Is there a "disconnect" at the Sydney Kings?

While anything can happen in basketball – and especially in the ridiculous season that has been NBL24 so far – there was a general consensus that the Sydney Kings would emerge from last night’s clash with the South East Melbourne Phoenix with a win.

That’s not what happened.

Even in his post-game interview, Mitch Creek joked he was hoping his injury-depleted Phoenix side wouldn’t lose by 40, but he and his team showed a level of heart, willingness and desire to win the game that just wasn’t matched by the Kings.

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The loss is the latest in a line of surprising defeats for the back-to-back reigning champions, and NBL analyst Liam Santamaria believes there’s a “disconnect” at the Kings during the run-in to Finals.

“I’ve had a Hamlet quote swirling in my head about the Kings this morning. ‘Where there’s something rotten in the state of Denmark’, and in this case it’s New South Wales and the capital of Sydney,” Santamaria said on NBL Now. “It just doesn’t feel right.

“It feels like – and we’ve spoken about this the last month or so – it feels like there’s a bit of a disconnect there between head coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah and that team, and in particular the key guys on that team – Jaylen Adams and Denzel Valentine.

“You want to talk about the fantastic energy from South East Melbourne last night, or what we’ve talking about what I like about Brisbane how it feels like everyone’s pushing in the same direction, it doesn’t feel like that’s in place with the Kings.

“We can talk about the x’s and o’s, the matchups, who made what shot and who didn’t, but it doesn’t feel like everybody’s together, everybody’s enjoying working together and as a result that team, despite the talent, despite what they’re building from with these last two championship wins, they’ve lost seven of their last nine games at a really crucial time of the season.

“They have some work to do to make the Play-In at this point, because everything at the moment is trending in the other direction.”

When assessing last night’s box score, it looks like the aforementioned Adams and Valentine were the Kings’ two leading performers, and they were both statistically and for impact, but Santamaria says it was the manner in which the import pair went about their business that is cause for concern.

“You look at the box score and Jaylen Adams had 24 points and nine assists, and Denzel Valentine had double figures and hit some big threes towards the end, you would be forgiven for thinking those guys were out there having a crack,” he continued.

“I’m not saying they weren’t having a crack, but I felt like their energy, their passion, their desire, those types of things were at a level lower than their opponents.

“Even though it ended up being very close they lost the game, and that for me was the main reason why, they just didn’t have the want. They were outhustled, the Phoenix won most of the 50/50 balls and got those hustle points.

“I don’t think that’s the way you want to lose, as a result of energy, desire, mentality, and that’s what happened to the Kings last night.”

The Kings will have the chance to get themselves back on track when they take on Melbourne United on Sunday afternoon, live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies, 10 Peach and 10 Play from 4pm AEDT.