Kings shut down Bullets in fourth quarter

The Sydney Kings celebrated their homecoming with 15 straight points in the fourth quarter to shake off three quarters of hot Brisbane Bullets shooting for the eventual 93-81 Sunday afternoon victory.

Sydney returned home in front of a waiting 11,576 crowd after a five-week absence and while the Bullets were up nine at the start of the fourth term, the Kings blew things open with the next 15 points to win by 12.

The Kings were back home at Qudos Bank Arena for the first time since November 8 and not having played since beating New Zealand last Saturday while the Bullets arrived on a high.

They had won three straight over Adelaide, Melbourne and South East Melbourne while putting up 113 points and shooting at a hot clip, and for a lot of Sunday afternoon that continued.

Brisbane went 5/7 as a team from behind the three-point line in the first quarter and then 11/18 for the opening half with Casey Prather and James Batemon combining for nine of those makes.

The Bullets were still leading by nine early in the fourth period but then the Kings took charge with the next 15 points and closing the game outscoring Brisbane 27 points to six.

That saw them turn a nine-point deficit into the 12-point win having held Brisbane to eight points the entire final 10 minutes.

The Kings improve to 10-7 with consecutive wins with Jaylen Adams delivering 32 points, four assists and four steals with 4/7 long-range shooting.

Xavier Cooks also had 25 points, 11 rebounds and five assists despite 6/13 free-throw shooting with Kouat Noi producing 13 points and six boards, and Alex Toohey 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.

The Kings play six of their next eight games at home as they look to validate the pre-season hype with consistent performances.

"I'm not listening to hoorah, all that stuff," Goorjian said.

"I'm not even thinking about winning, I'm thinking about how we go about our day-to-day, making sure we stick to the standards and it's going to take us some place. I'm starting to see little pieces of it.

"Tonight, there was a lot of trouble offensively and we've been that all year but we did have some good patches. Defensively, we keep moving."

The Bullets were again missing Josh Bannan, Deng Adel and Jarred Bairstow but will be frustrated to not close the deal with the ice cold fourth quarter despite Prather finishing with 28 points, nine rebounds and three assists on 5/7 three-point shooting.

James Batemon added 19 points on 5/11 from downtown with Tyrell Harrison contributing 14 points and four rebounds.

"I don't think one L is going to disrupt us from continuing to be better," Prather said.

"I think everybody is hungry, everybody wants to continue to get better and that's going to propel us forward."

Brisbane arrived in Sydney in hot form and kept that momentum going with triples to James Batemon, Casey Prather and Mitch Norton helping them to the 13-6 lead.

Prather soon knocked down another three ball, Tyrell Harrison scored again inside and the visitors were up 20-11, but it was former MVP pair Xavier Cooks and Jaylen Adams who helped Sydney close out the quarter on a 14-5 run.

That left scores tied at 25-25 by quarter-time and the Kings started the second frame well too with an 8-2 run to be up six, but there was no stopping the hot shooting for the Bullets especially from Batemon and Prather.

Brisbane regained the lead with a 9-0 streak on three balls from Keandre Cook, Batemon and Prather. The visitors opened up a nine-point and were still up 54-48 at the half with Batemon and Prather combining for 34 points on 9/12 three-point shooting.

However, Sydney did finish the half with a couple of nice possessions and then started the third quarter with back-to-back long balls from Cooks and Alex Toohey to tie scores up.

The Bullets kept on having the answers, though, and another seven quick points from Prather had his team up by that margin with them still on top 73-66 by three quarter-time.

Harrison pushed Brisbane's lead to nine to start the fourth term but then the Kings got rolling starting with a three ball from Keli Leaulepe. When Shaun Bruce made one soon after, suddenly Sydney had the lead.

That turned into a 15-0 run for the Kings and they were up six with four minutes to go before closing out the gutsy 12-point win after being down nine at the start of the fourth.

The Kings now head to Spark Arena to take on the New Zealand Breakers on Friday before later that evening the Bullets host the Cairns Taipans for another edition of the Sunshine Stoush.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

SYDNEY KINGS 93 (Adams 29, Cooks 25, Noi 13)

BRISBANE BULLETS 81 (Prather 28, Batemon 19, Harrison 14)

BOX SCORE