Kings to iron out uncomfortable line-ups

If there’s a positive from a second straight loss, Brian Goorjian is glad the Sydney Kings don’t have 11 days to wait to play again.

In the same vein, he was concerned that there wasn’t a lot of reprieve for his guns as they suffered a second straight defeat.

The Kings almost pulled off a miracle fightback with four three-point bombs from Torrey Craig in the last two minutes but fell a point short of the New Zealand Breakers in Canberra on Wednesday.

Sydney were 10 points up at half-time after a 32-point second quarter, but then had just 12 points on 4/20 shooting in the third.

By the end of the night, the seven-time NBL champion felt he had to ride too long with his guns.

Craig (32:28 minutes), Kendric Davis (38:40), Xavier Cooks (32:17) and Makuach Maluach (32:11) had to play big minutes while the Kings lost Jason Spurgin to a hand injury after 3:48.

The Kings were also -16 in the 13:32 that guard Will Johnston was out there.

The Kings have now played just five games so far this season, and Goorjian does appreciate there’s a feeling-out process in terms of him still working out how to get the best out of his line-ups.

“Overall, we had some really good patches defensively and offensively, but we didn’t play real well with certain combinations on the floor,” Goorjian said.

“It just looked uncomfortable, and the four or five guys that were comfortable together got worn out.

“We’ve got a lot of talent here on this team that we’re excited about, and it falls on basically just getting more contribution from the bench and getting them comfortable on the floor playing with one another.

“It’s different guys in different spots, and you come in, and you’re Tyler Robertson playing the four and guarding the five, and playing with KD and Will. There’s just groups that are uncomfortable right now.

“I don’t know if it’s a wear-down factor from playing the main group a lot of minutes, but when I went to the bench the line-ups were uncomfortable in that third quarter.”

Not having four-time Olympian Matthew Dellavedova against the Breakers is something that Goorjian feels had a significant impact.

But now he’s focusing already on hosting a Perth Wildcats team this Saturday night, who will be playing their first road game of NBL27 and arrive on a four-game winning streak.

“Early in the year, we had a 50-point game [from our bench players as opposed to four on Wednesday] and everyone’s dealing with injuries and everything, but Delly helps in the area that we’re talking about as far as structure goes,” Goorjian said.

“He’s helpful to the rest of the group and organising things.

“We’ve got some challenges ahead, but I did think that there were spots during the game and passages that were there to be excited about.

“I’m glad that we’re not waiting 11 days and have another game coming with another tough team, but we just have to get better on the hop.

“We might have to roll the dice a little bit more and play those young guys a little bit more, and let them figure it out.”

Sydney hosts Perth on Saturday from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN, 9GO! and 9Now.