Kings deserve Finals: Bruce

Shaun Bruce admits the Sydney Kings' results have been lacklustre this season but insists the back-to-back reigning champions deserve their finals berth.

The Kings' finals hopes were in tatters after their penultimate game of the regular season, when local rivals Illawarra handed them their seventh loss from nine starts.

The Kings, who sat in second place on the ladder after seven rounds, were left relying on other results to qualify for the post-season.

But with a record-breaking win over South East Melbourne in its final game of the season, Sydney snuck into the finals on percentage ahead of the Brisbane Bullets, who suffered a catastrophic defeat in their only clash of Round 20 to leave the door open for the Kings.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Setting records ?<br><br>The <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> 55-point victory in Round 20 is the largest win in the 40-minute era ? <a href="https://t.co/PaIWFkqkhw">pic.twitter.com/PaIWFkqkhw</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1760828234789511598?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Under the new structure introduced last season, the fifth-placed Kings will host the New Zealand Breakers for a sudden-death Play-In Qualifier on Wednesday.

Despite the berth, Sydney's 13-15 record represents their first losing season since 2017-18 and is the same as the seventh-placed Bullets'.

"Outside people can say whatever they want. Yeah, our record wasn't great," Bruce told AAP.

"But the way (the NBL finals series) is set up now with Play-In games, we deserve to be in a Play-In game.

"That's what we've got here and we're going to do what we can with that."

Bruce said he never doubted the Kings' ability to make finals.

"I've always had confidence that our best basketball can mix with anyone," he said.

"It's just been about finding that. We've had struggles finding that at times but I never lost confidence."

The big defeat of the Phoenix was the latest occasion the Kings were able to lift their game under pressure.

In November, Sydney bounced back from its first consecutive losses of the season with a 20-point thrashing of Illawarra, and amid a post-Christmas form slump the Kings bounced back with an upset win against heavyweights Melbourne United.

Bruce urged the Kings to continue the trend when the Breakers arrive in Sydney for a rematch of last season's Championship Series.

"Throughout the year, whenever we've had a big game coming in, guys have been locked in," he said.

"That gives me confidence that now the Playoffs are here, guys will be ready to play.

"Really it was win or go home on Saturday and we've got the same going forward."