Simon Inspires Shorthanded Kings to Game 2 Win

Depth was one of the Sydney Kings great strengths in NBL23 and that carried them to a Game 2 Championship Series win over the New Zealand Breakers on Sunday, winning 81-74 minus their All-First Team members.

New Zealand took Game 1 in Sydney with an impressive all-round performance winning 95-87 on Friday as they returned to Spark Arena for Game 2 in front of a sold out Auckland cowd of 8429.

Things turned further in favour of the Breakers when Derrick Walton Jr lasted only a few minutes and Xavier Cooks played just nine minutes of the first half before both Sydney All-First Team members were ruled out for the rest of the game.

However, Sydney's depth has been a key reason in why they were the regular season champions and that was on show in Game 2. It started with Kouat Noi stepping up for Cooks in that power forward spot and then Justin Simon was inspirational to produce a match-winning performance.

On the back of his standout performance in Game 3 against the Cairns Taipans, the former Best Defensive Player turned on the afterburners on Sunday. He had three steals in as many minutes early in the second half leading to three scores including two dunks.

By the end of the game, he finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six steals and he above anybody else was the difference between the two teams to level up the Championship Series after the first two games.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Justin Simon back-to-back ?<br><br>Watch Game 2?? live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 Play / Live on SkySport &amp; Prime in NZ ? <a href="https://t.co/yMxw3PGKA6">pic.twitter.com/yMxw3PGKA6</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1632264603349684225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

With Cooks and Walton combining for two points in 14 minutes, it was a spectacular performance from the Kings and they won the rebound count, shot 9/22 from three-point land and their aggressiveness was rewarded with 22/34 at the foul line.

Noi ended up top-scoring for Sydney with 20 points and five rebounds too with DJ Vasiljevic landing 4/6 from three-point territory for 16 points. 

Angus Glover added 12 points with Shaun Bruce (five points, six rebounds, three assists), Jaylin Galloway (five points, two boards, two steals) and Jordan Hunter (four points, 10 rebounds) important too.

Kings coach Chase Buford was proud of his team for the fighting performance and especially with how Simon stepped up.

"I'm really proud of the guys. They gave it everything," Buford said.

"We were undermanned, playing weird line-ups and a bunch of funky stuff was going on. But they just came out and competed their balls off and I couldn’t be proud of them right now.

"I really challenged him (Simon) and told him if we're comparing Game 1 with his defence to Game 3 against DJ Hogg it was night and day. He came out tonight and gave us another one of those performances. 

"When he just ripped McDowell-White three times in-a-row in that third quarter, it totally changed the flow and momentum of the entire game. We never really looked back after that."

Barry Brown Jr ended up leading the scoring for the Breakers with 21 points on 4/9 three-point shooting with Jarrell Brantley adding 20 points and six rebounds.

Izayah Le'afa also landed 3/5 from downtown for 14 points, three rebounds and three assists with the Kings doing well to limit Game 1 hero Will McDowell-White to seven points, four assists and six turnovers.

Breakers coach Mody Maor just felt his team lacked the composure they showed to win so well in Game 1.

"We played with a lack of composure for big parts of the game," Maor said. 

"It's something that we need to learn from and it's a Championship Series, big games and they come with challenges. You need some composure to overcome them. With that being said, it's just Game 2 and onto the next one."

It certainly wasn’t a start at the offensive end for either team to write home about. Sydney missed their opening five field goals but did score first with a free-throw to Kouat Noi before DJ Vasiljevic hit the first field goal almost four minutes in.

However, both Xavier Cooks and Derrick Walton Jr were already sitting for Sydney but the Kings scored again through Noi and led 5-0 after five minutes before eventually New Zealand scored after going 0/8. It was a Jarrell Brantley three-pointer that ended their drought to open the game.

The Kings had settled the quicker, though, and soon led 9-3 before Barry Brown Jr and Izayah Le'afa sparked the Breakers off the bench with a basket each.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> won&#39;t go away ?<br><br>Watch Game 2?? live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 Play / Live on SkySport &amp; Prime in NZ ? <a href="https://t.co/FAvgNFtoJN">pic.twitter.com/FAvgNFtoJN</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1632274958276755459?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

New Zealand couldn’t build on that and Sydney closed the quarter with a 12-2 run that including three-point bombs to Angus Glover, Noi and Vasiljevic.

That had the Kings up 21-9 after one following an opening period where New Zealand shot 4/18 with five turnovers and Sydney ended up at 6/14 from the field and the four turnovers.

By the time Vasiljevic nailed another three-pointer for the Kings early in the second period his team was leading 26-13 but the Breakers responded with their best run of the game to score the next nine points with six of those courtesy of point guard Will McDowell-White.

It was Noi the difference-maker in the first half for the Kings stepping up with Cooks grounded and he went into half-time with 12 points and Sydney was leading 34-30 as a result despite 11 turnovers. 

It was an uncharacteristic inefficient first half from New Zealand who shot at 36 per cent in the first half with seven turnovers and just three offensive rebounds.

With Cooks and Walton both ruled out of the rest of the game at half-time for Sydney, it was going to take something special and that's exactly what Simon provided for the Kings in the third quarter.

In the opening three minutes, he pulled off three steals to score five quick points including back-to-back thieving efforts on McDowell-White that led to dunks. That put Sydney back up nine before Brown and Le'afa landed three balls for the Breakers.

They couldn’t build momentum off that, though, and the Kings scored the next nine points including a three-point dagger from Simon. Glover closed the third period with a three-pointer too and that saw the Kings lead 57-41 despite missing their two All-First Team members.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Has Vasiljevic dropped the dagger? ??<br><br>Watch Game 2?? live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 Play / Live on SkySport &amp; Prime in NZ ? <a href="https://t.co/pW3wSR0GZc">pic.twitter.com/pW3wSR0GZc</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1632272776915718147?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

A dagger three from Vasiljevic early in the fourth pushed Sydney's lead out to 18 and while New Zealand did keep fighting, the Kings had all the answers to hold on and win by seven.

There will now be a bit of a break until Game 3 is back at Qudos Bank Arena on Friday night before Game 4 is locked in for next Sunday at Spark Arena. If needed, Game 5 will be the following Wednesday in Sydney.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL FINALS – CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES GAME 2

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 74 (Brown Jr 21, Brantley 20, Le'afa 14) 

SYDNEY KINGS 81 (Noi 20, Vasiljevic 16, Glover 12, Simon 12)

Best-of-five series is tied 1-1

BOX SCORE