Oliver delivers for Kings on Cairns return

The Sydney Kings overcame a horror first half to assert their authority over the Cairns Taipans to start the second half on the way to the eventual 81-75 road NBL victory.

The Kings had limped into the FIBA international break having come into NBL25 as raging championship favourites, but just sitting at 7-6 and then were completely outworked by the Taipans in the first half at Cairns Convention Centre.

The Taipans might have shot the ball horribly going into half-time at 32 per cent including 4/20 from downtown, but they were narrowly leading 42-41 on the back of winning all the effort areas.

The Snakes outrebounded the Kings 33 to 16 in the first half including 14 offensive rebounds to two, and 13 second chance points to zero as a result.

Coach Brian Goorjian tried Shaun Bruce in the starting line-up to ease the ball handling pressure on Jaylen Adams, but they were outscored by 15 points in his 10 minutes while Next Star Alex Toohey played just two minutes during which Sydney were outscored by nine.

Sydney came out to score the first eight points of the second half with superstars Adams and Cam Oliver key to that.

They could still never quite put the Taipans away despite remaining in the lead the rest of the way and even in the dying seconds the Kings were only up three when Tyler Robertson came on for Sydney and turned it over.

It went to Taran Armstrong who missed the open dunk for Cairns and that allowed Sydney to secure the six-point win to improve to 8-6 ahead of playing Melbourne United on Sunday.

Oliver finished with 26 points and nine rebounds on his old home floor with former MVP Adams adding 22 points, seven boards and six assists, and another ex-MVP, Xavier Cooks 11 points, nine rebounds, six assists and three blocks.

Goorjian was relieved to get the win afterwards.

"This is a nasty, tough weekend for us and we worked hard, and any way that we could get through this and come out on top and kind of move forward is a positive result for us," he said.

"So Cam Oliver, a lot of talk has been going on about him finding a way with us and we've been a hard hand in coaching him and demanding things from him.

"Tonight he was instrumental in the win and running the floor, pressuring the ball, defending the post and rebounding."

The Taipans fought hard but shooting 28 per cent overall and 8/37 from long-range cost them despite

The Taipans fought hard but shooting 28 per cent overall and 8/37 from long-range cost them despite attempting 21 extra shots with them now having lost nine straight at 3-10.

Armstrong was tremendous for 28 points with Sam Waardenburg having 15 points and 10 rebounds before going off injured early in the final period.

Gun scorer Rob Edwards had a tough night with 10 points on 4/19 shooting.

Taipans coach Adam Forde couldn’t fault the effort of his team.

Sam Waardenburg and Taran Armstrong took control of the contest early for the Taipans helping them to the 7-2 advantage and then after Cam Oliver scored 10 quick points back on his old home floor, the Snakes took back control.

Cairns went on another 9-0 scoring run starting with an Armstrong three ball to go into the quarter-time break leading 26-20 with 11 second chance points key to that.

Even though Sydney did find themselves briefly back in the lead in the second quarter, the Snakes took back control simply by winning the possession game.

The home team went on another 6-0 run on the way to the 42-41 lead at half-time thanks to 33 rebounds to 16, and 13 second chance points to zero to overcome shooting 32 per cent to still hold the slender lead.

Sydney came out hot to start the second half scoring the opening eight points starting with a three ball from Jaylen Adams, and the Kings were still leading 59-55 by three quarter-time after tempers flared between Rob Edwards and Izayah Le'afa.

The Taipans continued to hang in there within striking distance in the fourth quarter and then had a chance to cut it to one with a Tyler Robertson turnover with 20 seconds to go.

However, Armstrong blew the dunk and from there the Kings held them out for the six-point win.

The Taipans don't play again until being away to the Tasmania JackJumpers on Thursday night while the Kings have the short turnaround to head to Melbourne to take on a United team on Sunday who went into the FIBA break averaging 113 points in their last three games.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

CAIRNS TAIPANS 75 (Armstrong 28, Waardenburg 15, Edwards 10)

SYDNEY KINGS 81 (Oliver 26, Adams 22, Cooks 11)

BOX SCORE