Goorjian: Veterans delivered when it mattered

Kendric Davis and Torrey Craig produced big numbers, while Kouat Noi, Jaylin Galloway and Makuach Maluach all had their moments, but it was the class of Xavier Cooks and Matthew Dellavedova that stood out most to Brian Goorjian in the Sydney Kings’ thrilling Game 1 win.

Even when Cooks was battling confidence early, particularly at the foul line, and Dellavedova was being dared to shoot from deep, Goorjian trusted the pair would deliver when it mattered.

They did exactly that in Sydney’s dramatic 105-104 Playoffs victory over the Perth Wildcats.

Cooks finished with 10 points, six of them coming in the fourth quarter as the Kings closed out the contest. Dellavedova knocked down three triples and assumed much of the primary playmaking duties, helping free Davis to explode for 35 points.

The Kings had contributions across the board. Craig added 20 points, while Maluach produced several key plays including a monster block on Jo Lual-Acuil Jr.

But when the pressure rose, Goorjian knew exactly where he could turn.

"You go back to the start of the year and Xavier's free throws and Delly's threes (received a lot of attention), but they're world class and this is for all the marbles," Goorjian said.

"(They were) huge, both of them. Delly hit some big threes but even more importantly with the group I started, my secondary ball carrier was Xavier and the ball didn’t get back in his (Davis) hand.

"But when I brought Delly in, it got him on track and once we figured out what we're doing during the game, and by the end of the game we got the right guys setting the on-balls with him, and off the ball we got the ball back to him and we worked it out."

Before the Kings launched their 11-game winning streak to close the regular season, Cooks had struggled badly at the foul line, making just 43 of 96 attempts at 45 per cent.

Goorjian, however, had seen the work going in behind the scenes and believed improved confidence in the rest of Cooks’ game would eventually translate to the stripe.

That belief paid off in Game 1. Cooks went 4 of 5 from the line, including three crucial makes inside the final two minutes.

"A big part of the practices are easy baskets, so we've been working a lot on the rebounding aspects and playing the defences without fouling, and shooting free throws," Goorjian said.

"We're not talking a lot about it, but we have little routines for each guy and we've done a lot of skill work on it, and then at the end of all our practices we've had like 20 minutes of shooting and have made sure there's a free-throw focus.

"But those looked good coming out of his hand and you get a comfort by doing, and he's seeing the ball go through and knows he's put in the work and there's more of a confidence there than there has been."

Goorjian likely entered the game expecting Cooks, Craig, Galloway and Maluach to rotate as the primary matchups on Wildcats star Kristian Doolittle.

But when Doolittle erupted for 17 points in the third quarter, Goorjian turned to Dellavedova. From there, he helped limit Doolittle’s influence while continuing to steer the offence, supporting Davis with his playmaking and timely shooting.

"We put Delly on Doolittle and that ended up being kinda like our best matchup," Goorjian said.

"Doolittle is really hard to stop and you saw at the start of the game that we tried to double him and rotate with some guys that we thought weren’t deadly knocked down threes.

"Then we started to stay with the ball pressure in the back court and stick with the rotations, and stop flying around, and all our matchups either he was too big or a little too quick for.

"He's a hard, hard, hard match up and a lot of the coaches have talked about Bryce or Kendric, and he and Sobey are in that mix and he's different.

"He's elite and we didn’t do a great job and had a problem there, but Delly did seem to do the best job out of anyone that we tried on him."