Creek "Picking On" Defenders - Mitchell

Mitch Creek is playing bully-ball at the moment, and after his 46-point outing against the Sydney Kings it was the Brisbane Bullets firmly locked within his sights last night.

It’s getting to the stage of the season where the MVP conversation is heating up and with his recent performances Creek is once again placing his name firmly amongst the top candidates for the award. His 29 points against Brisbane did nothing to slow him down.

Creek top-scored for his side in the win, but it was the first half in which he did the most damage. His 20 points in the opening stanza just about put the Bullets to bed well before the final buzzer sounded.

Simon Mitchell says his side tried to isolate Creek on young Brisbane defender DJ Mitchell during much of the win.

“He (Creek) liked his matchup there and we ran a little bit of isolation for him, tried to spread the floor, let him go at [Mitchell]. He got a couple of layups there, then he took him down to the block and had his way there,” Mitchell said post-game.

“He’s a good kid, he’s a young kid, and coming up against a guy like Creek who’s a mature body and has been around the league forever – it’s hard. Especially with the form Creeky is in now.

“There was a little bit of picking on there, but that’s what happens all the time.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Creek just doing Creek things! ?<br><br>1??2?? points so far for the co-captain<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://t.co/szuzcuI8Ia">pic.twitter.com/szuzcuI8Ia</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1605488930454769665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

While Creek is deservedly taking the headlines for another stellar performance this season, injuries suffered by Gary Browne and Ryan Broekhoff in South East Melbourne’s double-overtime win over Sydney saw a number of different players forced to step up and play larger roles against the Bullets.

Kyle Adnam found himself back in the starting line-up at the expense of the unavailable Browne, while young guns Junior Madut, Owen Foxwell and Grant Anticevich all played big minutes en route to the victory.

“We came out of that win against Sydney a little battle-scarred and with some nicks. Even the guys who were playing [against Brisbane], if you play that many minutes you’re going to be carrying it a little bit,” Mitchell said.

“Early Trey Kell looked like he was lumbering a little bit but he warmed into the game, ‘Sauce’ (Alan Williams) rolling an ankle early in the game I was just thinking ‘goodness gracious, how many ladders can I walk under’.

“’Creeky’ again was great but Kyle slips into that starting five very comfortably, I thought Junior Madut had some good minutes as well. Grant Anticevich had his moments, came in and was very productive.

“Everybody answered the bell and that’s important for us.”

Those young stars may be playing those larger roles for the foreseeable future due to the “unusual” nature of the groin injury suffered by Broekhoff in the victory over Syndey.

The sharpshooter left the court mid-way through the third quarter of the double-overtime clash, and while Broekhoff was initially ruled out for two weeks Mitchell has implied his co-captain could potentially be sidelined for longer.

“Ryan is two weeks and then it’s a reassessment,” Mitchell said.

“It’s a very unusual injury. They’ve been scouring all the sports medicos trying to get all the information on this sort of injury – but they’ve only uncovered three instances of it before.

“It’ll be two weeks and a bit of reassessment, because really there’s not a lot known about it.”

South East Melbourne next take to the floor on December 24, when they travel to Adelaide to take on the 36ers.