Kings Keep Rolling at Expense of Bullets

The Sydney Kings turned on a clinic against the hapless Brisbane Bullets at Nissan Arena on Wednesday night scoring a fifth straight victory to further consolidate NBL23 top spot with the 116-67 victory.

Sydney arrived at Nissan Arena the form team of the competition sitting on top of the table having put up 106 points over those wins, which was always a danger sign for a Bullets team having lost their past two games by 39 points.

Brisbane needed to show some heart in front of another strong 4068 home crowd after last week's loss to Cairns where all five starters struggled. 

Nathan Sobey kept them in touch of the Kings in the first quarter and then Tyler Johnson did what he could in the second, and Aron Baynes had a strong start to the second half, but the Kings just were too much.

Sydney's defence was terrific highlighted by keeping Brisbane to 67 points on 36 per cent field goal shooting, 4/28 from downtown and to 15 turnovers.

It's that defence that allowed the Kings to push the pace and to score another 116 points to now be averaging 108.7 over the past six games, with a winning margin of 25.4 in the last five.

The 49-point margin gave the Kings the biggest win of the season on another efficient night shooting 55 per cent from the floor, hitting 12/31 from deep and 24/25 at the foul line.

Xavier Cooks finished with another 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds with Tim Soares adding 20 points, six boards, three blocks and two steals while Derrick Walton Jr had 18 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Angus Glover put on a clinic in the fourth quarter to finish the game with 14 points with 4/5 from deep with DJ Vasiljevic adding 11 points and four rebounds, and Justin Simon 11 points, three boards and three assists.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">‘’That’s one of the prettiest things I have ever seen’’ ?<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/kLZpRRMryv">pic.twitter.com/kLZpRRMryv</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1613116861117509632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Kings coach Chase Buford was rightfully happy with Sydney's biggest ever win in a 40-minute game and the equal second highest margin in franchise history.

"We've had a good run now of putting people on their heels for the entirety of 40 minutes," Buford said.

"Earlier in the season we had some slip ups in the second half from winning positions so that's driving that mentality of keeping on playing, keeping our foot on the gas and trying to keep running. I thought our transition pace was terrific tonight."

It was a rough night all-round for the Bullets with Nathan Sobey top-scoring with 14 points to go with five rebounds and three assists. Tyler Johnson added 13 points and four boards, and Aron Baynes seven points and six rebounds.

Brisbane coach Greg Vanderjagt thought his team's response was on point for the first quarter, they just couldn’t sustain it against the relentless Kings.

"That's a really, really good basketball team, let's start with that," Vanderjagt said.

"We're not the first team to cop that this year, we might have copped it a little bit worse and it's a hell of a basketball team playing at a high level. We knew we had to be near perfect for 40 minutes to beat them, but the way we played in the first quarter was really pleasing. 

"In terms of a response, we got a positive response for 10 minutes where I thought we were pretty good. It was just us not being able to sustain that over the space of 40 minutes against a really good team."

Tim Soares opened the contest up with a three-pointer for Sydney but Brisbane responded well with the next six points courtesy of Nathan Sobey and DJ Mitchell.

The Bullets were able to maintain pace with the Kings through the first quarter as well largely thanks to nine points from Sobey but the Kings went into quarter-time still leading 24-21.

The Kings started the second quarter on fire with eight quick points beginning with a Xavier Cooks bucket before a triple from DJ Vasiljevic and then an and-one finish from Cooks.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jordan Hunter rises above everyone ?<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. ? <a href="https://t.co/n11bViacSQ">pic.twitter.com/n11bViacSQ</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1613098727677521921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That saw Sydney up by 11 and the margin was soon 17 with another 6-0 starting with at three-pointer from Cooks. The Kings opened the second quarter with a 14-2 run and from there cruised to a 59-40 lead at half-time.

Tyler Johnson tried his best again to keep Brisbane close with seven points for the period, but the Kings were just doing as they pleased shooting 52 per cent and going 14/15 at the foul line.

Brisbane again had just for trips to the stripe themselves while Cooks and Soares combined for 31 points on 9/12 shooting for Sydney.

Aron Baynes tried to be more aggressive to open the second half for Brisbane, but it didn’t matter with Sydney continuing to do as they wished. The Kings went on another 10-0 run with a three from Justin Simon and spectacular spinning finish from Derrick Walton Jr.

Eventually the Sydney lead got out to as much as 33 points by three quarter-time, and the Kings were out there having fun in the fourth piling on another 28 points to end up winning by a season-best 49.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Soares getting active early for the <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> ?<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/6U0Lw1m5eE">pic.twitter.com/6U0Lw1m5eE</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1613095629705875456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 11, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Bullets have two more games to go in Round 15 at home to Melbourne United on Saturday and then on the road to the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Monday.

The Kings are back home on Sunday to play host to the Illawarra Hawks.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

BRISBANE BULLETS 67 (Sobey 14, Johnson 13, Baynes 7)

SYDNEY KINGS 116 (Soares 20, Cooks 20, Walton Jr 18) 

BOX SCORE