R18 Preview: Sydney Kings v Adelaide 36ers

When: 5.00pm (AEST), Sunday 16 May

Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Adelaide 97 (Martin 25, Ware 17, Hunter 13, Vodanovich 13) d Sydney 88 (Johnson 20, Paul 19, Crocker 12) – Round 17, Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

It was only seven days ago when the two teams met in a cracking contest at the same venue in a game that went to overtime, and it was the 36ers who dominated the extra period to get a crucial road win against the Kings.

The Kings were on top most of the afternoon leading by as much as 16 to start the second half, and still by five with 2:30 to go in regulation after a huge triple from Tom Vodanovich. But Adelaide was able to force overtime on the back of a corner three from big man Isaac Humphries, and then it was Daniel Johnson's turn to dominate the extra period for the visitors.

He only had seven points on 2/13 shooting going into overtime, but he delivered a remarkable performance in the final five minutes nailing three triples on his way to 13 points to end up top-scoring for Adelaide with 20 points and eight rebounds. Sunday Dech also scored his only points of the game in overtime as Adelaide went on a 13-0 run to secure the seven-point win and keep their playoff hopes alive.

On top of Johnson's overtime heroics, Next Star Josh Giddey collected his third triple-double in the last four games and secured it with the rebound on the game's last possession. He finished the afternoon with an impressive 11 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds. Brandon Paul was strong in the first four quarters with 19 points while Tony Crocker also scored 12 points for the Adelaide, Keanu Pinder 11 and Isaac Humphries 11 to go with nine rebounds and six emphatic blocks.

Dech also had nine rebounds and nine assists to go with his stifling defence but really Adelaide was impressive with 20 offensive rebounds for 33 second chance points, and with their 10 blocks as a team.

Going to overtime was hardly ideal for an already undermanned Kings outfit and they ended up having six players that played at least 24 minutes with Jarrad Weeks playing almost 16 minutes in his first game back with the club.

Jarell Martin had 25 points and seven rebounds on 10/26 shooting for Sydney with Casper Ware adding 17 points and eight assists, Jordan Hunter 13 points and nine boards, Tom Vodanovich 13 points and five rebounds, and Shaun Bruce 12 points and four assists.

The now

To say this is a crucial game for the finals prospects of the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers would be a giant understatement.

It's getting to the point now where every game is virtually must win for the teams in the race for those third and fourth positions, and with the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Illawarra Hawks on winning streaks who are in those spots, that's even more so the case for the chasing pack.

The Kings and 36ers are both well and truly in that group, but with Sydney having now lost its past three matches and then Adelaide's three-game winning run coming to an end on Tuesday in Wollongong, Sunday's game takes on even greater significance.

Sydney has now dropped outside the top four following their last three defeats at the hands of Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane for them to now hold a 14-15 recording coming into Sunday's game on their home floor. Not only did they lose on Thursday night to the Bullets, but they only put up 70 points and lost by 23 so they will be desperate for a significantly improved performance.

The positive was the return of Xavier Cooks for his first game of the season for Sydney and with Brad Newley and Shaun Bruce expected to play for the Kings on Sunday too the positive for coach Adam Forde is that he'll have the squad that he has that can still play this season all available for the crucial clash.

Speaking of Forde, it has been an eventful lead into Sunday's game with the news that he won't be continuing on as head coach at the Kings beyond this season. How that affects the group on Sunday, only time will tell.

Then there are the 36ers. They had strung together some brilliant form at home back at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre with double-digit wins against Illawarra, Perth, Brisbane and Cairns, and then brought that form on the road with them last Sunday to score that overtime win in Sydney over the Kings.

That saw them have plenty of momentum and a fully fit and available squad who were clicking, but Tuesday night in Wollongong didn’t go to plan against the Hawks who held them to just 66 points for the game, and 38 points for the three quarters not including the second along with forcing them into an uncharacteristically high 24 turnovers.

That's given Adelaide plenty to think about now heading into Sunday's game back in Sydney where they will be without big man Isaac Humphries due to some soreness in the foot that saw him already miss a large chunk of the #NBL21 season.

The 36ers come into the game with a 13-17 record and with the Hawks in fourth spot at 15-14, they don’t have much room to move but certainly with six games to go they are still in the playoff hunt and can strengthen that case in Sydney on Sunday.

The stats

- This is the first ever time in an NBL season that the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers will play one another for a fifth time. Both teams have won two of the first four games this season.

- The 36ers will be playing their 12th games of the season without imposing centre Isaac Humphries. The sixers are 4-7 in the previous 11 matches without him.

- The Kings have lost their past three matches starting last Sunday also at home to the 36ers. It's their first three-game losing run of the season and it's come at an average of 19 points. It's also the first time Sydney has allowed at least 90 points in three consecutive matches.

The key men

Jarell Martin – It's been a bit of an up and down season for him with the Kings as he's battled to be at full health, and has often been limited in terms of his impact on games because of a limit on the game time he's allowed. But at his best, there's no question he is one of the best and most versatile bigs in the league. Capable of doing good work down low but being athletic enough to make moves going to the rack, and a decent shooter, he will be a tough match up for Daniel Johnson and that battle could very well end up deciding the winner of this critical contest for both teams.

Josh Giddey – There is the possibility that should the chances of the Adelaide 36ers reaching the playoffs further diminish that he may not close out the remaining games and focus on preparing for the NBA Draft so every time he hits the floor we need to savour it. But also with him on the court, the Sixers are a much better chance of winning and after he put up a triple-double in last Sunday overtime win in Sydney, he'll be looking for something similar this time around and more importantly help Adelaide win to keep them in the playoff mix.

The quotes

Kings coach Adam Forde will be glad to have more players available to take on the 36ers at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday, but it's now all about getting the mix of rotations right from a coaching point of view.

"Brucey hopefully is back and then we sort of look at our line-up and they know that these are the guys that we are rolling with for the rest of the season. We are going to have to find where we can rotate in the return of X without it affecting Craig's performance too much and the same for Tommy," Forde said.

"Jordan Hunter was great for us as well, I wish I had more timeouts for him to give him a breather because at the pace he was going we had to sub him out at times because he was just absolutely gassed. But you want to try and manage him a little bit better. 

"Moving forward, if you look at the shooting percentages, there's only so much you can do in a couple of days in regards to your shots rolling into the game on Sunday. But the one thing we're going to be looking at as coaches is the rotation of guys now especially with Brucey being back."

One positive to take from Thursday in Brisbane for Forde was the successful return from injury of Xavier Cooks.

"We knew going in that his minutes were restricted because the last game he played was way back in pre-season. The expectation was just to get him a bit of a run but for him to come out and have the impact that he did just goes to show how great of a basketball player he is," Forde said.

"It was good having him back out on the floor and we want to try and get him up and running as soon as possible, but the first step was to get him 12 minutes in this game and we now want to build and capitalise on that from now."

Kings forward Craig Moller has been a strong warrior throughout a rollercoaster ride this season for Sydney, but he's looking for a better all-round effort from everyone on Sunday.

We are not going to win games just by blowing teams off the court. We understand sort where we're at and what's happened during our season where if we lose the effort battle we're not going to win the game. We thought we were OK in that area in this game but it's still something we can improve especially against Adelaide who we gave up 50-something rebounds against last week. We didn’t throw in the towel but we are not trying to get to that point either.

Sixers coach Conner Henry was happy with the way his team was travelling coming into Tuesday's game against the Hawks, but that has given them plenty to work on since now as they've got ready for a return to Sydney on Sunday.

"We travelled back home on Wednesday and then had Thursday off and tried to stay off our legs, then on Friday we had a good, full day hit out working out with a scrimmage and film, and it's just been a normal plan at this time of year when we have a couple of days. We travelled back to Sydney on Saturday and had a brief, sharp workout when we got there and got ready for Sydney," Henry said.

"That last Sydney game was a tough one and we were able to get over the line, barely. They'll regroup and we know Adam will have them ready to go, and they might even have a couple of players back they didn’t have last time and be a little bit more healthy and deep. We have to erase that loss to Illawarra, but also learn from it. There was a lot of selfish play there I thought and a lot of me ball. 

"We had 23 assists but we should have had 37 if we just made the extra pass. When Jack and Tony came in there is the ball movement and it freed up a lot of guys, and they made threes. But some of the guys on the team need to watch this film and learn from it because they did not play well. I thought we were prepared well so it was a really disappointing loss for us."

Adelaide forward Jack McVeigh had a good shooting night with three triples on Tuesday in Wollongong, but is expecting a quick response from the Sixers against the Kings.

"There's a lot to learn from what we did against them last time only a few days ago and we've been playing some good basketball," McVeigh said.

"We let a game slip against Illawarra but we are finding our groove so we're going to watch the film, we are going to get after it and we are going to come back better that's for sure."