Ware, Martin put on Royal show in Adelaide

The Sydney Kings might still be minus four key players, but with Casper Ware and Jarell Martin on fire, they look a team that is going to be tough to beat again this NBL season after a dominant 94-75 win on the road to the Adelaide 36ers.

The week off in Adelaide between games clearly agreed with the Kings. They might have been away from Sydney since Boxing Day, but they've had a full week in Adelaide to reflect on last Saturday's loss to the 36ers and then be ready to come out and fire seven days later.

The Kings were still minus the injured Didi Louzada, Xavier Cooks, Daniel Kickert and Angus Glover, but they delivered their best performance of #NBL21 and handed Adelaide their second heavy defeat to snap their three-game winning streak.

There was simply no stopping the point guard-centre import combination from the Kings with Ware and Martin combining for 50 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals while shooting 17/33 from the field between them, 9/16 from downtown and 7/12 from the foul line.

That sort of combination can take a team a long way and when they still had DJ Vasiljevic contributing 15 points and five assists, Craig Moller nine points and Brad Newley nine with Shaun Bruce dishing out seven assists and Jordan Hunter pulling in 11 rebounds, it's a good mix.

Add in those returning stars from injury and the Kings are showing they can't be written off this season.

The stars, though, were without doubt Ware and Martin. Ware finished with 27 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals while going 6/10 from downtown while Martin had 23 points and four rebounds, and also went 3/6 from beyond the arc.

Kings coach Adam Forde was delighted with what his team delivered after another long week on the road.

"Following on from the Brisbane game, we talked about effort and then with this game we put some direction to it," Forde said.

"We changed up a lot of our schemes and not to say we threw the baby out with the bath water, but we had to make some adjustments. To the boys' credit, it's been a long week for everybody so to come out with the level of intensity that we did tonight is a testament to their character and work ethic."

Adelaide might have won its last three games, but this was a step backwards from the 36ers who are now 4-3 from seven home matches ahead of their first road game of the season against Brisbane next Saturday.

There was no Donald Sloan, MVP fancy Isaac Humphries had no impact with four points, eight rebounds and four blocks, Tony Crocker had just five points on four shots, and it was a night where little worked in front of a season-high crowd of 7317 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Daniel Johnson still did what he could with 21 points and six rebounds while Sunday Dech contributed 13 points and Josh Giddey 11 to go with six rebounds and four assists.

The surprise packet was the 17 minutes from Alex Mudronja for 11 points.

It was a see-saw opening to the game with Adelaide threatening to breakaway on a couple of Jack McVeigh triples before Brad Newley responded and Jarell Martin gave Sydney the 21-18 lead after one.

Suddenly the Kings blew it out to a double-digit lead with two quick threes from Casper Ware in the second quarter before a Tom Vodanovich-inspired 7-0 blew it out to 13. 

The Sixers fired back with a 9-0 started by a Tony Crocker triple, but the Kings held firm and were still up 48-39 at the half.

The Kings were just getting started. DJ Vasiljevic opened the second half with another three, Ware soon added another and then before long the lead was 19, and only five quick Alex Mudronja points kept it at 14 for Adelaide at three quarter-time.

There were no signs of a fourth quarter fightback with Ware and Martin locking the door on the 36ers combining for 24 points in the term alone between them on the way to the 19-point win.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 4

ADELAIDE 36ERS 75 (Johnson 21, Dech 13, Giddey 11, Mudronja 11)

SYDNEY KINGS 94 (Ware 27, Martin 23, Vasiljevic 15) 

BOX SCORE