Home court advantage mattered little during NBL26 but it sure did in the Playoffs and South East Melbourne Phoenix coach Josh King wanting his team to be proud of the significant leaps forward they made despite falling at the same hurdle.

After Saturday's comeback win in Game 2 against the Adelaide 36ers at John Cain Arena, King made it clear that the Phoenix couldn't afford to be in a similar hole in Game 3 on Tuesday back in Adelaide if they wanted to reach the Championship Series.

They did end up in a similar position, this time 20 points down early in the second quarter, and despite the best efforts of NBA and NBL champion Ian Clark who had 32 points, there would be no comeback as their season ended in another Game 3 loss on the road.

Last year it was to the eventual champion Illawarra Hawks and ultimately, it showed how important home court advantage is in a close out game.

"That's why you play the regular season so you try to get that home court advantage but still, we came here with a lot of confidence," King said.

"But it's why it's tougher to win on the road and we're close, we're raising the expectations at South East Melbourne, but we've still got steps to take even while loving the direction that our program is heading.

"My team has really elevated the bar at South East Melbourne and they've got nothing to be ashamed of, and they need to walk out of the building with their head held high, and I'm really proud of the group I got to coach this year but it really stinks that it has to end tonight."

After his career-best 41 points with eight threes in Game 2 on Saturday night, former 36er Nathan Sobey was the target of the Adelaide crowd on Tuesday, but King had no issues with it.

"Their crowd was great tonight and that's part of the advantage of playing in a decisive game to have home court advantage," King said.

"You could say that won them the game taking nothing away from their team play, but that's definitely an advantage to play a decisive game at home, and their fans were amazing.

"It's their game, if you're not allowed to do that then you shouldn’t buy tickets and you should watch it at home."

Now that the season is over for King and the Phoenix, first things first and he does hope to receive a contract extension to stay. Beyond that he's glad that a lot of the key, local players are locked in including the recently re-signed Nathan Sobey and Angus Glover.

That will help ensure the Phoenix are able to continue to play what he believes is the most exciting brand of basketball in the league.

"I love being at South East Melbourne, I love being in Australia, it's an amazing place to be and the league is great, and I foresee being back," King said.

"I'm biased but I think we're the most exciting team to watch in the NBL in terms of the way we play night in and night out, but we'll look at everything to try and get better so that we have a chance to win a championship.

"No matter where you coach around the world, you have to have a really strong local core group, and we will make sure we have that and then we'll branch out from there and work on the three imports.

"Hopefully we have some of the guys back again from this season and how about Ian Clark tonight? What an amazing performance and he's been a real joy to coach, and a real boost to this group after coming in at Christmas time.

"Then obviously John Brown (III) and Wes (Iwundu), they had just killer seasons themselves so we'll see."

Chris Pike

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