Mike Wells wasn’t sure how a 16-day break would affect his team but after Tuesday's Game 1 Playoffs win, it appears to have worked wonders to get the Adelaide 36ers back to the form that had them in top spot for a lot of NBL26.
The Sixers might have still finished the regular season in second spot at 23-10 to earn their place in the Playoffs automatically, but they did lose six of their last 10 games.
That was compounded by losing the Ignite Cup Final as well on the Gold Coast ahead of 16 days before Game 1 of their Playoffs match up with the South East Melbourne Phoenix at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Coach Wells wasn’t sure if that long of a break was going to be a good or bad thing with the Phoenix having had a good hit out last Wednesday in between when they beat the Perth Wildcats to set up the Playoffs match up.
Now with the benefit of hindsight after the 104-97 win in Game 1 on Tuesday night, Wells feels it was the best thing for the Sixers to have had two weeks at home to prepare.
"That was a real playoff game, they're a really good team, the crowd was into it and I'm super proud of our guys after so many days off to be able to make plays and find a way to win," Well said.
"I really felt like we probably a needed to have a little bit of a reset but 16 days or whatever it's been since we played, we needed to get home to Adelaide and sleep in our beds for a while, and actually practice.
"We travelled so much over the end that we just didn’t have a chance to really practice and this group has a lot of character, and they tried to really dial into the things that we think can get better."
What the Sixers produced in Game 1 more closely resembled the way they played to be 19-4 at one point, and not the team that went 4-7 if you include the Ignite Cup decider.
Wells felt a lot of that was the two weeks they spent preparing and recalibrating, but also because they had standout performances and not just the brilliant 42 points and five assists on 17/25 shooting from Bryce Cotton.
DJ Vasiljevic (17 points), Nick Rakocevic (14 points, 10 rebounds), Zylah Cheatham (13 points, nine rebounds, five assists), Flynn Cameron (nine points, five boards, five assists), and Matt Kenyon (three steals, +9 in 10 minutes) were also especially prominent.
"That's a product of us practicing and I think we have a hell of a roster, and people have taken swings at us down the stretch of the year, but I believe in these guys 100 per cent," Wells said.
"I wouldn’t want to coach anybody else, their attention to detail and just their enthusiasm to attack this situation has been second to none, and we'll see how it goes from here, but the group's been outstanding.
"Know your role, accept your role and star in your role has kind of an important thing and your culture, and if you really want to win and do something significant.
"I think we have a group that try to do that."
The 36ers did struggle in their last two meetings of the regular season against South East Melbourne losing both in the space of two weeks by a combined 39 points.
Those were played decidedly on the Phoenix's terms, but Wells was happy that he felt the 36ers had things more going their way on Tuesday. That's despite South East Melbourne still won the possession game with the 21 offensive rebounds and attempting 13 extra shots.
Wells put a lot of that down to the 43 three-point attempts the Phoenix did get up and they only made 12 of those and missed 51 shots in total.
That just meant there were a lot more opportunity for the offensive rebounds.
What the Sixers planned on doing to beat the Phoenix, they did for the most part and that's why they prevailed in Game 1 to now be just one win from a first Championship Series since 2018.
"I didn’t think the pace really mattered, I think the pace was probably off just our defence and some of the things on the defensive end," Wells said.
"We know that there's an analytical component to this where you have to be to have a chance to beat these guys coz they're so talented, and they play a certain way and they try to speed certain things up and shoot a bunch of threes.
"There's a formula in there that you have to find your sweet spot to be able to beat them and I thought for the most part tonight we controlled the tempo, and it looked a lot like that first two times we played them.
"They'll try to change that and the good part of the offensive rebounds they got is that it was because there was a lot of missed shots, and when you take 43 threes, that can lead to long rebounds.
"I give our guys credit and it doesn't really matter if we won the game, it doesn’t. It's going to be a point for everybody else to talk about in the games we lost, but if we win it does not matter."