An ‘old school bake’ from Phoenix assistant coach Sam Mackinnon pushed SEM to the semi finals

South East Melbourne was on the verge of an embarassing straight-sets NBL finals exit. Then, a searing spray flipped their final against Adelaide 36ers on its head. This is what happened behind closed doors.

One of the biggest coach bakes some players had ever experienced helped inspire an NBL miracle that kept South East Melbourne’s NBL title hopes alive.

Staring down the barrel of elimination at the hands of Adelaide on Sunday after producing the worst scoring half in franchise history — 26 points — all appeared lost when the Phoenix slinked into their changeroom in the bowels of John Cain Arena, down 19 at the long break.

Coach Josh King delivered a short, sharp message then walked out, leaving the barrel-chested 197cm figure of assistant Sam Mackinnon to take over.

Some players might have wished King stayed.

The club’s cameras were kicked out and the door slammed shut.

Big Sammy, the two-time NBL champion and former league MVP, then took it upon himself to deliver some brutal home truths, launching into an “old-school bake of epic proportions”.

Sam Mackinnon took the reigns to rev up the flat Phoenix. Picture: Kelly Defina/Getty Images

One player said “the paint on the walls melted” as Mackinnon tore into his lacklustre playing group.

It had the desired effect, the Phoenix re-emerging after halftime and putting Adelaide to the sword with a 59-30 second half in a 10-point win that booked a semi-final date with Illawarra.

King, in disbelief at a team he didn’t recognise, wasn’t privy to Mackinnon’s serve — he “said what I had to say” before leaving the group to “figure it out”.

“I didn’t need to say that much, I just told them it wasn’t the team I recognised all season long, playing with confidence, energy and pace, and they had 20 minutes to figure it out and that was basically it,” King said.

“Sometimes no words are the best words, there wasn’t no throwing chairs or anything like that from me.

“(Assistants) Sammy, Luke (Brennan) and Gibbo (Adam Gibson) talked to the guys.

“Everyone knew we hadn’t played our best and, if we didn’t change the way we were playing, we weren’t going to win the game.

“That we did is a huge credit to the players and you saw in the second half, the South East Melbourne team that deserves to play in the semi finals and that’s why they’re there.”

Whether it was planned or not, the good-ish cop-maniac cop play from King and Mackinnon had the desired effect, star Matt Hurt said.

“Probably can’t say (what Mackinnon said during halftime) ... It was not nice but shout out to them because that gave us motivation,” Hurt said.

“Down by 20, win or go home type of game, I’m just proud of my team.”

Mackinnon was quick to deflect when asked about what went on at halftime.

“You’d have to ask the players what I said or what I did to motivate the guys,” Mackinnon said.

“Josh brings so much energy and I think he was disappointed at the level of our energy, how flat we were.

“As assistants you try to help Josh’s system run more efficiently and effectively. Everyone’s got to play their role and it’s starting to come together as a collective.

“We’re just doing our job.”

Part of that job was to tweak the offence to get scoring machine Hurt more involved, and a decision to lean more heavily on Next Star Malique Lewis, who was key in curtailing the impact of Adelaide star Montrezl Harrell.

Hurt responded by pouring in 17 of his 25 points after the break and Lewis’ length, strength and athleticism put doubt into Harrell’s game.

Malique Lewis stepped up, taking on 36ers big man Montrezl Harrell. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“Gibbo, Trigg and I sit there and we just come up with ideas,” Mackinnon said.

“Everyone struggled in the first half and Malique had to sit there and wait but then, in the way we were playing with Matty at the five, it was best for him to play the four spot.

“That put Malique on Trez and, to Malique’s credit, defensively, he was really active and physical and that helped us get back into the game.

“We wanted to get Matty into different actions in the second half, create space for him and put him in better spots to impact the game more.”

Mackinnon is hungry to assume a head-coaching role and it’s understood he would entertain the Brisbane job, which opened up on Monday after the Bullets parted ways with Justin Schueller.

For now, he and the rest of the Phoenix brains trust will prep for a semi-final series with top-of-the-table Illawarra, a team against which they own the season ledger 2-1, with game one tipping off in Wollongong on Friday, February 28, 7.30pm AEDT.

Originally published as An ‘old school bake’ from Phoenix assistant coach Sam Mackinnon pushed SEM to the semi finals