Belief Building in the Heartland with Four Games Remaining

Following a “soul searching” patch of form that threatened to derail their impressive season, South East Melbourne Phoenix have shot back into championship contention on the back of a four-game winning streak.

Saturday night’s 29-point demolition job on the Bullets in Brisbane was their most recent triumph, leading from start to finish to move one step closer to securing a maiden finals berth.

Five Phoenix players scored in double figures thanks to their unselfish ball movement and hounding defence creating opportunities for the whole squad.

21 assists was the result of a team now firing on all cylinders, with the likes of Keifer Sykes and Ryan Broekhoff finally getting a clean run of action to rediscover their touch and synergy with the team.

Yanni Wetzell scored 18 points on 7-9 shooting and says the team has gone back to basics to get everyone going.

“I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of some good basketball,” he said after the win on Saturday.

(Wetzell is averaging 11 points and six rebounds in his rookie year)

“We’ve been working on simplifying our sets, setting good screens and making the easy play over the last two weeks in practice and it’s very nice to see it translate to games, which it has over our last four.

“We’re passing the ball. It’s infectious basketball where we’re feeding off each other, the bench is up and talking a lot and it’s all just so contagious.

“It’s fun basketball when you play like that and the beauty of this team is we have so many players who can go off on any given night.”

Rebounding has been one of the factors in their turnaround, leading the rebound count 51-38 against a big Bullets team, their third straight game winning that battle.

Coach Simon Mitchell, who last week earned a contract extension to the conclusion of next season, says he’s “really proud” of the team bouncing back over the last fortnight.

“We’ve had a rough year and we keep putting our head down and busting through everything thrown at us,” he said.

“To get this little bit of a run we’ve had over the last two weeks…there’s always been a belief in the group, the belief outside the group may have wavered at times but it hasn’t wavered within this group.

“We had to go through a little bit of soul searching when we were dropping a few games. It wasn’t just the fact we were dropping games, it was more the way we were going about it. We’ve turned the corner on that and we’ve just got to keep building.”

Keifer Sykes’ eye-catching work with the ball since his return has been much discussed in recent games but it was his job on star Bullet Nathan Sobey that had tongues wagging in Round 19.

(Coach Mitchell has placed a strong emphasis on defence and toughness this year)

Sobey ranks second in the NBL in scoring behind only Bryce Cotton but was held to four points on 1-7 shooting on Saturday night.

When asked post-game how the Phoenix stopped Sobey, Simon Mitchell simply responded with, “Keifer Sykes”.

“I said it earlier in the year, I think he’s (Keifer) the best defender in the league.

“He takes a lot of pride in it – he sat and watched Nathan hurt us previously and it hurt him as a team member. He was frothing at the mouth to go get a piece of him and he did a fantastic job of really sticking to his assignment.”

With just four games remaining in their season, the 18-14 Phoenix likely need one or two more wins to secure their place in the finals and set up a tantalising matchup with Melbourne or Perth.

And if they continue getting contributions from the whole squad each night, the top teams will need to be at their best in a potential semi-final series.

“That’s the beauty of this team when we’re in full song - we have six guys averaging double figures on the season and then another couple of guys averaging around eight as well,” Mitchell said.

“It’s the makeup of this team – everyone gets a go at it. It’s going to be a different guy every night.”

The Phoenix host Cairns on Saturday at 5:30pm AEST at John Cain Arena as part of the NBL’s Indigenous Round.

TICKETS VS CAIRNS

They then host the Bullets at John Cain Arena next Wednesday night (June 2) before travelling to New Zealand and Brisbane to wrap up the regular season.

Sam Bunn for Phoenix Media (24/05/2021)