Christmas joy for Kings over Hawks

The Sydney Kings put another significant dent in the NBL championship defence of the Illawarra Hawks while continuing to put themselves right in the discussion this season with a commanding 108-84 Christmas night win.

For the fourth straight year, the Kings hosted a game on Christmas evening at Qudos Bank Arena. This time it was a standalone NBL fixture with the home team enjoying things as they continued their hot form against the struggling reigning champs.

Sydney came into the match up on a four-game winning streak and were in control virtually right from the outset in front of 7732 fans including a hot start with 34 points to 19 in the third quarter.

That lead continued to grow the rest of the way and saw them leading 62-41 heading into the half-time break before the advantage grew to as much as 29 before settling on the 24-point victory.

It's five straight wins now for Sydney as they improve to 12-7 to be solid in fourth place and closing in on Melbourne United who are only just ahead at 14-7.

The title defence of the Hawks continues to splutter with a third consecutive loss as they slip to 6-13 and losing touch with the sixth placed Tasmania JackJumpers (9-11).

Aside from the Hawks winning the rebound count by seven and pulling down 17 offensive rebounds to eight, the Kings dominated including shooting 53 per cent from the field and 45 from deep opposed to the 41 and 32 from Illawarra.

Kendric Davis continued his hot form with the Kings for another 27 points and nine assists with Xavier Cooks tremendous too with 21 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Kouat Noi landed 6/12 from three-point land for 18 points with Jaylin Galloway adding 12 points and Tim Soares eight with seven rebounds and three assists.

A shining light for the Hawks was the return of co-captain Sam Froling who made his Christmas comeback after rupturing his Achilles in last season's Championship Series. He showed good signs in 24 minutes with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Fellow big man JaVale McGee had 20 points and six rebounds with Wani Swaka Lo Buluk adding 15 points and two assists, and QJ Peterson 11 points despite 3/12 shooting.

It didn’t take long in the first quarter for the Kings to take charge of the Christmas night match up and back-to-back three balls from Kouat Noi and Kendric Davis saw them open up an 18-11 lead.

Another 10 straight points saw that lead balloon to 15 and that's where it remained at 34-19 by quarter-time.

Sydney then opened up the second frame outscoring Illawarra 17 points to nine as that lead got out to 23, it was out to 25 not long after and was still 62-41 by the half-time break.

Xavier Cooks came out and scored Sydney's first six points of the second half and then the Kings scored another 10 straight points including three balls to Davis and Noi with the lead out to 29 points.

Illawarra did answer with the nine points, but Sydney finished the frame with five straight as well to be up 25 by three quarter-time.

The result was beyond doubt coming into the fourth quarter and Sydney cruised to the 24-point win to celebrate Christmas with their home fans.

The Kings are now next in action when they host the Brisbane Bullets on Tuesday night while the Hawks are back home on New Year's Eve when they take on the Tasmania JackJumpers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26 – CHRISTMAS NIGHT

SYDNEY KINGS 108 (Davis 27, Cooks 21, Noi 18)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 84 (McGee 20, Swaka Lo Buluk 15, Froling 13)

BOX SCORE