“I wouldn’t trade Kendric Davis for anybody"

Throughout their strong run of winning 13 of their past 15 games, the Sydney Kings have been finding different ways to claim victory.

Sunday was no different, with Brian Goorjian’s team finding themselves down by 24 points in the first half before storming back to win by 14.

One of the main reasons for this win was Kendric Davis, who finished with 35 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

“Bryce Cotton is right up there with Andrew Gaze as the greatest two players to play in the NBL, but right now, I wouldn't trade Kendric Davis for anybody,” Goorjian said in Sunday’s post-game press conference.

The other was the team’s defence, which only allowed 38 second-half points, after deciding to go with a smaller lineup.

“It [the flow of the game] changed for us when we went smaller and went to a switching defence to contest the three-ball better,” Goorjian said.

“We paid close attention to guarding [Jack] McVeigh, which eventually helped get a huge win for us.

“We were a step off in that first half, especially defending the three-ball, and our guys know that, so there are a lot of things for us to address and there's a big scope for us to keep getting better.

“It comes back to culture and how you respond to being 24 points down, and this is another big step forward for us with how we handled it.”

While he’s proud of all his troops after their 20th win of the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 campaign, Goorjian highlighted the play of two-way wings Makuach Maluach and Torrey Craig.

“There were some big plays [in the win], none bigger than Maluach's block on Stattmann, and he's been such a real shining light for us defensively,” Goorjian said.

“With the addition of Craig now too, our defence continues to be a big part of who we are.

“Torrey has been here, and he has a respect for the competition. He has been elite with everything that he's added, and then you know that he can ball to top it all off.

“Maluach is a different sort of defender than Bul [Kuol], and after last season, we knew we wanted him back, and he is a key piece. Even Torrey is talking about how much he likes playing defensively next to him.”

Second-placed Sydney next plays fellow heavyweight South East Melbourne on Sunday at John Cain Arena from 2.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN and Channel 10.