"Struggling" Kings "abysmal" in Adelaide defeat

Sydney’s Thursday night defeat to bottom-placed Adelaide means – pending other results – the Kings could find themselves sliding down the ladder come the end of the weekend.

The back-to-back reigning champions were sitting comfortably among the competition’s top three sides back in November, however eight losses in 11 games has seen them slide from top two contenders to battling for a Play-In spot.

Thursday night’s defeat was compounded by poor shot selection from beyond the arc, where Sydney hit a combined 5/33 three-point attempts for the game. Star imports Denzel Valentine and Jaylen Adams hit a combined 0/10 from three in the defeat.

“They’re playing with hunger, they’re just struggling right now,” head coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah said about his side after the loss.

“We’re 3-8 in our last 11 games and it doesn’t feel good when you’re losing this many. You start to question yourself as an individual and everything you’re doing.

“It’s all about confidence, having fun and enjoying what they’ve been doing for their entire lives. I thought we did a great job in the first quarter defensively, but we started 0-4 from the three-point line and I believe we shot 2-18 from three and then we started to force the issue.

“When you don’t see the ball go in and you touch it the next time you want to get some shots early. You feel like you might not be as open, you feel like you might not get another touch, whatever it is, you don’t play the game, you just start overthinking it a little bit and I feel like that’s what forced bad shots and led to some turnovers as well.”

Two of Sydney’s three victories in their current run of form came against the Cairns Taipans, while former Kings captain Brad Rosen labelled their eight-point win over Tasmania in Round 11 as an “outlier”.

Rosen – who represented the Kings 99 times and is a member of the club’s Ring of Honour – has drawn similarities between Sydney’s current run and Perth’s opening stanza to the season.

 The Wildcats started NBL24 with a 2-5 record, but have won 10 of their last 12 games to sit second on the ladder.

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“They’ve got to have a good, hard look at themselves and say ‘right, what are we doing?’. It’s very similar to what Perth had, [when] everyone was calling for John Rillie’s head at the beginning of the season,” Rosen said on NBL Now.

"You speak to Bryce Cotton and the players had a meeting and they all got out what they needed to get out. I don’t know, maybe that’s the next thing. For all I know they’ve had that as well, it’s quite closed shop.

“The energy is just not where it needs to be, you can have all the good defence, all the good offence set in place, but if you’re not going to play with energy and good talk it doesn’t matter, you’re playing against yourselves to get a win.

“That was like watching paint dry, that thing last night. That was a trainwreck and pretty abysmal by the Kings. It was yet another game that got away from them.”

The Kings next play a resurgent New Zealand side on Sunday, and Abdelfattah says he’s not focusing on his side’s next opposition.

“I’m not worried about who we’re playing, I’m worried about us. It’s like (Alex) Toohey said, we’ve just got to play with confidence, have fun and enjoy what we’re doing,” the coach said.

Sydney’s home clash against the Breakers tips off on Sunday at 4pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies | 10 Peach and 10 Play | Sky Sport in NZ.