Wright’s optimism at bucking the trend

ADELAIDE 36ers coach Joey Wright concedes he will go into the NBL grand final series against Melbourne United cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances.

The top two teams from the regular season claimed their spots in the championship playoff with straight-sets wins in their respective semi-finals series.

Their best-of-five-game series to decide the champions will start on Friday night at Hisense Stadium in Melbourne.

The 36ers have not beaten Melbourne in four attempts this season. But before Friday night, they had not beaten the Perth Wildcats at the Perth Arena this season either.

And they had not won a final on the road since 2002.

Wright said that they would also take some confidence from beating Perth by one point on Friday night, having been 18 points down earlier in the clash.

“We have a lot of confidence in what we do and how we play,” he said.

“It should bring a lot of confidence for the boys to show poise in front of 15,000 fans being down 18 points — to show poise and knowledge that you can come back and fight. But all of that is out of the window for the next series. They are a totally different ball club. They play a totally different style of play.”

This will be the first grand final series since 2008-09 that either Perth or the New Zealand Breakers — the two clubs just beaten in the semi-final — have not won, claiming four titles apiece in that time.

Melbourne last won the title as the Tigers in 2007-08, while Adelaide’s last championship was earned in 2001-02.

Both clubs are chasing their fifth championship.