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SOUTH East Melbourne has secured multiple Adelaide 36ers club MVP Daniel Johnson to replace injured Gorjok Gak, heightening its chances of taking down NBL leader Melbourne in Throwdown 22 this week, United dealing with its own injury situation from Monday's loss to Perth.

Luke Travers is unlikely to play due to concussion protocols after he hit his head early in the overtime loss to the Wildcats. Ian Clark's hamstring also is questionable and of the Melbourne trio lost from that game, only Ariel Hukporti looks likely.

West Australian-born Johnson, 35 and 212cm, played his first 48 NBL games at Melbourne Tigers before becoming an Adelaide 36ers fixture, much like Mitch Creek who he rejoins at the Phoenix.

In his 12 seasons as a 36ers icon, "DJ" played in two Championship Series and won the club's Most Valuable Player award seven times, second only to Mark Davis' nine.

Not offered a contract for 2023-24 by the 36ers, they instead offered to retire his #21 singlet which he apparently graciously declined as he had not retired.

South East Melbourne AGAIN, becomes the beneficiary and now the NBL has three DJs, with Dejan Vasiljevic's DJ no longer at the Kings but now at Adelaide, and DJ Hogg the new DJ at Sydney.

Arguably the biggest match of the round, South East Melbourne's Alan Williams and Melbourne's Jo Lual-Acuil doing battle should be engaging in the keyways, United needing to revert to its overtly aggressive defensive pressure and not rely on too few to do too much offensively.

Then again, a strong case can easily be made for Brisbane's trip into Sydney being the round's biggest match. The Kings have had a few splutters along the campaign, as expected, while the Bullets have shown they are definitely in the mix for post-season action.

It hasn't been smooth sailing for either club, making this a great test and a value package, the Flames-Boomers WNBL game part of a big double-header at Qudos Bank Arena.

ROUND 7 TIPS
New Zealand has enough going for it to beat Perth and restore order.
Cairns should take out Illawarra, again raising doubts over Coach Jackomas' future.
Anthony Drmic, Jack McVeigh and Majok Deng should enjoy JJs winning in Adelaide.
South East is ripe to reverse its Round 1 Throwdown throw-up against United.
Sydney got out of jail, the Bullets are firing and ready to sneak a road surprise.
 

NBL RANKINGS – WEEK 7
This          Last
Week       Week   Club
  1               1        Melbourne (8-2) Staring down consecutive losses with key men out.
  2               2        Tasmania (5-4) Should take care of road business, 36ers back in freefall.
  3               5        Sydney (6-3) Not firing on all cylinders and will need to against Bullets.
  4               6        Brisbane (5-5) Road loss was tight and a win in Sydney would do wonders.
  5               3        South East (6-4) Time to shine in a Throwdown and have zero excuses.
  6               9        New Zealand (2-5) Still a big threat despite key absence of Cheatham.
  7               4        Cairns (3-4) Slowly getting band back together means trouble for Hawks.
  8              10       Perth (4-5) Enjoyed its best round ... but nothing lasts forever.
  9               7        Adelaide (3-6) Ho-hum. Back to confusion reigning after brief respite.
10               8        Illawarra (2-6) Same old, same old. Have the players but not the plan.