Phoenix “need to learn”: Kelly

The South East Melbourne Phoenix fell to their third consecutive loss to open the season on Sunday, and coach Mike Kelly says his team needs to start learning from their results. 

“This was a tough loss on the back of our other two losses to start the season,” Kelly said post-game. 

“We need to learn from this or we’re going in the wrong direction.” 

The Phoenix were down by seven to the New Zealand Breakers in the last minute, before almost pulling off a miracle comeback to fall just short by two points at Spark Arena, 81-79. 

Kelly is holding onto hope that South East Melbourne’s best can match it with anyone, but finding consistency remains key for the club. 

“I’m happy to see some of that good stuff on the defensive end. When we put it together it’s going to be beautiful to see and that’s what I’m looking for every day,” Kelly said.  

Nathan Sobey shook off a slow start to his NBL25 campaign by top scoring for his team with 24 points. However, a missed layup in the closing moments as they were mounting a comeback proved to be a costly error.  

South East Melbourne’s starting backcourt of Sobey and Derrick Walton Jr have struggled to fire together so far, but Kelly is confident that his superstar guards will figure it out.

Walton Jr had just two points in 30 minutes in the loss, which comes off the back of Sobey shooting 3 of 12 from the field in the Throwdown on Thursday.

“Derrick had a tough night and you would hope that sooner or later they could both fire on the same night,” Kelly said.  

“But it was great to see Sobes get some buckets. He hasn’t lost confidence and I know the same about Walton. 

“We will be alright. As long as we stick together and have each other’s back.”