South East Melbourne Phoenix coach Josh King has left Perth scratching his head, adamant he had never seen anything like the lopsided foul count that went against his team during the defeat to the Wildcats.
King has been thrown right in the deep end as the new Phoenix coach eight games into the NBL season after the firing of Mike Kelly and Sam Mackinnon's three games as interim.
He has quickly made an impact, with Phoenix's defence playing a high intensity, full-court pressure game, and it had been working well leading into Friday's game against the Wildcats at RAC Arena.
After giving up an average 92.6 points in the first five losses, the Phoenix had only been conceding 76.4 in the seven games since and that was down to just 75.3 in the four matches King had been in charge of.
He certainly didn’t ask his team to play different defence, but to lose 97-84 was influenced by the Phoneix being called for 25 fouls to just 10 for the Wildcats while the 'Cats attempted 30 free-throws to his team's 10 for the entire game.
"It has a lot to do with it, because there was a lot of breakdowns by us for sure, but we also haven’t changed the way we played," a puzzled King said.
"We didn’t come out with a different defensive script. That has something to definitely do with it, but we also weren’t our best tonight and Perth had a lot to do with it, but the numbers and facts had something to do with our defence for sure."
King was shocked when he realised that of the 13 fouls called in the second quarter, 12 were against his team.
He was still shaking his head afterwards about that disparity, which helped the Wildcats put up 40 points and take control.
"Have you seen 12-1 in a quarter? That's a fact, I'm just stating a fact. Have you seen that?" he asked reporters post-match.
"I would be interested to see when the last time there was 12-1 in a quarter. Again, it wasn’t our best and we committed some fouls for sure, but 12-1 in a quarter?
"I actually didn’t know it, and my assistants told me, and I said, 'It's what? Wow!'. We weren’t our best, that's not why we lost, but that is a huge momentum killer in the second quarter and when it's 12-1, it contributes to them getting 40 points.
"They also had to score the points and it's a lot of points to give up, I haven’t seen 40 points in a long time, but also haven’t seen 12-1."
Phoenix import Joe Wieskamp also didn’t hit the floor in Perth on Friday night despite being suited up and ready to go.
In his first NBL season, the renowned sharpshooter had been averaging 9.7 points and 5.4 rebounds a game, but only shooting 22 per cent from three and King was matter of fact about him not playing.
"It was a coach's decision, and it's game to game," King said.
"Joe's a professional and has played high-level places, but this was just a coach's decision."
