Bruce labels record-breaking Kings win as "strange"

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Shaun Bruce says South East Melbourne showed more fight than the 55-point margin suggested.

Sydney locked in its place in next week’s Play-In Qualifier in emphatic fashion in Round 20, however Shaun Bruce says the scoreboard didn’t tell the full story of the Kings’ monster 55-point win over South East Melbourne.

The victory marked the largest win of any team this season, and the largest win in the history of the Kings franchise. The previous mark was a 50-point win over Cairns in 2001 where Shane Heal registered a 40-point, 12 assist double-double.

Bruce made just his fourth start of the season in the win, and he says the margin “snuck up” on the victorious Kings.

“The only focus we had was to win the game. The points didn’t really bother us, we knew with a win we’d get through to the Play-In game and obviously as the game went on that escalated pretty quickly,” Bruce said. “It was a little bit strange to look up at the end of the game and have such a big result.

“It’s one of those things, we knew we were playing well, and we were feeling good about that. To South East Melbourne’s credit it felt like they were still fighting, they were still picking us up full court and it didn’t feel like they were just laying down.

“Obviously they were undermanned and had some trouble scoring the ball. I felt like it was a competitive game, and it was one of those things where it just snuck up on you and by the end of the game you look up and you’re like ‘wow, that’s a big one’”

Sydney’s focus has now shifted to Next Week’s Play-In Qualifier against modern rivals New Zealand.

The Kings will host the Breakers in the do-or-die clash in what is a rematch of last season’s Championship Series.

Bruce was a crucial cog of the Kings side that overcame New Zealand in last season’s title decider, and he says the game is set to be a barnstormer.

“This whole Play-In and Playoffs is a whole new season and that’s our focus now,” he continued.

“We’ll prepare as much as we can for New Zealand because that’s all we can focus on right now. We win or we go home and it’s going to be an exciting game at Qudos.

“We met each other in the Championship Series last year and we both want to win, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Sydney’s Play-In Qualifier clash with New Zealand is set to tip off on Wednesday, February 28 at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.