36ers coach Mike Wells: Adjustments? 'I don't have any'

• ‍Game 1: 5 things were learned from the 44pt blowout‍
• 'Saturday night slaughter': Kendric Davis' Kings fire first shot‍
• 'Bryce stopper': It's all Kings' men but X-Factor emerges

Adelaide head coach Mike Wells admitted he doesn’t have any adjustments to try to get six-time MVP Bryce Cotton better looks after the Sydney Kings dismantled the 36ers 112-68 in Game 1 of the NBL26 Grand Final Series in Sydney.

“Yeah, well obviously I don't have any adjustments because it looked like the regular season, so I'm not really going to comment on that one,” Wells said.

Cotton, 33, was held to just 10 points on 4-for-12 from the field and 1-for-5 from three in 32 minutes.

RELATED: 5 things were learned from the 44pt blowout in Game 1

The Kings set the tone early, sending NBA champion Matthew Dellavedova at Cotton from the opening tip. On one of the first plays, Cotton was on his back holding his face after getting hit by Dellavedova on a back-cut.

“Give Sydney a lot of credit, right?” Wells said.

“I think they beat us in most of those hustle categories and most of the statistics that kind of give you earmarks on how you're going to come out of the game. So give them credit — they're a really good team.

“I thought they got us early, and then they got us often. They did a lot of really good things. They made things hard on us, and they broke a lot of the rhythm on both sides of the ball. They had a bunch of guys that made some plays, and they were just the more aggressive team.

“That's what happens when you get in foul trouble — it really kind of backed us out of any sort of rhythm because we just never got any.”

Wells deflected a follow-up question about how the Kings went about attacking Cotton and shutting down the 36ers' offence.

“I just think they're a really good team,” he said.

“They've got a lot of length and a lot of size across the line at a lot of different positions. Probably the only one guy that doesn't have that length and athleticism is KD (Kendric Davis).

“The rest of them have a certain amount of physical characteristics, and they're able to close off some passing lanes. They do a good job of being in gaps and stuff like that.

“But yeah, they had the upper hand. That's where it goes in Game 1.

“It's a playoff series — they got one game. They held home court. We've got to go home, try to figure it out in a week, and take care of our home court on Friday night.”

NBL commentator Damon Lowery came under significant criticism earlier in the season for declaring in October 2025 that the 36ers didn’t have enough firepower to win a championship in 2025-26.

"If Adelaide is going to be serious about winning the whole thing, I think they don't have enough offensive firepower," Lowery said.

"When you've got to go and beat Melbourne United, and I don't know how anybody is going to do that without full guns blasting, so I think they need someone else."

Cotton responded: "He hasn't done enough as a basketball player for me to respect his opinion. I usually don't listen to anybody, but especially not him."

But .... Wells admitted after the 44-point blow-out, “It would be sort of by committee for us, like it's been all year. We have a few guys that handle the ball.

“I don't think there's any secret about how we play.

“But yeah, there's multiple guys out there that have to be connectors, and you have to get into different areas and try to help each other. I wouldn't say the help was probably there on the offensive end today.”

Game 2 is on Friday, March 27, 2026, at 7.30pm.

“There's no panic in me,” Wells said.

“We've got to go back, regenerate our group, get a little more organised. We've played these guys pretty well through the regular season — we had a couple of tough endings and losses.

“We've got to bank on some of the positive things we've done. We’ve got to find some of the rhythm from the last series and carry some things over.

“But we lost the game — we've got to go home and protect home court. That's what the playoffs are.

“It's a playoff series, not one game. Our goal is to go home and take care of our home court.

“They held home court in Game 1 — we’ve got to hold home court in Game 2. We know what the atmosphere is going to be like at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. They were unbelievable in the last series. We'll need all of that energy plus.

“We just need to win a home game, and then it's 1–1. That's what you have to do.”