South East Melbourne coach Josh King has wasted no time claiming underdog standing for the NBL Playoff collection towards Illawarra, after qualifying in dramatic trend.
The Phoenix overcame the bottom first-half rating in membership historical past and produced the largest comeback of the season to edge Adelaide 85-75 in an epic Play-In Sport on Sunday.
It knocked out the Sixers and arrange a tussle with the top-seeded Hawks, who will get pleasure from home-court benefit for the best-of-three collection.
However the Phoenix have received the 2 sides’ final two matches, together with the newest contest in Wollongong.
They’ve been beautifully led by top-scorer Matt Harm, who was third in MVP voting and named alongside Illawarra pair Trey Kell and Tyler Harvey within the All-NBL First Crew.
“They’re the clear favourites. We now have nothing to lose,” King stated when requested concerning the Playoff collection, which begins on February 28.
“They received the common season fairly simply. They’re a really deep group.
“They’ve acquired actually good gamers, I believe that they had two (All-NBL First Crew) gamers, together with different guys.
“They play about 10 or 11 and coach (Justin) Tatum does an ideal job with their group.
“We count on a tricky, bodily match-up. I’m positive they’ll be prepared.”
South East Melbourne’s win over Adelaide prolonged their exceptional run since King took over.
The Phoenix began the season 0-5 earlier than sacking coach Mike Kelly, and had been led quickly by assistant Sam Mackinnon till King was signed.
“They’ve been battle examined this yr,” King stated.
“They’ve performed for 3 completely different coaches, so that they’ve confronted adversity and had a variety of completely different voices.”
Every week off for the FIBA worldwide break means the Playoff collection received’t begin till Friday week.
The silver lining for South East Melbourne is the downtime provides import guard Derrick Walton extra time to try to beat a hamstring harm that has sidelined him for the previous month.
“He’s performed an ideal job of pushing himself and I believe he has a take a look at this week that can tell us,” King stated.
“But when there’s a method for him to play, he desires to play and he’s going to play.
“We now have about two weeks till the sport, so we’ll simply must see how he’s.”
Melbourne United face the Perth Wildcats within the different best-of-three Playoff collection, with the winners to resolve the title within the Championship Sequence.
NBL PLAYOFF SERIES – ILLAWARRA HAWKS v SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX
Sport 1: Friday 28 February, WIN Leisure Centre
Sport 2: Sunday 2 March, John Cain Enviornment
Sport 3 (if required): Wednesday 5 March, WIN Leisure Centre
© AAP
