guards credit, their pressure credit."

“But I want to also give our guys a ton of credit for the journey we have been on all year.

“We went from a team that couldn’t win on the road to a team that won their first Play-In game on the road.

“I thought we made great strides when we got healthy, I believe our top eight when we were healthy the entire year, you saw that in the first half, how organized we were.

“There were open shots all over the place, there were some advantages there, but give the Phoenix credit for their pressure, and pressure can do funny things.”

Adelaide went on a 27-2 run across the end of the first quarter and part of the second quarter with Wells sticking to the players who were winning the game.

“We were humming along, especially in that second quarter where I had a group out there of Jase (Jason Cadee) and DJ (Vasiljevic), Kendric (Davis), Jarell (Martin) and Trez (Montrezl Harrell) and I just ran them out as they were such a groove,” Wells said.

“As a coach there was no way for me to sub that, I knew guys were getting tired, I wanted to get Ice (Isaac Humphries) in there, I wanted to get Sunday (Dech) in there, but that group had such momentum.

“In the second half, you wanted to do the same thing but to change the momentum and we couldn’t find that group.”