Phoenix Ready to Get Momentum Back

South East Melbourne Phoenix has not had an ideal start to its NBL23 campaign. Riddled with injuries to key players, they currently sit at 1-3.

Saturday's loss to the Breakers saw three starters return, and as the team flies over the ditch for Thursday's game, the final piece of the puzzle returns from injury, with Gary Browne suiting up for the first time this season.

Head coach Simon Mitchell spoke to RSN Wednesday morning before boarding the team's flight to New Zealand.

"I guess a little inconsistency certainly isn't surprising on our end just with our preparation into the season, Mitch Creek not having a pre-season, Ryan Broekhoff not having a pre-season, the injuries we sort of incurred and the lack of play and personnel that we have had going into this first month of the season," Mitchell said.

"We are starting to get the crew back together now; it's about getting everybody fit and on the same page. I think we will probably tread water for the next couple of weeks until we should be up and firing. Not surprising, given where we are at, we are hoping to sneak a few more W's; if we get two this weekend, we will be back on an even ledger, and then we should be little momentum as we get all these guys onto the floor and fit again."

(Browne will return to the court this round for his first game since the Blitz.)

Mitchell knows there are no excuses in this sport; still, he sees this period as a time to focus on the development of the younger players, which will be an advantage later in the season.

"There are no excuses; we've got circumstances we are dealing with, and at the end of the day, we've still got healthy bodies here, and that's where our focus is on the guys that have been healthy and trying to get the best performance we can out of them," he said.

"I still consider this period a great development for us. We're not saying, ''jeez woe be us,'' we think it's been an excellent opportunity for us to get some minutes into some young guys and some of our rookies who otherwise wouldn't see the chance without the absence of these key players."

After a couple of days of willing training sessions, Mitchell is pleased to see the team competing hard with each other.

"I think the energy is an element of chippiness in the group, which I believe is excellent; we've got to embrace that. The guys aren't happy with the record at the moment; there's an element of frustration there; I think that's come into our training session, which has elevated the competitiveness of our drills," he said.

"To this point, we've put ourselves in a chance to win in every one of these games; I guess the disappointing part, I mean, whilst we did celebrate the victory against Tassie in Round 1, that we haven't closed the deal in the other games. There is some work for us to do there, but since we have a few more people in there, we've got a different way to finish games," Mitchell said.

(Mitchell is hoping with a few bodies returning, Phoenix can get to where they want to be, back on the winner's list.)

Phoenix will take on the Breakers Thursday night in Auckland, just five days after their loss at John Cain Arena. With a few more sessions into the returning bodies, the Phoenix hope to resolve the areas they lacked the last time they met.

"We certainly got to limit their second shot opportunities; they're the number one rebounding team in the league, and we gave up way too many offensive rebounds early in the game when we played them last time, and they punished us with that. They punished us in transition with some three-pointers early in the game and built a bit of a lead with that, so those will be two key areas," he said.

Phoenix will return to Melbourne on Friday to take on the Brisbane Bullets at the Fire Pit on Saturday night.

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Phoenix Media (19/10/22)