R15 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix vs Sydney Kings

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Thursday 22 April

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Sydney 97 (Louzada 28, Newley 17, Vodanovich 17) d SE Melbourne 90 (Le’afa 29, Moore 19, Creek 17), Round 14, Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

When these teams met in Round 13, SE Melbourne were too fast, too furious, their mobile line-up putting the Kings on the back foot early. Fast forward a week and Sydney, minus Jarell Martin, turned the tables. Didi Louzada went into attack mode from tip-off, forcing the Phoenix out of their three-guard line-up, en route to 28 points. The Kings went up another notch after interval, outscoring the visitors 28-12 in the third term to put the game out of reach, with six Sydneysiders scoring 9 points or more in a consummate team performance.

The now
If you take out three losses to their nemesis Perth, the Kings have won six of their past seven games to slide back into fourth place, despite what can only be described as a horror run of luck. While Louzada graduating to the NBA is great news for Sydney and the NBL, it certainly adds to the flux this roster is experiencing. His loss will in particular hinder the Kings’ ability to apply the defensive heat, something that was crucial to last Friday’s win.

Leading into that defeat, the Phoenix had won seven-from-nine outings, but a follow-up home loss to Adelaide further took the wind out of their sails and has them just 1.5 games inside the top four. Simon Mitchell’s men have been going after teams defensively and reaping the rewards with points in the open floor, but that has also opened up their interior and led to both Sydney and the Sixers living on the free-throw line in last weekend’s wins.


The stats

 - Phoenix opponents have averaged 25 free throws in the past two games, compared to 16.2 over their opening 22 outings

 - SE Melbourne have won points from turnovers 55-36 over their past three games

 - In last week’s win over the Phoenix, Louzada, Brad Newley and Tom Vodanovich scored 62 points on 64 per cent three-point shooting and 16 free-throw attempts. Prior to that they’d combined for 19.4ppg at 32 per cent and 3.1 foul shots

 - Sydney were -13 in the possession game against SE Melbourne last round, but shot 66 per cent from inside, 44 per cent from outside and took five more free throws than the Phoenix


The key men

Mitch Creek – In Round 13, Creek destroyed the Kings with 26 points, going 8-of-10 from the foul line and 4-of-7 from the arc. The Phoenix are 5-1 when Creek hits three triples or more, compared to 8-10 when he doesn’t, and last weekend he went a combined 2-of-7 from range while taking just 5 free throws in total. Against the Kings, a couple of early Jordan Hunter swats put doubt in Creek’s mind, as he went 5-of-14 from inside, and he needs to get back to his trademark composed finishes around the rim to foil shot-blockers.

Casper Ware – In Sydney’s seven last wins leading into last Sunday’s clash with Cairns, playmaking Casper had averaged 6.2 assists and 11 shot attempts to set the table for this team’s offence. In their previous eight losses those numbers were 3.5 dimes and 15.8 shot attempts. However, with their roster shrinking, Ware flipped the script against Cairns, scoring 40 brilliant points on 15-of-26 from the field and 3 assists. Keifer Sykes and Izayah Le’afa will come after him again on Thursday, which Casper will make an appearance?



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The best bits of <a href="https://twitter.com/CWARE22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CWARE22</a>’s 40-point performance last night. <br><br>? ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/JdfaYZzDvT">pic.twitter.com/JdfaYZzDvT</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1383655468296327171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The quotes

It’s fair to say that after SE Melbourne handed them their backsides in Round 13, and the Kings had dropped four of five, their bounce-back W over Mitch Creek and Co last Friday was a big one.

“We’ve had some pretty big wins and this is definitely up there in terms of the guts because Jarell’s out and we've got that next man up mentality, but sometimes you just keep getting kicked in the guts,” coach Adam Forde said.

“We wanted to back up our very average performance from the last round and on top of that we very much still have top four ambitions.”

While the offensive brilliance of Didi Louzada got the headlines, the biggest story was a Kings defence that held the usually high-scoring Phoenix to 14 points in almost 15 minutes across half-time.

“It had to have been everyone collectively doing what needed to get done on the defensive side of things, that’s what we picked apart the most, and then we generated our points in transition,” Forde said.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HUGE stop from <a href="https://twitter.com/shaunbruce7?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@shaunbruce7</a> ??<a href="https://twitter.com/BradNewley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BradNewley</a> with the silky smooth finish. ??‍??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/dOpLAxl4cs">pic.twitter.com/dOpLAxl4cs</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1382654412661821448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“The talk, the communication, the dudes celebrating the little victories that happened throughout the game, whether it be our rotations, charges, blocks, even when the offence was in front of us, and the guys communicating to the guys to roll hard and get to the corner.

“When there’s a stoppage and the guys on the floor are calling each other in and talking constructive communication, not just the fluff, constructive criticism and feedback and what we’re doing next. It was a complete flip from what we did last time we played them.”

That defence started with Jordy Hunter, effectively a rookie trying to fill Andrew Bogut’s huge shoes, and he did it with aplomb that night, swatting six shots as Sydney allowed just 45 per cent in the paint against a Phoenix team that refused to shoot from mid-range.

“He’s tough as hell. He is the backbone of our defence. When Jordan’s not good defensively we are not good defensively as a team, and he’s aware of that,” Forde said.

“What’s great about his evolution is he’s able to shoulder that burden and that responsibility now … the blocks were great, but his talk and his direction and him showing on the on-balls, all the stuff that he didn’t do last game.

“I'm super critical of him, I'm probably harder on him than anyone else, because I'm aware of our success rate lies not solely with him, but he’s a big part of it.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hunter with the block. ??<br><br>Didi with the clutch finish. ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/VWmmPU4oE8">pic.twitter.com/VWmmPU4oE8</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1382634865057669120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


For Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell, it was a case of his team going into their shell under intense perimeter pressure from the likes of Louzada, Ware, Shaun Bruce and Brad Newley, and that allowed Hunter and Co to own the paint.

“I thought we tried to fight the hard shows (on ball-screens) way too often, whereas last time we got rid of the ball early and sliced it to death, I don’t know why we went away from what was working but we did,” he said.

However, expect the biggest adjustments to be at the other end - especially if Jarell Martin returns for the Kings - after Mitchell’s men leaked 62 per cent shooting inside in two Round 14 games and gave up 50 free-throw attempts.

“I think the majority of our worries were at the defensive end tonight and that’s attention to detail,” Mitchell said.

“You’ve got high-calibre shooters, Kicks is one of the greatest shooting bigs I've come across, then obviously Didi had one of those nights everyone likes to have in their career, it was probably one of his more exceptional games in the NBL. You’ve got to be able to ride that out, I thought we did a little bit but we just broke down too often.

“For us, we can’t have those breakdowns and those let-ups, and it wasn’t like one or two possessions, it was like a four-minute period where we were really disappointed. If you string a couple of bad possessions together at each end the game can get out of hand very quickly.”