Kings Bench Primed to Deliver on Big Stage: Hooley

Plenty of people would have had their doubts about the Kings’ ability to win without star duo Xavier Cooks and Derrick Walton Jr on Sunday night. Peter Hooley was not one of them.

The now NBA-bound Cooks was ruled out of the second half of the game due to a corky he picked up in Friday night’s Game 1, while Walton Jr only played five minutes as he looks to recover from the serious cramps that marred his final quarter on Friday night.

Shaun Bruce and Kouat Noi stepped up to play big minutes in the absence of the pair, while Jaylin Galloway and Jordi Hunter were also strong contributors from the bench.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It&#39;s 1?-1? a piece between the <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NZBreakers</a> going into Friday night ?<br><br>Your Foot Locker Player of the Game is Justin Simon ? <a href="https://t.co/Wcv2OtEoVv">pic.twitter.com/Wcv2OtEoVv</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1632280390579920896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Chase Buford wasn’t afraid to play the entire bench all season long, and in clutch moments,” Hooley said on NBL Today. “You look back to those buzzer-beaters on their home floor. You look at who was on the floor – Shaun Bruce, Kouat Noi, Jordan Hunter, Jaylin Galloway – he’s always had this ace up his sleeve if he needed to go to his bench in clutch moments in this series.

“He had to do it a lot earlier, I’m sure, than he would have liked, but they were always ready for the moment because of what he did throughout the season.

“You look back at so many instances in the last few years and people think coaches are running too many players, they need to go seven or eight players deep – this is why you need to extend your bench minutes if they’re contributing and deserve it.

“When you need them, are they ready? They were ready and it was in a very, very strong performance.”

When Noi arrived in Sydney from the Taipans ahead of NBL23, every NBL neutral knew the Kings were bringing a starting-quality player into their program to come off the bench.

While Bruce has been a backup guard for much of his career and never averaged more than eight points a game across any season, you know exactly what you’re going to get from him – a measured, effort-filled and – in Sunday’s case – decisive performance.

“I thought they were going to be fine because they have bench guys ready for the opportunity,” Hooley said.

“When you’re one of those bench guys who’s played so well – I’m talking Shaun Bruce, Kouat Noi – you’re basically itching for one thing to go your way.

“You see one player go down and thing ‘now I’m going to have to play through my mistakes. Now I’m going have to deliver’ – and you’re antsy to get out on the floor.

“It’ll be different in Game 3 if guys are ruled out beforehand, but I’m not at all surprised at how well Sydney played given how well their bench unit has performed all season.”

Game 3 of the NBL23 Championship Series starts Friday, March 10 at 7:30pm AEDT – live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.