{"id":571670,"date":"2026-03-29T08:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571670\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T08:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T08:17:09","slug":"we-didnt-have-a-chance-wells-unloads-on-whistles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/571670\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a chance\u201d: Wells unloads on whistles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adelaide coach Mike Wells says he will review the full game before deciding whether to formally raise concerns with NBL referees boss Scott Butler, but did not hide his frustration over the lack of fouls called in his team\u2019s favour on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Wells pointed to the extra attention Bryce Cotton received from Sydney\u2019s defenders, particularly Matthew Dellavedova, and said he was shocked the Kings were only called for four second-half fouls.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatthew Dellavedova played how many minutes? \u2026 he had zero fouls guys,\u201d Wells said after the 36ers\u2019 13-point Game 3 loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the exact same thing we had in Game 1. The scoring was different. The foul output for Game 1 was 11 to 24, this was 11 to 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy that\u2019s on Bryce Cotton had zero fouls and he\u2019s guarding him like (gestures to demonstrate) \u2026 that\u2019s not a legal guarding position.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Torrey) Craig had two. (Makuach) Maluach had two. That\u2019s it. They literally draped all over him.\u201d<\/p>\n

>> Championship Series schedule, tickets & how to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Cotton finished with 15 points and 12 assists, but was unable to influence the game as he did in Adelaide on Friday night, with the Kings consistently throwing two and even three defenders at the 36ers star.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to beat up the MVP and take him out, that\u2019s what the refs have allowed them to do,\u201d Wells said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t even get to the free throw line. That was the exact same game as Game 1, except the point differential was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in this game to win this game, but we didn\u2019t have a chance to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey (the Kings) only had four fouls the entire second half \u2026 let that sink in now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Wells said Cotton and his teammates should have been rewarded with far more calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBryce Cotton is all over the court and he is trying to get downhill and I know he\u2019s light, but if he goes flying four or five feet that way, it\u2019s probably because he got pushed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling my guys to fight through everything but Matthew Dellavedova didn\u2019t foul the whole night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s footy season, but that\u2019s a different game right now. We\u2019ve got to play basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adelaide returns to its home court on Wednesday for Game 4, trailing the Series 2-1.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adelaide coach Mike Wells says he will review the full game before deciding whether to formally raise concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-571670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}