Goorjian maintains faith in Kings

Brian Goorjian knew a tough afternoon for Jaylen Adams, being dominated on the glass and not taking care of the ball wasn’t a recipe for success, but he remains confident in what the Sydney Kings can do in NBL25.

Even though the final margin was just seven points at the end of Sunday's game with the Perth Wildcats in front of 14,112 fans at Qudos Bank Arena, it did feel like a game the Kings were never really in.

The biggest factor that cost the Kings, due to the offensive rebounds and turnovers, was that the Wildcats ended up attempting 85 shots to just 61 from Sydney.

"A form of easy baskets to give to an opposition like that is through offensive rebounding, and as a result they had 80-odd shots and we had 60," Goorjian said.

"We have one more to go now and we're definitely in the playoffs, and we would have played all the top teams after we play Illawarra and we're a little under the bar right now.

"The ball's still in our court to learn and do better."

It was their last home game of the regular season but all the areas that Goorjian knew the Kings had to do well in to compete with the Wildcats, went against them.

They finish the round in fifth spot and needing to beat the Illawarra Hawks on Friday to be a chance of moving up.

Goorjian knew the Kings had to compete well on the boards with the Wildcats, but that didn’t happen with Perth out-rebounding them 47-37 while crucially having 24 at the offensive end for 23 second chance points.

He also knew they couldn’t afford to turn the ball over but the Kings had 15 turnovers and the 'Cats scored 24 points from those.

Then Goorjian knew that Sydney needed Adams to have a significant impact not only scoring himself, but to get his teammates involved. That never happened with him in foul trouble from the opening stages to only play just over 14 minutes for one point on 0/3 shooting.

All of that meant that everything Goorjian didn’t want to happen, did happen, but he was still finding positives.

That included another 24 points from Kouat Noi on 15 free throws, 23 points on 9/11 shooting from Alex Toohey, 22 points and 10 rebounds from Cam Oliver, and 13 points and three assists from Shaun Bruce.

"What I'm hoping is that I've got everyone's attention and I still like us," Goorjian said.

"I still think we're very capable and in the last two games there's been a lot of good signs, and I'm really excited about Toohey tonight and Noi is having a great year.

"We're getting more out of (Makuach) Maluach, Bruce tonight got those minutes and we're going to need him with JA to go anywhere.

"You gotta take the high road at this time of the year and we got a kick in the teeth tonight, but we're in there and we've got one more to go and we can still finish top four, and I still think we're growing."

Given the areas that cost the Kings were so obvious, Goorjian is taking a positive approach looking ahead to the Hawks game on Friday and then beyond.

"We look forward to the challenge and will keep moving forward, and keep throwing punches to try to get ready for these playoffs," Goorjian said.

"We're in. It wasn’t an easy battle to get in and now we've still got a chance at the four and the ball's in our court.

"We've got an opportunity to get to the four and if not, we'll be at home on our court and the environment here's special and I know my guys will be ready."