Kings Reign on Christmas Day Against United

The Sydney Kings have made NBL history by winning the first ever professional sporting fixture in Australia on Christmas Day and returning to the top of the table after a 101-80 win against Melbourne United.

Qudos Bank Arena played host to the first game played on Christmas Day with a strong crowd of 7012 turning out for the occasion. Most of them left happy with the Kings proving too strong for a United team minus an unwell captain Chris Goulding who was back home in Melbourne.

Rayjon Tucker did all he could to give Melbourne a chance with 20 points in the first half and 31 for the game, but Sydney just proved too strong with Xavier Cooks right to play after his ankle injury and putting in a standout performance.

Sydney dominated the second half, outscoring Melbourne 55 points to 40 in a commanding performance which sees them reclaim top spot in the standings at 12-5 to be back in front of the New Zealand Breakers.

It was a tough blow for Melbourne who slips to 9-12 with the result and that playoff dream is fading.

Cooks was terrific for Sydney finishing with 24 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and two steals on 9/15 shooting from the floor and 6/11 from the foul line.

He had plenty of support too with Jordan Hunter delivering 14 points and four rebounds, Justin Simon 12 points, five boards and three steals, Tim Soares 10 points and three rebounds, and Derrick Walton Jr 10 points and six assists.

Kings coach Chase Buford was thankful for the sacrifices made by so many to make the event what it was.

"A big thank you goes out to all the people who put this on to make it happen," Buford said. 

"Everyone from the stadium personal, the officials, a huge credit to Melbourne for being part of this and coming up here. Kudos and respect to those guys and the fans who made the effort to come out. 

"Hopefully it was a fun environment for the fans and a great product on TV, and hopefully it will help grow the league around the country."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Xavier Cooks is delivering like Santa ? <br><br>Watch it live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies and Foxtel | Live &amp; free on Channel 10 in VIC, NSW | Live &amp; free on 10 Peach and 10 play all other states and territories <a href="https://t.co/JHsMOhCaHw">pic.twitter.com/JHsMOhCaHw</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1606919998118973446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Rayjon Tucker tried to will Melbourne to stay in the contest on his way to 31 points, five rebounds and three assists but it was hard work too with him shooting 10/26 from the floor and 6/17 from downtown.

Isaac Humphries added 16 points, seven rebounds and six blocks for United, and David Okwera 13 points and 12 rebounds.

United coach Dean Vickerman, while never happy to lose, was proud of his team's fight without Chris Goulding and David Barlow, and to be part of history.

"On the whole event and playing on Christmas Day, well done to the Kings for getting in a pretty solid crowd for the first time it was done," Vickerman said.

"It was a privilege to be part of the first ever one and we spoke about that as a group. We had our American players talking about wanting to play on Christmas Day and that's the big day to play other than the playoffs.

"Whether we get to a point that it's something our kids grow up wanting to do and be on a big stage on Christmas Day is yet to be seen, and it was a sacrifice from us obviously. 

"But it's something we've done multiple times as United to try different things and see the league grow. Hopefully we put on a performance that people tuned into and what I liked about our performance was that we got down heavy a number of times, and didn't quit."

Justin Simon became the first ever player to score in the NBL on Christmas Day by knocking down a triple but Isaac Humphries responded in kind for Melbourne.

Xavier Cooks soon stamped his authority on the contest to give the Kings the lead and that advantage was out to 18-8 on the back of three-point plays to Simon and Cooks, and another bucket to Kouat Noi.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How the Grinch stole a basket ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies and Foxtel | Live &amp; free on Channel 10 in VIC, NSW | Live &amp; free on 10 Peach and 10 play all other states and territories <a href="https://t.co/vCaxaQpT00">pic.twitter.com/vCaxaQpT00</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1606929084373925888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Rayjon Tucker was keeping Melbourne within striking distance on his way to scoring 11 of his team's 17 points, but Sydney remained in control by quarter-time up 29-17.

Cooks then extended Sydney's lead to 14 to start the second quarter and while Tucker's hot start continued with seven quick points for Melbourne, the Kings kept on scoring up the other end including triples from Jordan Hunter and Angus Glover.

Another bucket to Simon and the Sydney advantage was 17 before Melbourne hit back with the next nine points including an and-one to Humphries and three ball from David Okwera.

Despite Tucker's 20 points and his three late in the half, the Kings still went into half-time up 46-40 on the back 13 points and seven rebounds from Cooks, and 22 points in the paint to 12.

While Tucker had 20 points in the first half, it wasn’t that efficient at 6/15 so while Sydney would focus their defence on him, Melbourne needed others to step up and Humphries was the one to spark them.

Not only was he on a shot blocking spree, but scored the first four points to bring United within two. Not long after and Zac Triplett and Mason Peatling landed from deep to bring scores level again.

Sydney responded, though, with the next seven points and never looked back from there.

Jaylin Galloway broke the game's back to close the third quarter in a spectacular outburst. He hit a three and threw down a couple on his own 7-0 run with Sydney's lead 68-55 by three quarter-time.

Cooks stretched that lead to 16 again to start the fourth but Melbourne weren't willing to give up the fight. United nailed seven threes in the fourth quarter including three of them to Tucker and two of them to Okwera with Triplett hitting his second of the game.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SOARES STUFFS THE CHIMNEY ?<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies and Foxtel | Live &amp; free on Channel 10 in VIC, NSW | Live &amp; free on 10 Peach and 10 play all other states and territories <a href="https://t.co/y6JUg17aC5">pic.twitter.com/y6JUg17aC5</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1606941968789286914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 25, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

They couldn’t bridge the gap, though, with Sydney having all the answers including the final 11 points of the game to end up crossing the century barrier to end up winning by 21.

Sydney remain at home to host the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday night with United staying on the road to place the Brisbane Bullets on New Year's Day.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL CHRISTMAS DAY

SYDNEY KINGS 101 (Cooks 24, Hunter 14, Simon 12)

MELBOURNE UNITED 80 (Tucker 31, Humphries 16, Okwera 13) 

BOX SCORE