"Hard hit" Kings back to their best

Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian believes his team has taken a massive step forward in its NBL25 campaign, following a 15-point win against the New Zealand Breakers.

Despite being without Bul Kuol (knee) and forced to start the game with Jaylen Adams and Cam Oliver on the bench, with the pair battling illness, the Kings played one of their most complete games of the season. 

Sydney has faced a tough period on the road, with just five home games so far, but now sits in a commanding position in third place, with a stretch at Qudos Bank Arena to come. 

“It was really a parallel from practice into the game today, Goorjian said.

“I just feel like I’ve been coaching kind of a grumpy, worn group, and we got to get in our own bed, sit, practice and do some positive things together on the floor.

“Tonight we had both imports out for the practice sessions, so we had that young Australian group working together for three or four days and there was just an energy and camaraderie about that. 

“That’s how we started the game and I thought it was good for the imports to see that, because I think they’ve been feeling like they’ve had to carry the load a bit.”

The Kings raced out to an 11-point lead at quarter-time, with the likes of former MVP Xavier Cooks, and young guns Keli Leaupepe and Alex Toohey setting the tone.

Kouat Noi hit five threes on his way to 19 points overall, while Adams (20 points, 10 assists) and Oliver (12 points, 7 rebounds) impacted off the bench.

“Now you’ve got this group going and I think the imports came in tonight and they were excited about what the group looked like and where they were at, when they were away,” Goorjian continued.

“With that, we started the game really well and it had a lot of positives to it, offensively and defensively, which enhanced the energy.”

Goorjian was impressed with his team’s response to a close-fought loss against Melbourne last week, especially after battling with injuries and illness.   

“We got hit real hard last week,” he said. 

“We came back (from Melbourne) and then we had a day off, then we were into practice and when we rolled, three of them were out (Oliver, Adams and Kuol).

“It led to, ‘let’s just make sure we have good practice, let’s just keep moving forward’.

“We’ve had a lot of issues in that form and I think it’s to do with our schedule. Our schedule’s been incredibly rough.”

The Kings moved to 9-7 on the season and are back home to host the Brisbane Bullets next Sunday.