‘Flamethrower’ Scolds Kings’ Disrespect

Jonah Antonio has fired back at the Sydney Kings after Chase Buford appeared to play down the youngsters’ breakout performance in Game 1 of the Playoff series.

The Cairns’ sharpshooter shot the lights out at Qudos Bank Arena on Wednesday, nailing 6 three-pointers on his way to 20-points.

The scoring outburst from the 25-year-old helped the Taipans to a nine-point halftime lead, before the Kings took over in the second half to run away 95-87 winners.

After the game Buford declared it would be hard for Antonio to repeat his efforts in Game 2 sighting his “deficiencies” as a significant downside to his game.

“The fact they had Antonio come in and flame-torch us in that quarter and he was still -4,” Buford stated.

“He’s got to deliver that to make up for his deficiencies on the other end to play against us.

“It will be hard to replicate that performance.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You’d never talk down on my name if you knew the work I put in.</p>&mdash; Jonah Antonio (@jonah__antonio) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonah__antonio/status/1625934911558553600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Antonio was quick to hit back with a Tweet directed at Buford.

“You’d never talk down on my name if you knew the work I put in,” he tweeted.

Cairns rates Antonio highly, with coach Adam Ford saying the youngster is, “destined to be elite”.

Game 2 tips-off tonight (Friday) at 7:30pm AEDT, with the Kings looking to punch their ticket to a second consecutive Championship Series, while the Taipans are hoping to force a decisive Game 3.

The game will be broadcast live and free on ESPN and Kayo Freebies.