First vs second. Packed house. Playoffs energy in October. The chance to make an early statement.<\/p>\n
These are the games players and coaches alike spend months working for, and for the Adelaide 36ers, the perfect early test of where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to see us play under pressure. I want to see us play the best teams. I want to see us play on the road in a hostile environment, because they\u2019re all firsts for us,\u201d 36ers coach Mike Wells said.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us in our journey, game seven, it\u2019s a really good opportunity to go down there and play a really good team and see where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, much of the focus when Adelaide heads to Melbourne will be on the battle between superstars Bryce Cotton and Chris Goulding.<\/p>\n
Coming off an incredible 53-point haul against Cairns, Cotton is in rare form. But Wells says individual accolades matter little to the five-time MVP in the search for team success.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s (Cotton) all about the win. That\u2019s all he wanted (against Cairns). That\u2019s what he said, \u2018I was willing to do whatever to get the win\u2019, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d Wells continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to be defined by winning. The rest of us are beneficiaries of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Wells said he had great respect for the program Dean Vickerman and Melbourne United have built.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as our organisation is resetting and growing, I think Melbourne United\u2019s been the standard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a long history of being a very good club.<\/p>\n
\u201cTalent \u2026 lots of talent. They do a great job recruiting players, they\u2019ve got a great system. Dean does an outstanding job. They\u2019re organised, they\u2019re detailed and they\u2019re disciplined.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday firms as another chance to grow for a new-look Adelaide roster, which currently sits at 5-1 on the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still such a work in progress. I\u2019m still figuring out our players,\u201d Wells added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love our group. I love where we are at. I love some of the things we\u2019ve accomplished.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs hard as the Sydney game was, it probably helped us against South East (Melbourne) and against Cairns. Maybe we win those two games because it was a little tougher for us against Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as the journey is still moving ahead and we\u2019re still getting better and I\u2019m still figuring out those combinations, we\u2019re in the right place and be peaking at the right time, which is at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adelaide travels to Melbourne to take on United, live on ESPN and 10 this Sunday from 2.30pm AEDT.<\/p>\n
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