Wells: "We believe we're a top team"

Mike Wells always retained faith that at full strength the Adelaide 36ers could be a top NBL team, and he's now seeing that come to fruition with a greater commitment on the defensive end. 

With offensive weapons like Montrezl Harrell, Kendric Davis and DJ Vasiljevic, scoring was never going to be an issue for the 36ers.

Considering that trio are averaging 63.0 points, 16.8 rebounds and 11.5 assists, being without them was never going to be a recipe for success either, but to get their season back on track, Wells knew it had to happen defensively.

That was the focus heading to Sydney back on Monday night where they successfully hit back from three straight 20-plus point losses, to dominate winning by 15.

Coming back home to play Melbourne for the first time since their season fell apart at John Cain Arena back on November 17 was the next challenge. 

It all had to happen defensively and the biggest challenge was to stop United captain Chris Goulding playing a match winning role without their best defender, Sunday Dech.

Adelaide produced what might have been their best defensive performance of the season to hold Melbourne to 81 points. Goulding scored 18 points and made four threes, but was limited to just eight attempts. 

Lat Mayen was instrumental in that by doing his best to deny Goulding the ball. For the most part, Adelaide was happy to let anyone else shoot, and that worked with Matthew Dellavedova shooting 2/9 from behind the arc, Jack White 0/3, Ian Clark 1/4, Rob Loe 1/4 and Flynn Cameron 1/4.

Anyone not named Goulding combined to shoot 24/70 from the field at 34 per cent and 9/33 from three at 27 per cent.

"It all happened on the defensive end and it started with this guy here (Mayen)," coach Mike Wells said.

"His energy and his attention to detail on a really tough cover, you know he's (Goulding) is going to score and he's one of the elite shooters in the world, I don’t think just in the NBL.

"He's got a special, special skill and we have a tonne of respect for Chris and what he does, and I thought Lat's approach could not have been more professional.

"He was eager for the matchup and you just take it possession by possession, and our points off turnovers and our ability to get to the free-throw line really allowed us to control the game."

The 36ers' defence helped to not only force United to shoot 36 per cent as a team, but also to force 17 turnovers, which they scored 22 points from.

That combined with getting to the foul line 30 times was critical in the dominant performance, with Davis and Harrell both ending up scoring 28 points and going 15/18 at the free-throw line between them.

What Wells is most happy with about the two wins this week against Sydney and Melbourne, is that he's now starting to see what his group was always capable of.

"What you're seeing is a group that's had to go through a lot of adversity for a lot of different reasons, and we've kind of come out the other side of it now and we're finally getting our feet under us," Wells said.

"I think everybody in that locker room believes that we're a top team in this league and I think we have the talent to be a top team but we've had some things going on that we haven’t been able to control, and the group's been resilient and they've stuck together through all of that."