R16 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix v Brisbane Bullets

When: 7.30pm (AEST), Thursday 29 April 

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time
South East Melbourne 83 (Creek 29, Gliddon 19, Adnam 15) d Brisbane 99 (Hodgson 20, Drmic 16, Sobey 16) – NBL Cup Week 1, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

These two teams have only met once so far this season and that was way back to open the NBL Cup on February 21, and it's fair to say plenty has changed since but they are still fighting over a playoff spot coming into Thursday night's clash.

Boomer Mitch Creek roared at his South East Melbourne teammates to come with him and the Phoenix responded emphatically to erase a 16-point deficit and claim a memorable 99-83 NBL Cup win. With his side rattled in the first quarter and staring down the barrel of a serious flogging, the one-time NBA player laid down the law to his teammates including some choice words of inspiration, demanding they lift. 

While Creek (29 points, nine rebounds) was the talisman, former Bullet Cam Gliddon had a day out from the three-point line on his way to 19 points off 5/8 shooting from long range in his first appearance against his old side. Kyle Adnam had a sensational cameo with 15 points and six assists while Keifer Sykes (14 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) delivered a triple-double.

Nathan Sobey was strong for the Bullets again with 16 points, six rebounds and four assists while Matt Hodgson looked free of any calf pain that has restricted him so far this season on his way to 20 points and nine rebounds. 

The now

The South East Melbourne Phoenix can take another step towards locking in a playoff berth with a win on Thursday night on their home floor while the Brisbane Bullets can't afford to fall against one of the teams they are trying to knock from the top four.

The Phoenix come into the game in fourth position on the NBL table with a 14-12 record while the Bullets are 10-13 in sixth position. A win for South East Melbourne on Thursday night would give them five more victories on the season than Brisbane and the Bullets are running out of time to make up that deficit with 12 matches remaining in their #NBL21 campaign following Thursday.

South East Melbourne had hit a rough patch of form losing three games in-a-row with two of those to the Sydney Kings and one at home to the Adelaide 36ers seeing themselves fall in jeopardy of falling from the top four. But the Phoenix did bounce back impressively on ANZAC Day beating the Cairns Taipans in Far North Queensland 86-66.

That steadies the Phoenix with a 14-12 record on the season and with 10 games remaining, every win they compile from now on will take them a step closer to a playoff berth. And while Keifer Sykes, Dane Pineau and Kendall Stephens will remain sidelined come Thursday night, sharpshooter Ryan Broekhoff will be back to take on the Bullets.

Meanwhile, Brisbane now hasn’t played since losing in Perth to the Wildcats last Friday night. Because of the snap lockdown in Western Australia, their home game scheduled against the Phoenix on Sunday didn’t eventuate and now this will be the Bullets' first game since as they remain on the road still with no home games scheduled in Brisbane until May 13 against the Sydney Kings.

But with 13 games left in their season, the Bullets are still in the playoff mix at 10-13 if they can stop this current three-game losing run following defeats to Melbourne, New Zealand and Perth, and especially if they can stay afloat before that run of five straight home games later in May. However, they do need to start winning soon and there's be no more perfect time than Thursday.

The stats

- The Brisbane Bullets have enjoyed playing at John Cain Arena so far this season and will look to keep that run going on Thursday night. The Bullets have played eight times at the venue so far in #NBL21 while scoring an average of 99.0 points a game.

- Over the course of the season, these are the two highest scoring teams with the Phoenix averaging 89.5 points a game and the Bullets 88.9. But things haven’t been quite as prolific since the NBL Cup with South East Melbourne going at 85.9 points a game and Brisbane just 78.6.

- Jason Cadee also enjoys playing at John Cain Arena with him holding a career-high scoring average in the building. He'll be hoping that helps him out of a funk on Thursday night having scored just a total of 13 points the last three games for the Bullets while shooting 1/12 from three-point territory.

- The Phoenix will be looking forward to welcoming Ryan Broekhoff back into the line-up. Prior to his groin injury, they had gone 5-1 with him in the team and that included him putting up a high of 26 points against the Illawarra Hawks.

The key men

Mitch Creek – Remarkably despite having had a career that has now lasted 247 games in the NBL, he has never lost a home match against the Brisbane Bullets whether in Adelaide or now Melbourne. He'll be hoping to help that continue to be the case come Thursday night and he's already enjoyed playing the Bullets this season putting up 29 points in their only clash back at the opening of the NBL Cup. He does look to be a nightmare match up for the Bullets with coach Andrej Lemanis having to decide to go a bit bigger against him with someone like Harry Froling but losing some of the ability to stick with him. Or go with the mobility with someone like Anthony Drmic but then lose on the strength and power. Either way it could be another big night for him.

Nathan Sobey – Like the Brisbane Bullets as a team, he seems to thrive on playing at John Cain Arena. He has scored 30 points or more in five of his eight games there in #NBL21 with his last three appearances seeing him put up games of 30, 35 and 30 points while shooting at 18/29 from three-point land. In the eight games at John Cain Arena this season, he's averaging 25.9 points a game while shooting at 54.8 per cent from the floor, 52.4 per cent from three-point territory and 94.7 from the free-throw line to go with 4.4 assists and 4.0 rebounds.

The quotes

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell felt the disruption of last week thanks to Western Australia's COVID-19 lockdown that saw them end up playing away to Cairns instead of Brisbane worked in their favour so they could just worry about themselves and turning around their losing streak.

That ended up working well with a strong performance against the Taipans that he hopes now translates back home against the Bullets on Thursday night.

"I guess the disruption probably came at a pretty good time for us with all things considered. We have been on a bit of a soul searching operation since our last game and hadn’t been really pleased with our performances of late so focusing on the opponent hadn’t been really important for the players and coaching staff this week," Mitchell said. 

"It was really about having a look at ourselves and focusing on where we'd been falling over, and where we need to be if we're going to be a competitive unit for the rest of the season. No matter the opponent, the issues that we're dealing with we'd be focusing on regardless. 

"It's not easy but we know this year is not a normal season and we were in lockdown for seven months, so we just talk about keeping our heads down and ploughing through anything that comes our way. So from a preparation point of view, that was just about more of that and it will be the same this week coming into the game against the Bullets."

The Phoenix will also welcome back sharpshooter Ryan Broekhoff for the game against the Bullets after he has missed the past five matches with a groin complaint.

"I'm excited to get back into it," Broekhoff said.

"We had a few tough games where we didn't perform our brand of basketball so to get back to what we do best on Sunday in Cairns was good. I'm excited to get back out there with the boys and have a run around. Hopefully we can continue the winning ways."