Adelaide 36ers Head Coach Mike Wells says he is not sure whether playing Sydney in neutral territory gives either side any advantage ahead of Wednesday night’s Ignite Cup clash in Canberra.
The game pits the league leaders against the fourth-placed Kings with both sides performing strongly out of the FIBA break.
The Sixers have won seven straight games to be 14-3 after 17 games while the Kings have won six of their last eight matches and just knocked off the Wildcats in Perth and United in Melbourne to be 9-7 after 16.
Wells said both teams go into the game in strong form.
“I think we’ve got two teams playing as well as they’ve been playing,” Wells said on Tuesday before the team’s departure.
“And we’re excited about the challenge.
“They’re a good team and we have a tonne of respect for them, (so) we’re just looking forward to it.”
Not playing in Sydney will take away some of the advantage for the Kings, but Wells isn’t sure if it helps his side at all.
“I don’t really know, to be honest with you,” he explained.
“I mean, it’s a neutral court, but the Sydney Kings home games aren’t like the Adelaide 36er home games.
“Neutral site games are kind of interesting. Usually, the crowd’s not really for anybody.
“I don’t know if there’ll be momentum that way or (if it’ll be) loud or whatever, but, you know, I think us being just focussing on ourselves and the things that we can control and, you know, how we operate as a team.
“We’ve been good on the road all year, and I’m expecting that to continue.”
Wells is right. So far this season his side has only lost once on the road in seven games.
That loss came back in October to the then unbeaten Melbourne United.
Adelaide has a good record against the Kings in recent times winning four of the last five meetings, but the Kings did have the better of Well’s team when they last met in Adelaide in October.
In that game Bryce Cotton was defended strongly and managed only seven points.
“That was a long time ago, number one,” Wells said. “(It was) early in the season.
“I think that we’ve changed a lot.
“We give them a ton of credit. They’re a good team. They’re a long, athletic team, and they like to pressure and do things like that.
“It was hard for me to even identify that team when looking back to be honest with you, we’ve grown and changed.”
The Sixers will be without import Nick Rakocevic who was suspended on Monday.
And Wells was pragmatic about dealing with his absence.
“Obviously an unfortunate situation,” he said. “We’d love to have him out there, but, you know, we’ve got a game to win and we’ll play with the guys that are in uniform.
“It just is what it is, to be honest.
“We look forward to Wednesday night and we’ll just play the game.”
The Sixers will stay on the road after the Kings game, heading straight to Illawarra to face the Hawks on Saturday night.
Wednesday night’s game gets underway at 7pm ACDT / 7:30pm AEDT.
