Kings explode for 71 in a half to deny Bullets

If you judge teams on how they respond to a poor performance then Sydney Kings passed with flying colours with Casper Ware spearheading a monstrous second half to secure 119-108 NBL Cup victory over the Brisbane Bullets.

The Kings put in their worst performance of the season back on Thursday night to lose to the Illawarra Hawks by 20. They then found themselves conceding 56 first half points on Saturday in their final NBL Cup appearance to the Bullets. 

Brisbane led by 11 points during the first half with Nathan Sobey and Vic Law combining for 33 points. In fact Sobey was on his way to a career-high night and the highest score by anyone this season with his 35 points, but it wouldn’t stop the Kings in the second half.

Ware came out on fire to start the second half with two quick threes and he went on to deliver 18 points after half-time Sydney putting together the best third quarter of the season with 38 points to end up setting up the 11-point victory having outscored Brisbane 71 points to 52 in the last two quarters.

Not only was it an impressive response for the Kings, but it denied the Bullets a chance to win the NBL Cup. The only downside for Sydney is it hands the Perth Wildcats the NBL Cup trophy which after what happened with last year's NBL championship probably isn’t ideal in their eyes.

It was such a show the Kings put on in that second half and Ware was the centre piece of it all. He finished the game with 25 points, 10 assists and four rebounds while hitting 5/9 from three-point land.

It was far from a one man show though. Jarell Martin had four fouls before half-time but managed to deliver on his hot start to the game by hanging in there during the second half to deliver 21 points.

Craig Moller broke out offensively for 15 points and seven rebounds while Tom Vodanovich hit a purple patch with three triples in a minute late in the third on his way to 13 points.

Jordan Hunter had another 13 points and eight rebounds, Shaun Bruce 11 points and two assists, and DJ Vasiljevic nine points and four assists. 

As a team they went on to shoot 54 per cent from the field and went 15/27 from three for 55 per cent.

Kings coach Adam Forde laid down the law to his team at half-time and challenged them to step up. It's fair to say he was rightfully delighted with the response.

"We really want to get over this hump to get to where we can win two, three or more games in-a-row and string quarters together, and win games convincingly which we are still trying to find our mojo with," Forde said. 

"Half-time was pretty much a line in the sand moment where this could go one or two ways where we could either come together with a little bit of fighting spirit, or we could crumble and just go through the motions. 

"This is I'm real happy with this team because they have that mental toughness which is evolving. We've probably taken some right steps in the right direction, and the message was heard and the boys got out there and delivered."

Brisbane had no trouble at the offensive end either. They still scored 108 points with Sobey on fire for a career-best night with 35 points on 11/21 shooting and 6/11 from three-point land. He also had six assists and four rebounds.

Vic Law battled hard too for 23 points, nine rebounds and three assists while Matt Hodgson had 12 points, Jason Cadee 11 and Anthony Drmic 11. But it was the conceding 71 points in a half that left a sour taste in their mouths.

Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis just lamented an ability from his team to stop the Kings in the second half or fully take advantage when they were on top in the first half. 

"We couldn’t get stops and I think we had a total of five stops in the second half," Lemanis said.

"I'm surprised to see actually that we had offensive rebounds because I felt like every time they actually missed one they scrambled to come up with the ball, and they had 18 offensive rebounds on 38 misses. 

"That's almost 50 per cent so there are lots of effort area things there. I thought in the first half we did well to match their scoring and overcoming it to work our way into a nice little lead. We could have gone into half-time with a 12 or 14-point lead but that's the game. 

"Then in the second half they didn’t miss very much and you ask if that was us or them, but in most basketball games it's a function of both."

The Bullets had to win to stay a chance to win the NBL Cup but Sydney led 15-9 early with Jarell Martin starting on fire and Brad Newley coming on for a spark. But the Bullets turned it around to close the quarter with triples to Anthony Drmic, Nathan Sobey and Vic Law to lead 24-23.

The Bullets broke away to an 11-point edge during the second term with Sobey unstoppable and Jason Cadee getting in on the there-point fun. Sobey and Law went on to combine for 33 first half points with Brisbane in control 56-48 by half-time.

Casper Ware sparked Sydney with two threes to open the second half and the Kings just kept it going the rest of the way. The Bullets still had 52 points in the half themselves, but there was no stopping Sydney.

They scored a season-high 38 points in the third quarter with Ware delivering 10 of those before Tom Vodanovich nailed three triples to close out the term. Sydney put up another 33 in the fourth and Brisbane just couldn’t keep up.

Brisbane finishes the NBL Cup with a 5-3 record to be 8-7 overall this season ahead of returning home on Saturday to host the New Zealand Breakers.

The Kings went 4-4 in Melbourne and are 7-8 overall ahead of hosting Melbourne United on Friday and Cairns Taipans on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9
NBL CUP WEEK 4

SYDNEY KINGS 119 (Ware 25, Martin 21, Moller 15)

BRISBANE BULLETS 108 (Sobey 35, Law 23, Hodgson 12) 

POINTS AWARDED – Sydney Kings 5, Brisbane Bullets 2

BOX SCORE