Kings Fire in Second Half to Take Game 1 from Taipans

A stunning first half three-point shooting performance from Jonah Antonio threatened to see the Cairns Taipans shock the Sydney Kings in Game 1 of their Playoffs Series, but the defending champions got on top with a 17-0 third quarter run before winning 95-87.

The Taipans came into Qudos Bank Arena with no fear despite the absence of key duo Tahjere McCall and Keanu Pinder having advanced by beating the Perth Wildcats on Sunday to meet the regular season champion Kings.

Cairns finished the first quarter with the last nine points to grab the lead with a triple from Antonio. Having only scored 58 points all season in limited minutes, he then came out to knock down four more three-pointers in the second quarter.

He had a career-high 17 points to half-time with the Taipans putting up 59 to lead by nine. However, the Kings steadied the ship and with MVP Xavier Cooks leading the way, they scored 17 points straight in the third quarter to grab the lead.

Sydney ended up outscoring Cairns 45 points to 28 in the second half to win by eight and to be one win away from a second straight appearance in the Championship Series.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That’s the signature Xavier Cooks stare-down ?<br><br>Catch the second half live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/TTEMdKeNNc">pic.twitter.com/TTEMdKeNNc</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1625805747295768576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

In his first game as the league MVP, Cooks was brilliant for Sydney with 27 points and 14 rebounds on 11/19 shooting from the field.

Fellow All-First Team member Derrick Walton Jr was superb too with 21 points, five assists and four rebounds with Tim Soares contributing 14 points and four rebounds, Justin Simon 10 points, eight boards and three assists, and Kouat Noi eight points and three rebounds.

Kings coach Chase Buford was proud of the way his team responded in the second half at the defensive end especially.

"I definitely got into these guys a little bit and we watched where some of the breakdowns were happening in the first half," Buford said.

"It was really about the second quarter and the last two minutes of the first. I thought we started the game well defensively. The second quarter was where they started killing us with the seven threes after a couple to finish the first.

"We have a lot of prideful guys on the team who take pride in guarding their own and we were trying to be in some coverages where we needed to communicate and switch some things. The communication and execution of that in the first half was poor a lot of times and we let Antonio go nuts. 

"We then locked in on a couple of those things at half-time and it was a total energy shift. It was these guys coming out and playing with a different mindset in the second half."

While Antonio produced a career-best 20 points with 6/9 three-point shooting for Cairns, it was DJ Hogg who led the Snakes' charge with another 24 points and two assists.

Shannon Scott added 13 points, seven assists and five rebounds, Sam Waardenburg 11 points and seven boards, and Bul Kuol eight points, four rebounds and three assists before fouling out midway through the fourth.

Taipans coach Adam Forde just felt his team's offence dried up in the third quarter and ultimately that's what cost them.

"It was always going to be a question if that shooting was sustainable, but the big issue obviously was that we gave up 50 at the half and that was the main consensus that we talked about," Forde said.

"The offence was a little bit terminal especially in that third quarter when we made some errors at both ends of the floor. We lost a little bit of composure with the chirping on the floor and so forth. 

"The good thing was we were able to regain a little bit of composure and keep it relatively close with a couple of chances to really take the lead back in the fourth. But we just couldn’t make those shots."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Shannon Scott from the Kmart logo! ?<br><br>Watch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLFinals</a> Live &amp; free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/NNYLF8bi21">pic.twitter.com/NNYLF8bi21</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1625803322354720768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Kings started hot with the first five points of the game through big man Tim Soares before the Taipans worked their way into the contest starting with a Sam Waardenburg dunk when the seas parted for him.

Sydney had started well, though, and five quick points to Kouat Noi, a bucket to Angus Glover and triple from Shaun Bruce showed the depth they possess to put them up 25-17 late in the opening quarter.

Cairns finished on fire with the last nine points including three balls to Majok Deng and Jonah Antonio to nab the 26-25 going into quarter-time.

Lat Mayen knocked down a three-pointer early in the second quarter for Cairns, but it very quickly became the Antonio show in the breakout performance of his first NBL season.

Coming into the season he was a known commodity as a knockdown three-point shooter. He had patiently been biding his time on this Taipans team, but grabbed his opportunity in spectacular fashion in Game 1 of the Playoffs Series.

In a simply stunning shooting display, he made four three-pointers in the second quarter and made another two free-throws. That gave him 14 points for the quarter, 17 points in the half on 5/6 three-point shooting in just 8:38 of court time.

On the back of that, the Snakes led 59-50 at half-time on the back of shooting 56 per cent from the floor and nailing 10/21 from deep as a team. 

The Kings were OK offensively shooting 56 per cent themselves led by 13 points from Xavier Cooks, but went just 2/10 from three-point land and wouldn’t have been happy with the defensive performance in the opening half. 

After four quick points from Shannon Scott, Cairns still led by 11 and Sydney had to respond early in the third quarter.

They did so in a fashion like only they can and it was a 17-0 scoring run that saw them turn that 11-point deficit into a six-point lead. That included a couple of dunks from Cooks in transition, triples from Derrick Walton Jr, Justin Simon and Noi.

A layup on the buzzer from Jaylin Galloway saw Sydney take a 77-69 lead into three quarter-time on the back of scoring 25 of the last 31 points of the third period while holding Cairns to just 10 points after conceding 59 to them in the opening half.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Derrick and Justin making magic as usual ??<br><br>Watch it LIVE on ESPN via Kayo Sports + Foxtel<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> <a href="https://t.co/Wyfe28Enkf">pic.twitter.com/Wyfe28Enkf</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1625779502474227714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Taipans did well to hang around in the fourth quarter, though, and they were running everything through Hogg and putting the ball in his hands. He brought them back within three with a nice bucket with five minutes to play.

Sydney kept having all the answers, though, whether it was big shots from DJ Vasiljevic, Walton or Cooks. Scott hit a triple and then made a three-point play to keep the Taipans close, but they couldn’t quite get over the hump.

Cooks put the exclamation mark driving down the lane for the one-handed throwdown and the Kings won by eight. Game 2 will be in Cairns on Friday night.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL FINALS – PLAYOFFS SERIES 1, GAME 1

SYDNEY KINGS 95 (Cooks 27, Walton Jr 21, Soares 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 87 (Hogg 24, Antonio 20, Scott 13) 

BOX SCORE