Preview: Adelaide vs South East Melbourne - Round 8, NBL24

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Daniel Johnson returns to the club where he spent 13 seasons and established himself as an all-time great. Can the Phoenix help him win one more game in Adelaide, or will the 36ers get one over their former favourite son?

Friday, November 17 at 7:30pm AEDT | Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Watch: Live on ESPN via Kayo Sports - International viewership details
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Adelaide has lost two straight games by double-digits after breaking its four-game losing streak with a pair of victories over Perth and New Zealand.

Next Star Trentyn Flowers discussed his current sparkplug bench role with the 36ers mid-week and says he’s happy to continue to try and show why he deserves more minutes for CJ Bruton’s side whenever he’s afforded the opportunity.

South East Melbourne star Alan Williams told NBL Overtime he needs to be better after fouling out in three consecutive games for the Phoenix.

The Phoenix enter the game off a defeat against an undermanned United side that most pundits had them winning. Melbourne won without the services of starters Matthew Dellavedova and Luke Travers, and Best Sixth Man contender Ian Clark.

Adelaide
82-72 loss to Tasmania
88-99 loss to Perth
97-85 win over New Zealand

South East Melbourne
83-92 loss to Melbourne
91-78 win over Cairns
108-92 loss to Brisbane

DJ Vasiljevic
The Adelaide 36ers were reeling when they brought DJ Vasiljevic into the fold, and the former King and two-time champion brought his immediate offence into the program and took the pressure off CJ Bruton with a pair of victories.

Since then they’ve lost two straight games. They suffered a defeat to a Perth side that was feeling the heat after a 2-5 start, and then scored just 72 points against the JackJumpers.

Vasiljevic made just three of 11 shots against Perth and then scored 16 points against Tasmania, but Adelaide will be wanting more from their star scorer.

CJ Bruton is putting the ball in DJ’s hands and has given him an almost free licence to shoot when and where he sees fit. His 24 points against New Zealand has shown it can work wonders, but he needs to lift his field goal percentage of 36.5 per cent if he’s to not only help Adelaide win games, but push his obvious Olympic ambitions.

“He wouldn’t have been my first pick, I still would have gone with a bigger guy, but DJ’s been playing well. The human torch, flamethrower himself, when he was at the Sydney Kings getting those 15 points a game he had Xavier Cooks, Derrick Walton Jr, Jarell Martin making life easy for him … he’ll be a good player for them long term, but he needs way more help.” – Damon Lowery on NBL Now.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">DJ from DEEP in the AEC ??<br><br>Catch the fourth quarter live on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/QOTvlfdNZE">pic.twitter.com/QOTvlfdNZE</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1723288987832299775?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Daniel Johnson
Injury replacement players aren’t usually at the top of the list for reasons why you should tune into a game of NBL basketball on a Friday night, especially likely short-term stays like Daniel Johnson at South East Melbourne, but Johnson is no ordinary injury replacement player, and this is no ordinary game.

Johnson played 13 seasons for the Adelaide 36ers and won seven club MVP titles – with the most recent coming at the end of NBL22 – and has established himself as one of the greatest players to ever pull on a 36ers uniform throughout his years of service.

He departed the club at the end of last season under somewhat acrimonious circumstances, but Adelaide had promised to retire his jersey at some point this season – however that date is still unknown.

Johnson is third all-time in scoring, fourth all-time in blocks, second all-time for rebounds and third all-time in games played for the 36ers, and is the highest scoring currently active player in the NBL.

Only Brett Maher and Mark Davis have played more games and scored more points for Adelaide, and Johnson’s name sits comfortably with theirs when discussing all-time greats.

It remains to be seen how long he spends on court – he played 10 minutes last week against Melbourne – but Adelaide fans have an unexpected opportunity to properly farewell their favourite son of the last decade or more. He’ll just happen to be wearing opposition colours.

“This is the perfect opportunity for him to go out there and prove why they probably should have picked him up, and I’m excited to be part of the group that gets to go out there and hopefully have a good night for him … I’m expecting a lot of support and love shown to him.” – Alan Williams on Daniel Johnson’s return to Adelaide.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This DJ's set isn't done ?<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SEMelbPhoenix</a> have added NBL legend Daniel Johnson as a nominated replacement player with Gorjok Gak sidelined ??<br><br>More: <a href="https://t.co/FkoyFlNpf6">https://t.co/FkoyFlNpf6</a> <a href="https://t.co/1RnIhTBlzi">pic.twitter.com/1RnIhTBlzi</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1722497998184411179?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Isaac Humphries vs Alan Williams
After all the discussion around the duo of Alan Willams and Mitch Creek being too strong for a wounded Melbourne and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr last week, JLA may just have provided the blueprint on how to make ‘Big Sauce’ struggle on the defensive end.

Melbourne obviously targeted giving Lual-Acuil Jr the ball on the elbow. From there he would either drive the ball to take advantage of his superior speed, or create space for his teammates to go to work away from the strong shot blocker that is Williams.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sauce said NO ?? Sauce said YES! ?<br><br>? Watch on ESPN ?? Kayo Freebies | 10Peach |10 Play <a href="https://t.co/6pLURlx1v3">pic.twitter.com/6pLURlx1v3</a></p>— South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1723546534632104125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Adelaide’s Isaac Humphries played that same role in Dean Vickerman’s system last season and, if anything, is a more complete player away from the basket than Lual-Acuil Jr.

In Adelaide’s wins this season he’s taken an average of 13 shots a game, while in losses he’s taking just over 7.5 shots per game.

Adelaide is a better team when Humphries is getting involved on offence, and his ability to find open teammates is a huge reason why NBA teams were so enamoured with him coming out of his NBL19 rookie season.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Our HomeStart Finance Player of the Month, as voted by you, is Isaac Humphries! Check out some of Isaac's highlights ??<br><br>?? 12.9 PPG<br>?? 6 RPG<br>?? 1.2 BPG<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreSixers?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreSixers</a> <a href="https://t.co/MHkhjyzmYQ">pic.twitter.com/MHkhjyzmYQ</a></p>— Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1724608159296450562?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Can South East Melbourne and Williams adjust their defence to get the best out of their MVP-calibre import centre, or will Humphries replicate the incredible performance Lual-Acuil Jr put in against the Phoenix last week?

South East Melbourne has won four of its last five games against Adelaide. The only 36ers victory in that stretch came in Round 12 of NBL23, where 20 points from each of Daniel Johnson and Robert Franks led Adelaide to a six-point win at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Gettyimages 1452075372
Daniel Johnson drives on Trey Kell III in NBL23.