R12 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix vs Brisbane Bullets

When: 5.30pm (AEDT), Saturday 19 February, 2022

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Sky Sports NZ


Who won the last time?
South East Melbourne 88 (Creek 22, Adnam 16, Munford 14) d Brisbane 73 (Patterson 26) – Round 9, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

The Phoenix were after vengeance and they got it. Humiliated by Brisbane in their COVID return game early in the new year, Simon Mitchell’s men broke the return bout open with a 42-22 run in 14 minutes bracketing quarter-time, Mitch Creek the spark with 13 points in the opening period. The Bullets made a brief rally late, but Xavier Munford, Brandon Ashley and Reuben Te Rangi added 17 points in eight minutes to close out the road win.

What happened last start?

Creek was against the star for South East Melbourne on Thursday to open Round 12, but when Melbourne’s defence shut down ball movement in the final term he was starved of supply. At the other end, the Phoenix defence broke under the pressure, leaking 30 points, including 20 from the paint and free-throw line. It was a disappointing loss from a winning position, and South East Melbourne now face the tough task of their sixth game in 14 days against Brisbane.

The Bullets pinched victory from the jaws of defeat against Adelaide and defeat from the jaws of victory in Sydney, leaving them precariously placed at 5-8 with nine of their final 15 on the road. Coach James Duncan will be buoyed by his team’s scrappy defensive performances last week, where they forced both opponents into more turnovers than assists, and expect them to be heavy-handed helpers against the Phoenix's struggling shooters.


Who’s in form?

Brandon Ashley – ‘Bash’ has scored 23 points in his past 26 minutes, nailing 8/10 from the field, grabbing seven rebounds and blocking two shots. Those are remarkable numbers, the only problem being they are across two games, and he picked up nine fouls in that time. While many big men have struggled due to Australia’s unique interpretations, Ashley has been foul prone on multiple continents, and needs to pull his hand out of the cookie jar and dominate.

Lamar Patterson – Lamar had a quieter game in Sunday’s slugfest in Sydney, but his past five games have delivered 21.8 points, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals, his 41 per cent shooting from long range opening up his penetration game, while Brisbane’s increased focus on LP in the post also making teams choose whether to give up single coverage or open shots. He had 26 points and five dimes last time against the Phoenix, and Ryan Broekhoff has a big job to do.

https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1492073345243770881


Who needs to be?

Xavier Munford – The X-man wasn’t his best self on Thursday after emerging from COVID isolation, but he still dished five assists in 18 minutes, while his teammates managed eight dimes in their combined 182 minutes. Melbourne successfully shut down the South East Melbourne ball movement and made Kyle Adnam and Izayah Le’afa the shooters, and expect Brisbane to try similar. The Phoenix need Munford running that ball-screen action as much as possible.

Jason Cadee – The continued absence of Nathan Sobey seriously dents the Bullets’ ability to apply defensive heat on guards, but Cadee has put serious effort into that area of late. Brisbane are +15 with Cadee on court the past two games and -13 with him benched, his 7.5 assists per game a big part of that, but so is his intensity on D. With South East Melbourne’s point guards a key driver of their ball-screen offence, JC needs to be disruptive from tip.


Who’s statting up?

 - In their past six games, the Phoenix have averaged just 6 triples at 24 per cent. Last season they averaged 9.6 treys at 36 per cent

 - South East Melbourne won points from turnovers 25-11 in their 15-point Round 9 victory over Brisbane. In wins, the Phoenix are +64 on PFTs, compared to -16 in losses

 - Last round, the Bullets conceded just 72ppg at 39 per cent and forced 17.5 turnovers. Across the rest of the season they’ve leaked 89.3ppg at 43 per cent and 11.9 cough-ups

 - In Brisbane wins, Robert Franks averaged 3 triples at 44 per cent. In defeat, he averages 1.8 three-pointers at 29 per cent


Who’s matching up?

Mitch Creek v Robert Franks – While Franks is returning to early-season form, Creek just keeps powering along with 23 points at 57 per cent, five rebounds, three assists and three steals in the Throwdown. Last time against Brisbane he had 22 points at 69 per cent, five boards, three dimes and three thefts. After he made two quick triples, the rest came from the paint or the foul line.

That was not a night to remember for Franks, who had just two points before fouling out in 24 minutes. He’s 6/20 in two games against South East Melbourne, and will be hoping his recent form will help in the battle with Creek. His past three games have delivered 18.3ppg at 53 per cent from the field and 8/18 from deep, and while the Phoenix crowded his pick-and-pop game last time, expect him to be handling the ball in screening action more this time around.

https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1494240749973835780


Who’s talking the talk?

After Brisbane’s overtime loss to Tasmania in a physical season-opener, point guard Jason Cadee made an astute observation.

“I don’t think we handled how physical they were, they did a great job of it, it definitely was reffed a bit differently,” he said.

It became clear early in the season that the officiating style had changed, the emphasis on protecting the space of the offensive player had been vanquished, and he who dares to be physical would win.

But the Bullets didn’t heed Cadee’s comments, and it took their disappointing home loss to the Taipans in Round 10 to finally force a change.

“We played Cairns and we realised they were allowed to hold and be really physical with us and we didn’t respond to the physicality and we didn’t do a good job of it,” Cadee said.

“I left that Cairns game with more bruises than I've ever had in my career and we said, ‘We've got to get more physical boys, we’re not physical enough, we don’t play hard enough, we’ve got to get on that side of the floor’.

“Our whole week at practice was brutal, we were after each other, we were into it, we came out Friday night and showed it and we did again tonight.

“Sometimes it’s viewed differently, the physicality, which is hard to get used to, but I thought we did a good job of transferring what happened to us last week into these two games.”

https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets/status/1492723541292515328


The Bullets’ pair of Round 11 games were a scrappy grind, averaging just 145 points across both teams, and that was music to coach James Duncan’s ears.

“Two games ago we gave up 102 points, we just gave up 71, so there’s obviously positives,” he said after the two-point loss to Sydney.

“Credit to the boys. We have a choice every day, and the choice is to sit down and defend or not to, and if you don’t want to do that then somebody else can pick up the slack and do that.

“That’s the identity I want moving forward and for throughout the course of the season, and it hurts to lose because they recognise the effort and the work they’ve been putting in.”

For South East Melbourne coach Simon Mitchell, his team didn’t bring that grappling mentality to Thursday’s Throwdown and they paid the price.

“I thought we were a little bit conservative defensively to be honest,” he said.

“They hurt us early getting on the rim, their guards particularly, Shea particularly, and I feel like down the stretch there was just a caution to the way we defended.

“We weren’t as aggressive and we didn’t put enough pressure on the ball and send it backwards, I thought they were able to execute a little too easy.”

https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1494253279366496260


A win on Thursday would have put the Phoenix atop the NBL ladder, but now a loss to the Bullets will have them level with Illawarra and Sydney in the pack chasing third and fourth place, so expect their disruptive defence to be red-lining from tip-off.

“We've played Brisbane twice already, so for us the scout should be pretty easy to pick up,” Mitchell said.

“There’s some similarities in some of the things Melbourne and Brisbane do so we’ll cover that. We’ll be ready, I think the last three weeks for us have us in good stead for these quick turnarounds.”

The Bullets had six days to prepare for this clash – which will either leave them within two games of the Phoenix, or languishing with New Zealand on nine losses – and you know training won’t have been for the light-hearted.

“What we did last week produced some results for us so we’re going to get back at it and grind away, making sure we’re prepared the best way we can be, we want to walk out of next week’s games with no regrets,” coach Duncan said.

“These guys are exhausted and I want that, I want them to feel exhausted and tired because that means they're doing all the right things, they're working their butts off, they're diving on the floor, they're battling under the glass, all those things you want your team doing.”