Kings starting five "not working"

Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian loved what he got from the group he stuck with in the fourth quarter to almost snatch a win but he didn't like the starting five that got them in such a big hole to begin with.

The Kings came into Thursday night's match up at home to United fresh off come from behind wins against the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Brisbane Bullets where Goorjian found playing groups in the fourth quarter who gave him what he wanted.

He didn’t like the way his starters opened either of those games and that was magnified against Melbourne when the Kings fell 16 points down by quarter-time, and were down 20 halfway through the third frame.

That's when Goorjian bit the bullet to go away from imports Cam Oliver and Jaylen Adams, with the former a -17 for the game with three points on 1/5 shooting while the latter had seven points on 2/7 and was a staggering -26.

Goorjian admitted to having no answers for how Adams could deal with the defensive pressure of Melbourne's Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova so instead went away from a man who had 53 points and 17 assists in those wins over South East Melbourne and Brisbane.

Goorjian stuck with Xavier Cooks, Izayah Le'afa, Kouat Noi, Bul Kuol and Shaun Bruce for the majority of the fourth quarter, and they almost pulled off an eighth comeback of the season before falling 90-88.

However, in the bigger picture Goorjian knows that for the Kings to be genuine title threats in NBL25 they will need Oliver and Adams being significant contributors.

"I don't like our starting group, it's not working and it's not just the comeback, it's the group of guys doing it that I have on the floor but to do that you're taking some major pieces out by playing that group," Goorjian said.

"That decision to win the thing, you're always thinking there's certain battles as a coach you want to win if you are going to have the chance to win a championship. So squashing those guys by benching them and playing the other group all the way through is a juggle.

"I'm getting to the point where we've got to come in here and we have to start the game with a little tenacity. That's a consistency and that consistency is putting us behind the eight ball so now I don’t like the formula, but I like the group that I'm going to down the back stretch.

"I'm wanting very much to get that same intensity with the main guys because to win the whole thing or to go where you need to go, I think you need to get them rolling as well."

The Kings lost the game on a Jack White lay-up with two seconds left, a defensive miscommunication giving the United star a free run to the basket. 

"We did the things that were hard and got ourselves back in the game and that group did a lot of stuff right, but we keep talking about communication with what we're doing out there, and that's been really difficult for the group," Goorjian said.

"Tonight it's lessoned learned the hard way with the back pick at the end of the game for the layup wasn’t on any one guy, but as a group the staff is trying to get the communication going out there and hopefully getting stung like that will be what we learned from that."

Now that Lamonte Turner won't be coming in to be that ball handler to keep the ball out of Adams' hands too much, the biggest weapon that Goorjian might have is Cooks as a point forward.

He is capable of bringing the ball up the floor and creating for himself, or his teammates, and him doing that in the second half against Melbourne was significant in the comeback.

He finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks, but Goorjian knows he can't go to that too often either.

"With the way they were guarding him he became like our two guard or secondary ball handler so when you're 20 down then it's just like getting the ball to him and we play off him," Goorjian said.

"He's our best player and how you best do something for him is you give him room and you bring a mismatch to the on-ball, and you play off it and that's what we did from the middle of the third quarter right to the end of the game.

"You can't have a dose of that for 40 minutes, but it's nice to have when you're 20 down and you're trying to make a comeback."