Kings Focus on Defensive Improvements

Friday, December 30, 2022

The Sydney Kings are focusing on improving their defence after gaining a historic win on Christmas night against Melbourne United, which moved them back into first place on the ladder.

After starting the season on fire, Sydney have gone 2-2 in its last four games, falling into some inconsistent habits.

Kings coach Chase Buford was content with the 101-80 Christmas win but says the side still have defensive improvements to make in their championship defence.

“It's always great to get a win, especially coming off a loss - I was pleased with the response of the whole group against United,” Buford said via the club's website.

"But there's always areas of improvement, which is why we had a good defensive review on the film today, as I feel we can be a lot tougher on the ball.

“We're a good defensive unit but I honestly believe we've got a lot more to give on that end of the floor.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After the win on Christmas Night, the Kings sit nice and high on the ladder, but Buford is ready to shift his focus to their game against the JackJumpers. <br><br>Read how Buford and the Kings plan on securing a win Friday night ?<a href="https://t.co/esoFQ7l0uY">https://t.co/esoFQ7l0uY</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/LndmGqIjD2">pic.twitter.com/LndmGqIjD2</a></p>— Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1608234693337534478?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Kings’ next match up will be against their NBL22 Grand Final opponents, the Tasmania JackJumpers.

Buford is weary of the upcoming clash and is hoping to rewrite their last result against the JackJumpers, who snatched an 84-76 win earlier this month, after outscoring the Kings 26-6 in the last quarter.

“[To reverse the result against Tasmania] we've got to firstly guard in the fourth quarter and not let them get easy buckets down the stretch," Buford said.

“We've always got to move the ball better and play with more space, as we've had a tendency of getting stagnant at the end of games.”

The Kings host the JackJumpers on Friday night at 7:30pm AEDT at Qudos Bank Arena.