Kings crown United for fourth consecutive loss

The Sydney Kings and Melbourne United finished the NBL Cup in opposing form and that continued on to Qudos Bank Arena on Friday night with the home team unstoppable on the way to the 103-75 victory.

The Kings put in a brilliant second half display to score 71 points in a 119-108 win over the Brisbane Bullets to end their time at the NBL Cup on Saturday, and they brought that form home with them on Friday night.

Unfortunately for Melbourne, their form to close the NBL Cup travelled to Sydney with them too. United lost their last three games in Melbourne to Illawarra, South East Melbourne and Brisbane, and then came out and laid an egg in the first half against the Kings.

Sydney backed up that 71-point second half on Saturday to put up another 60 in the first half in front of their home fans. The Kings went on with it with another 27 points in the third term.

They would lead by as much as 34 points on a night to show just what this group is capable of with an impressive front court made up of Jordan Hunter and Jarell Martin supported by Tom Vodanovich and Craig Moller while Didi Louzada's form is building.

You then have the poise and danger in the back court from Casper Ware, Shaun Bruce and DJ Vasiljevic, and what this team showed on Friday is enough to show they are going to be a team be reckoned with the rest of #NBL21.

The inside work of Hunter and Martin was especially exciting for the Kings. Hunter finished with 18 points and five rebounds and Martin 15 points and six boards as they shot a combined 15/26 from the floor and gave Jock Landale plenty to think about.

Louzada's form is building nicely too and the Next Star produced 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals with Ware finishing with 13 points and six assists, and Vasiljevic 11 points after a slow start.

The contributions didn’t end there. Moller was superb at both ends with nine points, six rebounds, six assists and two blocks – one of which was a showreel performance. Vodanovich added eight points, Bruce seven and returning veteran Daniel Kickert five.

Kings coach Adam Forde loved the energy from his team for the most part and he has no doubt a lot of that came from being back home.

"All season we have had these flashes of brilliance and then we have these moments of confusion so it was a big focus this week to make some adjustments to how we want to do things defensively, and on the offensive end," Forde said.

"A big part of it is being home and that helps lifts spirits and recharges the batteries, and guys getting to sleep in their own beds and eat at their favourite restaurants and do all the things that you get to do when you're home. 

"You factor that in and then the first quarter wasn’t great either, but for the most part it was our most complete performance and now we have to do it all again in two days."

Melbourne could do little to slow Sydney at one end and then struggled offensively up the other end despite 13 offensive rebounds for the game. The 15 turnovers offset those as did shooting 39 per cent from the field and getting to the foul line just nine times.

Landale battled hard for 18 points and seven rebounds with Mitch McCarron adding 17 points, four boards and three steals, Shea Ili 12 points and seven rebounds, and Mason Peatling 10 points and six boards.

But captain Chris Goulding had a night to forget going 1/8 from the field for two points.

United coach Dean Vickerman didn’t hold back in how he felt about his team's performance.

"It's hugely disappointing. After that first five minutes, it was something like 18-6 in those next five minutes and from that point it was a long time to try and come back," Vickerman said.

"We're not going to ever make excuses, we're way better than that but we are three guys down and have had a flu go through the team. 

"There was just a lack of energy from this group tonight and we talked about needing everybody to make good contributions, but I thought out of our main eight guys we had three passengers, and poor passengers tonight."

Melbourne actually started the game well and after a Jock Landale three-point play, led 13-7 after five minutes. That would be as good as it got, though, with Jordan Hunter finishing the first quarter on fire helping Sydney to the 25-21 quarter-time lead.

A couple of threes early in the second quarter from Brad Newley and Shaun Bruce helped Sydney's lead grow to double-digits. DJ Vasiljevic then got in on the act for his first score 15 minutes into the game and when Jarell Martin knocked down a three ball, the lead was 19.

It then got out to 24 just before half-time on the back of triples from Didi Louzada and Tom Vodanovich and a strong finish from Hunter. Only a Sam Short buzzer-beater for Melbourne had his team back within 21.

It was more of the same to start the second half with Sydney going on another 7-0 run to be up by 25. Louzada soon made that 27, and it was 29 by three quarter-time thanks to a big three from Craig Moller and buzzer-beater from Vasiljevic.

Sydney would blow the game out beyond 30 during the fourth quarter and even Daniel Kickert knocked down a three ball as did fellow forward Vodanovich before the Kings left with the 28-point thumping win.

Both teams back up to play on Sunday with the Kings hosting the Cairns Taipans and Melbourne takes on the Illawarra Hawks in Bendigo.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 10

SYDNEY KINGS 103 (Hunter 18, Martin 15, Louzada 14)

MELBOURNE UNITED 75 (Landale 18, McCarron 17, Ili 12) 

BOX SCORE