Kings stay hot to dominate Bullets

The intense defence, physicality and then crisp offence of the Sydney Kings once again was too much for the Brisbane Bullets as the hottest team in the NBL maintained their rage with the 95-70 home win.

The Kings were back home at Qudos Bank Arena on a five-game winning streak and looking to keep pace with the two Melbourne teams just ahead of them.

The Bullets arrived after two improved performances under interim coach Darryl McDonald with a drought breaking win over the New Zealand Breakers, and narrow lost to Melbourne United.

But they had no answers for the Kings once again and were still without newly signed injury replacement import Hunter Maldonado, and he was sorely missed with the Kings taking charge.

Sydney is the best defensive team in the league and showed why once again with Brisbane struggling to execute against it, and then the Kings had plenty of contributions across the board to lead by as much as 31 on the way to the 25-point victory.

The Kings have now won six straight for the first time since the NBL23 championship season to be 13-7 in fourth place and it came without a dominant showing from Kendric Davis who had 14 points and seven assists on 5/16 shooting.

Xavier Cooks top-scored with 20 points, five rebounds and four assists with Tim Soares adding 14 points and seven boards, Makuach Maluach 11 points and three rebounds, Kouat Noi 10 points and six boards, and Bul Kuol nine points and six rebounds.

Brisbane have now lost two games to Sydney by a combined 62 points with Sam McDaniel and Tohi Smith-Milner lone shining lights on offence hitting four triples apiece.

McDaniel had 18 points and four assists, and Smith-Milner 12 points and four rebounds.

Captain Mitch Norton added 15 points and six assists, and Tyrell Harrison 12 points and seven rebounds.

After going into quarter-time up nine points, the Kings began the second term on an 11-2 run and never looked likely being chased down after that.

Their lead ballooned to 31 points in the third quarter before Brian Goorjian began putting his stars on ice.

Sydney looked almost unstoppable in transition, locked down the paint far better than the Bullets and had many more scoring threats in their starting five.

In one particularly memorable first-quarter play, the forward blocked NBA championship winner Alex Ducas before streaking away for a one-handed dunk in transition.

Cooks was fouled tipping into the basket in the final seconds of the first half, landing a free throw for a then-game high 21-point lead.

Kendric Davis was particularly lethal shooting from mid-range and led all comers for assists.

The Bullets didn't help themselves, stepping out of bounds twice and giving up a crosscourt violation as part of 17 turnovers for the game.

The Bullets will now be back home for the first NBL game of 2026 when they host the Perth Wildcats on New Year's Day while on Friday night it's the battle of the league's two hottest teams with the Kings on the road to the Adelaide 36ers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2025/26

SYDNEY KINGS 95 (Cooks 20, Davis 14, Soares 14)

BRISBANE BULLETS 70 (McDaniel 18, Norton 15, Smith-Milner 12, Harrison 12)

BOX SCORE