Preview: Perth vs Adelaide (Round 2)

Friday, October 6 at 9:30pm AEDT | RAC Arena

Watch: Live on ESPN via Kayo  - International viewership details
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The Adelaide 36ers have been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week.

Their two Round 1 losses followed on from a winless Blitz campaign, in fact, their only win with this current group came in their first game of the pre-season – a 36-point win over South East Melbourne.

Adelaide put itself into a position to win both of its Round 1 fixtures, but faltered late to allow Brisbane and Melbourne to eventually cruise to victory.

Perth, on the other hand, split their opening round of games and offered a glimpse into both their best and worst basketball.

The Wildcats overcame Tasmania in a shootout to open their season before slumping to defeat against South East Melbourne. The 11-point margin flattered them, after mounting a comeback against the Phoenix bench unit.

This clash will also act as Perth's annual Pink Game in support of Breast Cancer Care WA.

Perth
99-110 loss to South East Melbourne
101-95 win over Tasmania

Adelaide
74-82 loss to Melbourne
71-86 loss to Brisbane

Ben Henshall

Ben Henshall may have just announced his pedigree to the NBL in the most explosive way possible.

After registering a DNPCD in Perth’s victory over Tasmania in front of friends and family, Henshall hit the court with the Wildcats down and out against South East Melbourne, and almost single-handedly dragged the Wildcats back into proceedings.

Henshall’s name has been lost among some of the – incredibly deserved – overwhelming hype around Next Star Alex Sarr, but make no mistake, this kid has NBA aspirations of his own.

Henshall and Sarr have formed in interesting and explosive young core of Wildcats, alongside David Okwera and Dontae Russo-Nance, but this Perth squad runs deep.

The 19-year-old Centre of Excellence product has absolutely earned his spot in John Rillie’s rotation – now it’s up to him to keep it.

“For him not to hang his head and come out with that performance, it’s very encouraging … he was pissed at me the other night because I didn’t play him, so he retaliated pretty well. This is where I think this group has some great upside, we do have some nice depth, we’ve got some good youth, and you saw that on display.”- John Rillie post-game against South East Melbourne.

Ben Henshall handles the ball against South East Melbourne in Round 1.

Mitch McCarron

In all the conjecture surrounding Adelaide’s search for a new import, some eyes have been taken off their current guard crop and, in particular, their performances.

Former NBL champion Peter Hooley raised a strong point on a recent episode of NBL Now, and that was how the public assertions of CJ Bruton wanting a new point guard could be impacting the mentality and performances of current incumbent Mitch McCarron.

With ESPN’s Olgun Uluc reporting the 36ers have shifted their recruitment focus to a more combo forward type player, it looks likely Adelaide will attack the season with a veteran NBL point guard pairing of McCarron and Jason Cadee – and while Cadee was one of Adelaide’s best players in Round 1, McCarron struggled.

More certainty around McCarron’s role in the system could help see him return to the levels we’ve seen from him before – and when he’s at his absolute best, McCarron is All-NBL nomination standard.

Peak McCarron could well be the player Adelaide needs to shake the side out of its malaise.

“I think if you’re Mitch McCarron you’re hearing the outside [noise] and you’re hearing CJ Bruton saying he wants a point guard – that’s not going to help you play better knowing your time is limited … if they go down the three-four path he slots back in knowing ‘this is my team’.” - Peter Hooley on NBL Now

Bryce Cotton vs Trey Kell

Since Trey Kell arrived in the NBL with South East Melbourne last season, he’s struggled to hit the heights expected of him.

Injury seems to have cut him down right when he’s been gaining any momentum in his game, and the same happened again in Adelaide’s pre-season. Now, with two sub-par Round 1 performances under his belt, Kell is primed to potentially be the player to put the struggling Sixers on his back this weekend.

Kell is a competitive beast who has admitted his own performances haven’t been good enough, and he’s staring down the barrel of Bryce Cotton, who himself didn’t reach usual his giddy heights last week.

While he played to his MVP standard with 21 points and six assists in the win against Tasmania, Cotton hit just three of 13 shots against South East Melbourne, and was kept largely anonymous in what was a window into the difficulties the whole side experienced on offence against the Phoenix.

Cotton has been so good for so long that he is perhaps held to unfairly high standards by the bulk of NBL fans, but if there’s one thing we’ve all learned through his years of brilliance is he very, very rarely has a bad game, let alone two in a row.

The away team has won the second half in each of the last seven games between Perth and Adelaide.

The last time the home team won the second half was in Round 1 of NBL22, when 37 points from Vic Law helped guys the Perth Wildcats to a 12-point win at RAC Arena.

Vic Law against the Adelaide 36ers in 2021.

Perth
Kyle Zunic – foot (test)
Tai Webster – lower leg (TBC)

Adelaide
Nil