Wells stays big-picture after rare blemish

Tasmania's grinding style captured another victim on Friday night, defeating the league-leading 36ers by eight points at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

This marks a third win from four matches against the competition's top sides, including recent victories over South East Melbourne and Melbourne, for the NBL's slowest-paced team.

But 36ers coach Mike Wells, while disappointed to lose, is embracing the challenge.

"Teams have styles and you have to adjust and prepare accordingly. It's a really unique challenge," Wells said in Friday's post-game press conference.

"Throughout the year, we've handled most of those. They kind of wrestled the momentum away from us in that game, so you give him credit for making adjustments, which is really hard to do.

"Especially after we sped them last time. We were up by 28 points, before they started to press and cut that lead and figured some things out.

"I love that game planning, it's an element of head coaching I really enjoy. I just didn't like the outcome tonight."

Despite this result, the Sixers are still first with a 19-5 record, and Wells believes these kinds of tests will help their journey to a championship.

"These results are tests. Tonight was two-thirds through our season and we're not getting too caught up, rather trying to focus on the next game," Wells said.

"We still want to be the best versions of ourselves at the end and I feel we're marching in the right direction.

"We've had a lot of really good things happen this year, and this gives us another reason to stay sharp and on edge.

"The type of run we're on, we don't take for granted, as it's a special group.

"Each time we step on the court, we're trying to figure out ways to compete and win. This result might just be that little kickstart and re focus we needed."

Adelaide next face South East Melbourne on Sunday from 2.30pm AEDT at Perth's HoopsFest, live on ESPN and Channel 10.