Kings Claim 15th Straight Road Win

Monday, October 17, 2022

The Sydney Kings shook off a hot start from the Brisbane Bullets at a sold out Nissan Arena on Sunday to bounce back emphatically as the defending champions claimed the 102-85 victory.

The Bullets were playing their first home game of the season with a healthy crowd of 4797 greeting them. They rewarded their home fans too by racing out to a 13-2 start while Aron Baynes brought them to their feet opening up with a dunk.

However, it was largely all Sydney from that point on with the reigning champs determined to bounce back from losing on their home deck to the Cairns Taipans on Friday night.

That had been Sydney's first loss since last regular season but they were able to continue their incredible road winning streak on Sunday.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AnCLL87477E" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

On the back of a 14-1 run to open the second quarter and then scoring 18 of the first 24 points of the third term, the Kings blew the game wide open to end up winning by 17 and improve to 4-1 on the season.

It was again an effort by committee too for Sydney with Justin Simon finishing with a career-high 23 points and eight rebounds on 8/10 shooting.

DJ Vasiljevic drained 4/8 from three-point land for 16 points and five rebounds with Derrick Walton Jr adding 13 points, six assists and five boards, Tim Soares 13 points and two steals, and Xavier Cooks eight points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

Kings coach Chase Buford was especially happy in the improvements in the areas he felt let his team down against Cairns on Friday.

"There were some focus areas for us to just be tougher as individuals, and to not get affected whether calls are happening or not, if shots are falling or not or whether they are getting up into us," Buford said.

"All those things we let affect us heavily against Cairns but we were much tougher in tonight. Early things weren’t going our way but we stayed true to it and we took care of the ball better, and we were just much tougher on both sides of the ball which is something that plagued us the other night."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Walton Jr dropping a royal dime ?<br><br>Watch live & free ? 10Peach/10play/Kayo Freebies | Every game live on ESPN via Kayo & Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/SqVfnRFH1h">pic.twitter.com/SqVfnRFH1h</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1581529647321210880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The result keeps the Bullets winless after four games in NBL23 but power forward DJ Mitchell was the great shining light. In just his fourth NBL game, he put up 20 points and 10 rebounds on 7/10 shooting from the floor and 3/4 from deep.

Aron Baynes added 15 points and five rebounds, Jason Cadee 13 points and four assists, and Devondrick Walker 10 points. However, the superstar back court of Nathan Sobey (six points, eight assists on 2/9) and Tyler Johnson (eight points, four boards, four assists on 3/8) largely struggled.

Bullets coach James Duncan just felt that giving the Kings second looks and easy shots started the ball rolling, and they could never really stop the rot.

"It largely came down to back cuts and offensive rebounds. Giving a team like that second chance opportunities is going to hurt you which we talked about all week," Duncan said.

"In terms of seeing the man and seeing the ball, that's another thing we talked about all week and that's where they got confidence within the game because you're just giving them more opportunities to put the ball in the basket, and their confidence gets up and it's a snowball effect."

Brisbane was playing its first home game of the season and Aron Baynes his first in the NBL in his home state, and he got off to the perfect start opening up throwing down a dunk.

His team then jumped on his back and the Bullets raced out to a 13-2 lead with DJ Mitchell hitting a three and then Tyler Johnson, Nathan Sobey and Jason Cadee joining in the scoring.

Sydney did manage to stem the tide, though, after coach Chase Buford used both time outs while they scored just two points in the opening six and-a-half minutes.

However, by quarter-time the Kings had closed the deficit to five and then they opened up the second term with the opening seven points including five of those to DJ Vasiljevic to grab the lead.

Sydney turned that into a 14-1 run to open the second term as they opened up an eight-point edge which remained seven by half-time despite having earlier trailed by 11 in the opening minutes.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Xavier Cooks is dancin' ?<br><br>Watch live & free ? 10Peach/10play/Kayo Freebies | Every game live on ESPN via Kayo & Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/ZpOPGZrzhe">pic.twitter.com/ZpOPGZrzhe</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1581516946637393920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Kings then started the second half with the first five points and they soon went on a 10-0 run to break the game further open to lead by 19, and still by 15 at three quarter-time.

It didn’t get any better for Brisbane in the fourth term with the Kings opening up with a three-point play from Jordan Hunter.

Angus Glover, Simon and Vasiljevic all knocked down threes with Sydney romping to the 17-point win with the strongest resistance for Brisbane coming from their first-year NBL forward DJ Mitchell.

The Kings now return home to host the Adelaide 36ers on Friday night while the Bullets are back on the road to face the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

BRISBANE BULLETS 85 (Mitchell 20, Baynes 15, Cadee 13)

SYDNEY KINGS 102 (Simon 23, Vasiljevic 16, Walton Jr 13, Soares 13)

BOX SCORE