"Defensive philosophy" guiding Phoenix rise

The South East Melbourne Phoenix might have lost on Friday night in Sydney, but their defence once again stood firm and it's the buy in from his new players that has coach Josh King excited.

The difference has been stark from what the Phoenix have done defensively from where they were in the first five games of the season at 0-5, and the last six, firstly under Sam Mackinnon and now with King handed the reins.

Over the first five games, South East Melbourne was conceding 92.6 points with their opponents shooting 54 per cent from the field and winning the rebound count over that stretch by 42.

In the five games going into Friday night in Sydney, the Phoenix had gone 4-1 and held their opponents to an average of 77.4 points.

That defensive nous was again on show against the Kings ,where the Phoenix were leading by 10 points with seven minutes to play, having held Sydney to just 54 points in the first 33 minutes.

"There's been an unbelievable buy-in from the team and that's what I've been really most impressed with by these guys," King said.

"We've been together about 10 days now, but it started before that anyway, though, and these guys are playing good ball.

"I think just their willingness to learn and they are coachable guys, and at the end of the day anybody can be a solid defender. Some guys can be better than others, but defence travels and if you don't play defence tonight, while not making shots, you've got no chance to win the game.

"But shooting as bad as we shot the ball, playing defence gave us a chance to win the game and that's just the philosophy and the mindset that these guys have bought into."

It's one thing for a coach to rave about the buy-in he is seeing at the defensive end from his new players, but for a two-time championship winning guard like Angus Glover to back up those words only enforces the way the group has embraced change.

Glover has been starting with King as coach the last three games too and while he had another 17 points on Friday night, all he is worried about is what's happening at the defensive end.

"It's all about the buy-in and to really lock in on the defensive end and if we can do that, we can run. That's our best offence when we can run and create easy baskets," Glover said.

"We didn’t shoot the ball well tonight, but to keep a team like that to 74 points and they still had 14 offensive rebounds, which is too much for where we're trying to be as a defensive team, you have to be proud of the effort, no doubt."

The Phoenix host Cairns on Sunday afternoon at John Cain Arena from 2.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN, 10 & 10 Play.