Kings Too Much for Phoenix on DJ's Career Night

There is something about Sydney Kings-South East Melbourne Phoenix match ups in NBL23 and on Wednesday night at Qudos Bank Arena, DJ Vasiljevic had the best night of his NBL career to lead the reigning champs to the 118-102 win.

Only a couple of weeks ago in Gippsland, the two teams played out a double overtime classic with the Phoenix winning 113-112 with Mitch Creek and Derrick Walton Jr combining for 91 points.

Walton wasn’t there on Wednesday night for the return encounter due to ankle soreness, but it didn’t take away from the terrific contest at least for the first three quarters until the Kings blew it out.

The Phoenix were still missing Trey Kell III, Gary Browne and Zhou Qi, but did welcome back Ryan Broekhoff and they put up 30 points in the first quarter looking to hit back from Sunday's 25-point loss to Tasmania.

The longer the game went, though, the more the Kings worked their way on top. Vasiljevic has talked about his confidence to break out of a shooting slump, and he did so in blistering fashion.

Coming into the game he was just going at 29.1 per cent from beyond the arc to be ranked eighth for three-point attempts and 14th in makes, but that sure changed in front of 11,321 fans in the Q.

He went 6/7 from downtown in the first half for 22 points and ended the game with a career best 42 on 10/14 three-point shooting to lead the Kings to the impressive 16-point win on the back of putting up 118 points to maintain top spot in the NBL at 14-5.

Vasiljevic's performance saw him become the 23rd player to make 10 or more threes in a game but it's tied with Aaron Trahair for the third most in Sydney history – with Shane Heal's 12 twice leading the way.

It also makes Vasiljevic the only current player alongside Bryce Cotton to have hit 10 threes, and only he, Cotton and Jermaine Beal have done it in the 40-minute era with him obviously the only King to do it.

While it's still three short of the all-time record of 13 from Ian Davies of the Newcastle Falcons, it was quite the performance.

"Obviously I give credit to my teammates and coaching staff for finding me, and keeping me hot for the game," Vasiljevic said.

"I think I'm out of that slump now but I just have to continue to keep doing the work I've been doing pretty much my whole life and keep going from there."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">MAKE THAT ? FOR DEJAN VASILJEVIC ???<br><br>4??2?? total and the win ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/MPlWA5MLuX">pic.twitter.com/MPlWA5MLuX</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1610584103539310592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sydney shot a stunning 17/23 from three as a team. Even without Vasiljevic, everyone else still went 7/9. They also did well at the foul line making 15/17 with the 118 points the highest score from any team in NBL23.

Xavier Cooks had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists, Tim Soares 15 points and four boards, Kouat Noi 10 points and four rebounds, and Jordan Hunter 10 points.

There was nothing wrong with the Phoenix's offence as they put up 102 points on 50 per cent field goal shooting. Creek delivered another 32 points, nine rebounds and five assists on 13/21 shooting including 4/8 from downtown.

Kyle Adnam added 20 points and six assists, Alan Williams 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Junior Madut 13 points and six boards.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell was pleased with areas of improvement, but they just couldn’t stop the Kings onslaught.

"There were certain areas we wanted to make sure we were better at than we were in the Tasmania game," Mitchell said.

"It's pretty obviously we're down manpower and that's just the way it is, but we've got enough talent out there to still compete, and be a good basketball team. We weren’t in the Tasmania game, we were a bad basketball team. 

"So there were areas we really wanted to be solid in tonight and I thought for periods of time we were able to sustain it, and then there were moments we couldn’t and Sydney hammered the nailed in every time we made those mistakes.

"Their performance from behind the arc was beyond ridiculous and they made us pay for every single error that we made."

The stage was set for what was to come from DJ Vasiljevic when he opened the game up with a three-pointer. Junior Madut responded in kind for South East Melbourne and both teams wasted no time putting points on the board quickly.

Mitch Creek had 46 last time against Sydney and he and Alan Williams combined for a 7-0 run to put the Phoenix up 19-11. 

While the Kings kept in touch including Vasiljevic continuing to knock them down, the Phoenix were unstoppable and late triples to Grant Anticevich and Creek saw them take a 30-24 lead into quarter-time.

It didn’t take long for the Kings to grab the lead when they opened the second term with a pair of threes from Vasiljevic, and then an and-one from Jordan Hunter. Vasiljevic then hit his fifth three of the half, then got to the rack to score.

When he knocked down his sixth of the half Sydney's lead was out to double-figures but South East Melbourne was keeping pace with the Kings up 58-55 at the break.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">XAVIER COOKS IS X-TRAORDINARY ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/6uYoxm4if0">pic.twitter.com/6uYoxm4if0</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1610573102970470400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It was quite the offensive onslaught from both teams with Vasiljevic going into the half on 22 points shooting 6/7 from deep but Creek had 19 for the Phoenix and Kyle Adnam 14.

It was Xavier Cooks' turn to stamp his authority on the contest to start the second half with Sydney's first seven points before Vasiljevic added four at the stripe to push his team back out nine.

A three-point play from Kouat Noi saw Sydney back up double-figures but the Phoenix kept coming and a couple of triples to Adnam, and one each to Creek and Reuben Te Rangi made it a three-point ball game.

But the Kings had the final say of the third quarter with a seventh three from Vasiljevic. Shaun Bruce added another and Sydney led 89-80 going into the fourth.

An eight triple early in the fourth for Vasiljevic and then another two buckets inside the arc from him saw Sydney's lead out to 12 before they reached the century with more than six minutes to play.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dejan Vasiljevic is catching fire, 4?? triples already ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel ? <a href="https://t.co/9CldWAnmhK">pic.twitter.com/9CldWAnmhK</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1610564066162147328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Vasiljevic was anything but done and he nailed a ninth bomb with five to play to go to 39 points, and then finished the game knocking down a 10th to finish on 42 for his team to win by 16.

Both teams now turn their attention to games this weekend with the Kings playing the Perth Wildcats for the first time at home on Saturday before the Phoenix face the Cairns Taipans in the Far North on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

SYDNEY KINGS 118 (Vasiljevic 42, Cooks 16, Soares 15)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 102 (Creek 32, Adnam 20, Williams 14) 

BOX SCORE