It's the grit, defence and ability to fight back that has Adelaide 36ers coach Mike Wells confident that they can win the club's first NBL championship since 2002 on the road in Game 5 against the Sydney Kings.

In the two games the 36ers have won this series by a combined three points at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, it's been with brilliant defensive second half performances.

While Bryce Cotton's game winner was all the talk after Game 2, the 36ers limited the Kings to 37 points after half-time with 17/44 shooting and going 4/12 from three-point territory.

Then in Wednesday night's Game 4, again the 36ers found themselves nine points down in the third quarter but held the Kings to 38 points with 11/26 shooting in the second half and 5/16 from deep in.

It's that collective effort to pull together defensively that Wells has no doubt they now need to replicate on the road in Sydney on Sunday.

"I'm super proud of the way we connected and got back, and tried to contest those shots when they were trying to push that pace and get the ball ahead, and your will not to have your season end has to be greater," Wells said.

"You're just trying to give them one contested look and there's no magic to it at that end, it's just about trying to get a stop and your season's on the line, it's win or go home.

"We talk about DJ's scoring, but he was on KD a whole bunch tonight guarding him tonight and he asked to be left in there and I was trying to gauge it, and we won that game because we did some things on the defensive side of the ball.

"Defence and rebounding probably ends up being something that you can hang your hat on every day, and we'll have to do that in a road game again on Sunday."

For whatever reason, the 36ers have been a lightning rod for outside noise this season and even dating back to last year when Kendric Davis and Montrezl Harrell for central focuses.

Despite all of that and even constant speculation over Wells' job security, he has admired the way his team still won 23 of 33 games in the regular season, and now have got themselves to being one win away from a championship.

He has no doubt that resilience will hold them in good stead come Sunday at Qudos Bank Arena.

"We've been on the ropes twice and we've been in two elimination games, and when you're in that type of situation and you win, you get a belief and we believe that we can win," Wells said.

"We believe that we can go to Sydney and win, and that's what this thing's about and in my years in the NBA, my very first year was 1995 at the Houston Rockets and we had several elimination games on the road.

"Between the 1994 and 1995 championships, they won something like 10, 11 or 12 elimination games and when you win elimination games together, it brings a belief in each other and the system of what we do."

The last three NBL Championship Series' have all gone to Game 5 but winning on the road hasn’t been totally foreign with the Tasmania JackJumpers doing so in Melbourne in NBL24.

While the Kings of NBL23 and Illawarra Hawks of NBL25 made the most of the home court advantage, Wells doesn’t feel it's a hurdle too far to win in Sydney for his group.

"We know that they're a hell of a team, they're well coached and have great players so it's going to be one hell of a game Sunday afternoon on Easter Sunday," Wells said.

"To me, it's the greatest thing in professional sports and I've loved it in my NBA career over 26 years with 14 or 15 years in the playoffs, and I get to do it here now.

"It's time for somebody to break the home court winning streak and we know the challenge, we know what the odds are and we know the history of winning a final game on an opponent's court.

"It will take an unbelievable effort and everybody will need to pull together, and you have to be really good and get a little lucky so it's a hell of a challenge, but I'm just excited for the group from where we started in August to end the season in this game."

Chris Pike

Wells backs Sixers' defence, resilience, grit