Kings rule in dominant win over Phoenix

In a match awash with playoff implications, the South East Melbourne Phoenix fell at home to a red-hot Sydney Kings who not only took out the 101-80 but moved into third position in the process.

The Kings continue to frustrate Simon Mitchell and South East Melbourne, with Thursday night’s 21-point victory representing their seventh win in eight matches against the Phoenix. 

This win at John Cain Arena has the Kings well placed for another playoff run and that's despite the news they will now be without DJ Vasiljevic and Didi Louzada for the rest of the season, and no return dates for Xavier Cooks and Angus Glover.

There were early worries for the Phoenix, who slipped to an early 7-0 hole and took over four minutes to hit their first basket. 

After such a lacklustre performance against the Adelaide 36ers (an 90-81 defeat that saw them trail by as much as 22 points), Phoenix fans must have been fearing the worst. 

But Mitch Creek, who has been playing off the bench of late, emerged to correct course for the Phoenix. He led all scorers at the half with 17 points, which came on 7/10 shooting.

With Ryan Broekhoff again sidelined with injury, there was added pressure on Creek (who would finish with 29 for the match) to perform on the offensive end, especially considering some of the weapons the Sydney Kings boast. 

Casper Ware, who was fresh off a 40-point performance against the Cairn Taipans that ranks as his career-best, came into this game looking to continue his good form. 

In fact, his John Cain Arena points-per-game average of 19.3 betters that of his average at Qudos Bank Arena, which is more than a point lower at 18.0. Ware finished with 19 points. 

Ware had 10 points in the first half, but it was his Jordan Hunter’s presence in the paint that was having the biggest impact early against Phoenix, scoring eight points and bringing down seven rebounds by the main break. 

The Phoenix’s sloppiness with the ball, resulting in 11 first-half turnovers, didn’t help South East Melbourne’s cause either. The Kings lead by three points (38-35) at half-time. 

Cam Gliddon (16 points, 5/12 from the field) and Ben Moore (two points, 1/6) endured a horror shooting night, missing their first nine shots collectively. Lucky for the Phoenix, Kyle Adnam (14 points and four assists playing in game 150) was a spark plug at point-guard. 

Unlike the Phoenix, the Kings enjoyed steady production across the board. Craig Moller (11 points, eight rebounds) was one of those Sydney players who stood up after the departure for the NBA of Louzada.

Hunter finished with an impressive double-double (19 points and 10 rebounds) and Jarell Martin showed why the Kings coveted him for that import spot, posting 11 points and nine rebounds. 

The Phoenix will need to address the third quarter problems, which is the period that they lost pace with the 36ers. It was also where the Kings started to blow the Phoenix away, enjoying a 35 to 14 third quarter en route to a 24-point deficit (73-49) heading into the fourth. 

The Phoenix made some late ground (including a stretch where Gliddon made four straight three-pointers, and some strong play from Creek), but it wasn’t enough. 

The Kings went 11-deep with their output, and got 36 points from their bench. It would have pleased Kings coach Adam Forde, who is now on track to make the playoff in his rookie year as an NBL head coach. 

"We made it very clear... we have a real intent on trying to get to the rim. That's what we want to do and we did it. We're getting it, we want teams to have to defend us," Forde said.

"We're doing a pretty good job with our effective field-goal range, ticking boxes... but I want to say the last six weeks we've been letting them go on practice. You can't help but think that there's something from practice that's transferable to the game. 

"I want to explain in a sense of us scoring right to the end. Coming into the game, us and South East had the exact same scoring percentage. But this is it, we're getting to the pointy end. That is probably going to be the difference between top four and not top four."

The Kings return to action in fewer than 48 hours, travelling to Wollongong to face Brian Goorjian’s Illawarra Hawks at WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday night. The Phoenix are in action on ANZAC Day away to the Brisbane Bullets.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell didn’t hide from what he thought of the performance, but hopes his team bounces back quickly in Brisbane.

"That was an awful performance. When we don't have everybody performing at a high level, you see what happened tonight," Mitchell said.

"We've got Brisbane quick turnaround, so we have to snap out of it quickly. The first thing you go back on and you have to assess yourself on is your physicality and we got manhandled out there. We'll start from there. Our pick and roll defence was poor, Casper was splitting us all night."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 81 (Creek 29, Gliddon 16, Adnam 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 101 (Ware 19, Hunter 19, Martin 11, Moller 11) 

BOX SCORE