Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright tells his players it’s okay to feel nervous ahead of NBA game against Utah Jazz

ADELAIDE 36ers coach Joey Wright has told his players it’s OK to feel anxious but to ultimately enjoy the biggest game of their lives against NBA powerhouse Utah.

ADELAIDE 36ers coach Joey Wright has told his players it’s OK to feel anxious but to ultimately enjoy the biggest game of their lives against NBA powerhouse Utah on Saturday.

A week-long build up in Salt Lake City will culminate with a packed house at Vivint Smart Home Arena on Saturday morning when the 36ers play Joe Ingles’ Utah Jazz.

“I think they should be (over-awed), if they don’t have some anxiety and excitement something’s wrong,” Wright told The Advertiser after training yesterday.

“If you ain’t nervous about something then it’s probably not that important and if you try to suppress it that’s not being true to your personality which is when they’re most creative.

“I’ve been in their shoes before and this is a difference between a coach who has and hasn’t played before - I understand what they’re going to be going through.

“We’ll minimise it, make some early substitutions, get them in and out of there, and the conversations we have before the game will be about enjoyment not about making sure they execute properly.

“So we’ll go about our business and get their head right so they can just go out and enjoy this experience.”

Wright has settled on his starting five that will be new captain Daniel Johnson and vice captain Nathan Sobey, Jacob Wiley, Anthony Drmic and Ramone Moore.

He said while his team would be playing to win, it wasn’t thinking about making a statement to the basketball world.

“I don’t even think about those things even if it’s an NBL game, the only thing I think about is going out and playing hard and playing to win,” Wright said.

“We’ll go out and do that no matter who we come up against, if we’re playing Perth or Melbourne we go out with a certain standard and a play that we’ve worked on.”

Adelaide’s major headaches will include Utah’s 7ft giant Rudy Gobert and Australian shooting machine Ingles and Wright said it was impossible to stop everyone so the team would have to pick its poison.

“He’s (Gobert) a big boy and they run a lot of stuff where they get him in and just throw it over the top, he made other NBA players look small the other day so he’s just a big man.

“We’ll try to run him as much as we can, keep him on the perimeter, his advantage is his height and size and that’s his disadvantage if our bigs run a bit.

“And Joe, he’s going to get open. They run so many good things that they make you choose - you can deal with Gobert in the paint for lobs and when you take that away you give up wing kicks (to Ingles).

“So when Joe or whoever on the perimeter gets hot, hopefully Gobert is not killing you.”

Adelaide had its last full training session at Vivint Smart Home Arena yesterday where they had game simulation and talked at length about Utah players and what they will come up against.

Sobey finished training early icing his left hamstring but it was precautionary only and he has been declared fit to play.

The Jazz is expected to regain Australian star Dante Exum who missed Tuesday’s win over Toronto with knee soreness.

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