How to watch & talking points: Adelaide v South East Melbourne

Adelaide 36ers (1st) v South East Melbourne (2nd)
Sunday, January 18, 2.30pm AEDT (11.30am AWST)
RAC Arena

How to watch‍

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Talking points

The mental game
It’s one against two on the ladder and whichever team can win this game will likely hold bragging rights as the championship favourite after 17 rounds.

What makes this even more exciting, is that there is every chance these two teams could meet in a five game Championship Series in a few weeks.

Because of that, do we see both teams show their full hand of offensive sets or game plans? Or will there be a more measured approach to keeping some tricks up their sleeve for when it matters most?

Top two
This game means a whole lot more to the Phoenix than it does to Adelaide, because Josh King's team are just barely holding onto second spot on the ladder.

While everyone believes the Play-In Tournament is a fantastic addition to the league, it would sting for whoever finishes third at the end of the regular season.

By slipping out of the top two, you find yourself potentially two bad performances away from being sent home early, rather than booking your place in the semis and taking some time off.

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What they're saying

36ers guard Dejan Vasiljevic on playing against South East Melbourne:
“I think they're up there as well with Sydney [in terms of form teams].

“The last two games they've scored 124 points. They're on a roll and they're coming off a loss so I know their coach is going to be amped up, getting ready to roll and yeah, they're just playing some real tough basketball."

Phoenix coach Josh King on his team improving defensively:
"Defensively we just weren’t very good [against Perth] and it's our third game this week, and the third game we gave up 100 points and we can't kid ourselves and think we're just going to outscore every team we play.

“We have to get back to focusing on that side of the ball on the defensive end, even though I thought we were better in the second half than the first half when we were really bad defensively.

“You have to play better defence and you have to learn that you're not just going to outscore every opponent every night.”

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Missing in action

Adelaide
Ben Griscti - Neck - TBC

South East Melbourne
Nathan Sobey - Illness - TBC

>> View full injury list