Kings Fire Back in Best Possible Way to Hammer Bullets

What's the best way to forget about your recent woes? Put in the type of performance the Sydney Kings did at Qudos Bank Arena as they fired themselves back to the winner's list with a 97-73 thumping of the Brisbane Bullets.

The frustration levels were building at the Kings on the back of a four-game losing streak stretching back to Boxing Day against Melbourne United. It wasn’t even so much that they were playing that badly – aside from in fourth quarters.

That was emphasised with just 11 points against the Illawarra Hawks in an eight-point loss last Thursday before conceding an 18-1 run to close the game last Sunday to the New Zealand Breakers and lose by seven having led by 10 five minutes earlier.

They appeared on track to get back to the winning list on Friday in Brisbane leading by 19 in the opening term. But again they couldn’t close the door to be overrun by the Bullets and lose by nine to slip to 3-6 coming into Sunday's return encounter at Qudos Bank Arena.

The pressure was on coming into the game and the Kings knew it, but they dealt with it in the best way possible by blowing the Bullets out of the water.

By quarter-time the Kings were up by 10 and that was 21 by half-time. And this time instead of folding, Sydney only got better as the game rolled on. DJ Vasiljevic knocked down three triples in a minute to ensure the Kings kept rolling and eventually they cruised to the 24-point win.

All the talk after Friday was if the Kings would have held their lead if Xavier Cooks hadn’t been ejected. A strong case was made for that on Sunday when he delivered 13 points, 12 rebounds, five blocked shots and two assists.

He had plenty of help too with DJ Vasiljevic hitting five threes on his way to 23 points while Jarell Martin had 19 points and 12 rebounds, Jaylen Adams 17 points, six boards and five assists, and Angus Glover 12 points.

Kings coach Chase Buford couldn’t have been happier with the bounce back performance.

"It was a good bounce back after a tough game the other night where Brisbane were absolutely terrific in the second half. We didn’t have the answers but tonight we came out and did what we did through three quarters the other night for the entirety of the game," Buford said.

"We probably played even better in stretches, the pace was good and the defence was really good. DJ stepped up and made a bunch of plays including some great shots and passes to the roller, and we just stayed at them. We didn’t give a let up and kept it on them for 40 minutes."

It was a rough afternoon for the Bullets compounded by losing centre Ty Harrison early with a pectoral injury. Lamar Patterson finished with 16 points, Nathan Sobey 12, Robert Franks 11 and Jason Cadee 10.

Bullets coach James Duncan hopes his team can learn from the game quickly before Wednesday's home clash with Melbourne.

"It was a great learning experience for us. I won't say it's a playoff type game, but if you get to the playoffs you are going to have to win a game at home and then potentially win on the road," Duncan said.

"In that sense, we need to be better and we weren’t today. We don’t have a lot of time now to lick our wounds with Melbourne coming to town on Wednesday. We've got to start preparing for that."

On the back of their momentum from a dominant fourth quarter on Friday, Brisbane started well on Sunday too with Nathan Sobey hitting an early three in game 200 as the Bullets went up 5-2.

However, starts hadn’t been the problem for the Kings and it wasn’t here with Jaylen Adams getting them rolling with a three ball. Sydney soon went on a run of nine straight points topped off with an and-one play to Jarell Martin.

Shaun Bruce then hit a three heading towards quarter-time against his former team to help the Kings to a 28-18 edge.

The Kings were aggressive and were rewarded by getting into the bonus less than three minutes into the second quarter, and they were able to take full advantage.

Sydney would get to the foul line 11 times to the Brisbane one in the first half and on top of that with Vasiljevic hitting two more three balls in the second term, and then Angus Glover kickstarting a 12-0 run to extend the lead to 26, the home team was feeling it.

The Bullets, however, at least closed the first half with the last five points to close that half-time deficit to 21.

If the Bullets were eyeing off another big comeback against a nervous Kings, those hopes didn’t last long into the second half thanks to Vasiljevic.

Showing all the confidence in the world in his shot and getting rid of the frustration from the last 12 months, he was simply on fire and nailed three triples in no time to put his team back on top by 26.

There were no signs of the Brisbane comeback with the Kings still on top 78-50 heading into three quarter-time.

Both teams were just playing out time in the fourth period with Sydney cruising to the statement 24-point win.

The Bullets will next be in action at home to Melbourne United on Australia Day while the Kings have a full week ahead of hosting the Perth Wildcats next Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8

SYDNEY KINGS 97 (Vasiljevic 23, Martin 19, Adams 17)

BRISBANE BULLETS 73 (Patterson 16, Sobey 12, Franks 11) 

BOX SCORE