"He's a lethal shooter. We are still waiting for his game, right?" Adelaide 36ers stand-in coach Marko Marinovic on John Jenkins III. On Nick Rakocevic's foul shooting: "We are working on that every day... He'll be fine." Marinovic named no injured players or timelines.
"So he's 1-0 as a head coach." Bryce Cotton on Marko Marinovic, who coached Adelaide 36ers in place of Trevor Gleeson. Marinovic, "probably first Serbian ever coaching in NBL," likened working with "the best player in Australia" to his time with Nikola Jokic.
"I want them to see sometimes that we're human. We have bad games." Adelaide 36ers' Zylan Cheatham on why he retweets critics who come after him on Twitter, then bounces back to silence them. Early in the season, "a lot of people gave up on us, wrote us off," he said.
"When you're 2-5, everybody starts being evaluated. So it was an evaluation day for everybody." Josh King on why he was still fired up late in South East Melbourne Phoenix's 32-point win over Cairns, Skylar Mays included. The lead had reached 41, and he didn't like the finish.
Daniel Foster was back for South East Melbourne Phoenix and got more minutes off the bench in the 32-point win over Cairns. Nathan Sobey said Foster set the tone for the group to start the game: "it was great to have him back out there for some more minutes."
Nathan Sobey played for South East Melbourne Phoenix despite last game's knee-on-knee knock or cork. Coach Josh King: "he did a really good job getting rehab." Angus Glover on cramping after a layup: "I couldn't really get the cramp out. But nah, I'm all good."
Skylar Mays came off the bench as South East Melbourne Phoenix shook up the starting lineup. Josh King told Mays before the game and got "a super professional answer". Starting spots depend on who is playing well on the night: "when you're 2-5, that's what you do."
Angus Glover started for South East Melbourne Phoenix for the first time in a while, with a simple brief: "Go bring some energy and have some fun." He admitted he "probably fell in love with the three a little bit at times" and is getting back to attacking the rim.
Jordan Hunter had a double-double for South East Melbourne Phoenix, including 8 offensive rebounds, on no sleep after his baby's birth, Angus Glover said. Asked if his split with Yannis Morin continues, coach Josh King said: "we'll see moving forward how we handle that."