Preview: SE Melbourne v Illawarra (Round 10)

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Thursday 8 December, 2022

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Broadcast: ESPN; Foxtel; Kayo; Sky NZ

Who won last time?

SE Melbourne 112 (Creek 27, Kell 24, Williams 21) d Illawarra 78 (Frazier 17, Harvey 17, Siva 10)  – Round 8 at John Cain Arena

After a sterling performance against Sydney, the addition of Michael Frazier and the return of Peyton Siva from injury, the Hawks walked into the Fire Pit full of confidence but walked out with third degree burns, unable to handle South East Melbourne’s pressure defence and with even fewer answers for Mitch Creek and Alan Williams on the interior as they fell by 34.

What happened last game?

The Hawks’ Dr Jekyll was back on Monday as a full-strength Illawarra side picked United apart, the Siva-Sam Froling combo unstoppable, Frazier again impressive and Deng Deng producing another big rebounding performance. The Phoenix showed both Jekyll and Hyde in Round 9, soft defensively in Auckland and then beasts in the Throwdown as they held Melbourne to 72 points, forcing 18 turnovers en route to their second derby win of NBL23.

What’s working?

The bench – After a horror bench performance against South East Melbourne, Jacob Jackomas shortened his rotation and got stellar service from Mangok Mathiang, Will Hickey and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, who combined for 17 points at 67 per cent with an average plus-minus of +14 in a 14-point win. Mathiang had seven points, five rebounds, two o-boards, two steals and drew four fouls in his 19 minutes, and he’ll need to be on song against Williams and Zhou Qi.

Defence, sometimes – The Phoenix forced Illawarra into 16 turnovers in Round 8, hassled just eight from New Zealand, then rankled 18 out of Melbourne. They held the Hawks to 36 points in the paint at just 45 per cent, but gave up 47 per game at 58 per cent to NZ and Melbourne. The reality is, when the Phoenix intensity is up they throw opponents out of their sets and generate points, but when they are reactive, their interior is susceptible.

What needs stopping?

Rolling Froling – Sam’s game against Melbourne was a thing of beauty, 29 points at 64 per cent as Peyton Siva and Tyler Harvey found him regularly on the pop and roll. Two weeks ago against South East Melbourne, however, the Hawks managed to feed Froling rolling just twice for the game as Alan Williams refused to commit to the ball-handler. Siva and Harvey must look to score early, and Froling needs to set his picks higher to force a tougher defensive decision.

Mitch Sauce – While Deng is providing loads of hustle, a bull-strong defender he is not. While Froling’s touch is elite, he’s hardly a wide body. So it’s no surprise Creek and Williams combined for 48 points at 64 per cent last time the teams met, with 45 of those coming from the paint or free-throw line. Deng and Froling must also stand strong on the glass, combining for just six d-boards against SEM, but bouncing back with 15 against United.

Who’s matching up?

Trey Kell v Tyler Harvey – With the Phoenix bigs owning the inside, Kell found space for a confidence builder against the Hawks, dropping 24 points to match the total of his previous three outings. He’s also finding his feet defensively after a rough start at that end, but he’ll have his hands full with Harvey though, who nailed 17 points at 60 per cent in that game, and has averaged 22ppg at 44 per cent from deep in his past five games.

Ryan Broekhoff v Michael Frazier – What a difference a change makes. After a tough debut NBL season picking up scraps from Bryce Cotton and Vic Law, Frazier has averaged 16.5ppg at 50 per cent from the arc, 5.0rpg and 2.5apg in his first two as a Hawk, with his 2.5 o-boards a bonus. There are few more disciplined wing defenders than Broekhoff though, and he’ll make Frazier pay if he wanders, having dropped 10/20 from deep the past four games.

Gary Browne v Peyton Siva – Browne leads the league on 7.5 assists per night, with Siva hot on his heels at 7.2apg. When this pair get creative, good things happen for their teams, so expect both defences to challenge these PGs to shoot, as South East Melbourne did last time. Siva has hit 55 per cent from the field in his past two and 3/8 from deep, while GB is at 47 per cent in his past four, but will want to exorcise his 1/7 long-range demons from last week’s Throwdown.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How did Gary Browne do that ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live and free on 10 Peach and 10play | live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/AAi87jMYjB">pic.twitter.com/AAi87jMYjB</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596738818224586753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s saying what?

It's fair to say Jacob Jackomas didn’t enjoy watching his team trying to defend South East Melbourne in Round 8 as they ran up 112 points at 56 per cent, with 50 points coming in the paint.

The first-year play-caller described it as “our worst defensive effort by far” as his attempts to incorporate new defensive schemes to cover the Phoenix’s array of options fell seriously flat.

“They're talented and we were always worried about guarding them one-on-one,” Jackomas said.

“From the get-go the buy-in was bad, it could have been a case of too many schemes at practice and not enough guarding.”

Fast forward eight days, with a lot of practice time in between, and things look a lot better as they held Melbourne to just 79 at 40 per cent.

“We had a little bit of practice time, and when we had the practice time against Sydney with the guys on the floor we looked a little bit better,” Jackomas said.

“It was a really good effort today in regard to everyone knowing their role.”

It was some relief for Hawk Heads who had to endure a nine-game losing streak, as well as the roller-coaster performances their team has put out as they’ve tried to swat the injury bug.

In the past five rounds, they’ve been spanked by 25 in Brisbane, ran Melbourne to double-overtime, fallen by 16 to the Sixers, gone within a whistle and some free throws of cracking the Kings, fell to the Phoenix by 34 and then beat United in style.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">DENG WITH THE PUTBACK ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/cnx3TCFssS">pic.twitter.com/cnx3TCFssS</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1599697666098593792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“As much as we’ll celebrate that today we need to make sure we keep moving forward and keep doing it for our fans and ourselves,” Jackomas said.

“Playing like that if the results come our way they come our way, and if they don’t we just want to hold our heads up proud every game … The challenge is we've got to play two good games in a row, which we haven't done yet.”

The Hawks shouldn’t expect a complacent SE Melbourne side however, who weren’t overly content with their defensive effort last time, despite negating Illawarra’s key men for most of the contest.

“At times it was really good. I thought we let ourselves down at times as well,” coach Simon Mitchell said.

“We turned the ball over a bit and that got them out and running. Second chance shots, we gave up too many o-boards in a time there which didn’t please me.

“I thought there were periods where we weren’t getting up the floor enough and impacting the ball they found a little bit of comfort there.

“We made some adjustments there and rekindled the effort but for us to be the team that we can be at that end, we shouldn’t need a jab in the ribs, we should be ready to go every time.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">????? ?????! ?<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/10PeachAu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@10PeachAu</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/JlPQCiylwy">pic.twitter.com/JlPQCiylwy</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1596754604217491456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 27, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They were ultimately +14 on points in the paint, +2 on o-boards, +4 on second chance points, +7 on points from turnovers and +18 on free-throw attempts, showing they were the hardest working team on the floor without a doubt.

A huge factor in that was Williams and the Phoenix taking away Froling’s offensive game, and Big Sauce dominating him at the other with a scary mix of energy and physicality.

“You’ve just got to watch him play, it’s his personality. He’s got some highs, he’s got some lows, but there’s always a happy medium of constant energy,” Creek said of his running mate.

“That kind of energy is infectious in the group… When you have that infectious energy, it bleeds through the group and you get results like we did tonight.

“That’s a good way to play basketball because he enjoys it, there isn’t a possession he doesn’t enjoy. When I see that it’s easy for me to do the exact same thing and that’s why we feed off each other.”