Frustrated Goorj turns attention to Adelaide

Brian Goorjian had his Sydney Kings primed for battle on Friday night and felt there was some horrendous calls that took them out of the contest, but he has already turned his attention to downing the Adelaide 36ers.

The Kings finished the regular season for NBL25 with a third successive loss on Friday night after a fourth defeat to the Illawarra Hawks, which leaves them locked into fifth position – unless the South East Melbourne Phoenix lose Saturday night's Throwdown by around 70 points.

The good news is the Kings will host a Play-In Qualifier next week. The bad news is it's against an Adelaide team they've already lost to twice at home to over the past five weeks.

Before looking ahead, it was a frustrated Goorjian post-match following Friday night's loss in Wollongong because he felt the Kings were officiated out of the contest.

The numbers don’t necessarily back that up considering the Kings went to the foul line 30 times opposed to just 19 from the Hawks.

Goorjian might have coached two seasons at the Hawks and been a popular figure for the locals in that time, but he wasn’t feeling the love while in the purple and gold colours.

"You have to eat humble pie but they are right on top of you in here the whole way, and you need a 50-50 but free throws killed us again, fouls killed us again," Goorjian said.

"You've got the basketball on one side and they're a great basketball team with a great chance to win a championship, and they beat us, but that side of it really grates at you when you've been going through what we've been going through the last few weeks.

"We came here and said we weren’t going to take a backward step so that's hard to tolerate."

An unsportsmanlike foul on Bul Kuol just before half-time and the ejection of Jaylen Adams in the fourth quarter were significant.

So was a non-call where Tyler Robertson took a heavy hit under the basket from Mason Peatling on the fast break with Goorjian still seething after the match.

"You had a lot of incidents going on in the game and it was horrendous. There was a lot of stuff that went on in the game where now OK, it's on," Goorjian added.

"They were more clever and by the end that place was a hornet's nest and they were going nuts with every call, and we're not getting anything from that side. Bul lost his cool, JA lost his cool and I put that back on them (referees). I thought it was horrendous."

While frustrated in the moment, Goorjian had already turned his attention to trying to plot the downfall of the 36ers in what is a do-or-die Play-In Qualifier featuring fifth against sixth.

While the Kings are glad to have home court advantage, they also lost there twice against Adelaide of late, firstly by 15 points back on December 30 and then by nine points on January 24.

"We know we're in a battle but this thing now gets to having one game to focus on and it's analysing Adelaide and the best way to play them, that's all it comes down to now," Goorjian said.

"You've got dealing with Kendric and we haven’t really had a healthy Bul Kuol so I think he's moving well defensively.

"Then they provide an interior situation for us that is difficult, that's why I played (Jason) Spurgin tonight and I think he's gong to be a factor in dealing with those two guys down in the block.

"They're a challenge for us and the match up is difficult, but I like Tyler tonight and we got him involved in this thing, and the same with Spurgin. We'll lick our wounds and we've played all season to get a shot at this."