How half-time blow-up inspired Davis

Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Wells lit a fire under Kendric Davis in a fiery half-time Friday night exchange, the star guard has revealed.

The Sixers were playing in front of another sold-out home crowd at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Friday night, but gave up 11 three-pointers and 20 second chance points in the first half to the Cairns Taipans, to be trailing by as many as 19 points.

Wells didn’t mince words with his team once they got into the locker room at half-time and his point guard was the main target.

"He touched me for sure and he knows how to light a fire under me," Davis said.

"I was pissed as hell coming out of half-time and he did the same thing in the Tasmania game at the half. He snapped and he knows how to piss me off and get me going.

"It's probably the only thing that gets me going. At half-time I was mad, but I knew what it was going to do and all coaches can't get that out of me though.

"Very few can get that out of me, but he (Wells) challenges me and I'm a competitor. I never want to let him, but I don’t want to let my team down, so when he challenged me, I wanted to step up to the occasion. But I grew up hard too so that's easy for me."

Davis starred alongside Montrezl Harrell in the second half and overtime period, as the 36ers outscored their opponents 56-34. 

"The way you can coach a player harder is because of your personal relationship with them. That's how it works," Wells said.

"This guy right here (Davis) probably got most of my half-time speech and I love him to death, and I'm glad that he understood me going at him and him going back at me.

"It was all in a way of love, because I just think we can push the envelope for this group. We're trying to form an identity and take this group somewhere that the 36ers haven’t been in a while, and we're trying to break some habits."

Adelaide next plays on Saturday week in New Zealand, travelling to take on the Breakers.