'He can’t do it alone': 36ers urged to lift around Bryce

Throughout the Hungry Jack’s NBL26 Championship Series, and the regular season, the Sydney Kings have guarded six-time MVP Bryce Cotton better than any team.

During the first three games of the Championship Series, Cotton is only averaging 16.7 points a game, while shooting 36.2 per cent from the field, significantly lower than his season averages of 25.6 points and 43.8 per cent.

A big part of that has been the play of NBA champion Matthew Dellavedova, with coach Brian Goorjian saying ‘he’s built for these moments’.

Echoing that praise was South East Melbourne coach Josh King, who said, “Delly does just as good a job as anybody in the league covering Bryce. If you take Delly off this Sydney team, I don't know if they win this Series. He’s a huge part of what they’re doing.”

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While Cotton has been below his best in Games 1 and 3, NBL champion Mark Worthington believes it’s up to his teammates to step up and deliver when their star is being pressured by one or multiple defenders.

“Bryce, he hasn't been given much airspace, but I don't think he's been overly aggressive in trying to find shots either,” Worthington said on Wednesday’s episode of NBL Now.

“They [Sydney] are going to obviously put a lot of emphasis on Bryce again. They need people like DJ [Vasiljevic]. They need people like John Jenkins. They need people like Zylan [Cheatham] to be able to step up and do what they do.

“Flynn Cameron [also has] to be able to bring the ball down the court, while both bigs [have to] go find where Bryce is and try and go set a double, [to help open him up].”

Dual Olympian Worthington is also intrigued in the next chapter of Cotton versus Kendric Davis, which has become one of the major storylines of not only the Series, but the full season.

“Bryce was voted best player in the regular season, but the Finals are very different and KD is obviously leading the charge in the Finals MVP,” he added.

“You can tell that KD wants it. You can tell that Bryce wants it. Both sides are going back and forth. Owners are going at it, we're all here to watch.

“[In my eyes] this is just normal trash talk that they see in the United States all the time. It's a little unusual for us to see it here in Australia, but I'm all here for it, as long as they continue to play great basketball, that's all that matters to me.”

Game 4 of the Championship Series tips off at 7.30pm AEDT on Wednesday at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, live on ESPN and 10 Drama in Sydney and Adelaide.