R20 Preview: Sydney Kings vs Adelaide 36ers

When: 3pm (AEDT), Sunday 17 April 2022

Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; 10 Peach; 10 Play; Sky Sport NZ

Who won last time?

Sydney 84 (Cooks 22, Vasiljevic 15, Martin 13) d Adelaide 77 (Johnson 20, Harris 10, Withers 10) - Round 19, Adelaide Entertainment Centre

The home side did their best to take it up to the Kings, but Sydney just had too much firepower in the finish as they kept their momentum going even with Ian Clark.

The Kings had won their past 10 and this win was more of a grind, but a lot of the credit for that can be given to the energy the 36ers played with and the focus they had to playing solid defence to at least make life difficult for Sydney.

Xavier Cooks was playing his third game back from an ankle injury and produced an impressive performance for the Kings made up of 22 points, nine rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists. DJ Vasiljevic put up 15 points while Jarell Martin added 13 points and six rebounds, Jaylen Adams 12 and five assists, and Makur Maker nine points and eight rebounds.

The Sixers battled hard but just didn’t shoot well in the end going 26/74 from the field at 35 per cent and 9/35 from deep at 25 per cent. Daniel Johnson top-scored again with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists with Todd Withers adding 10 points and five boards, Hyrum Harris 10 points and six rebounds, and Kai Sotto eight points and four rebounds.

What happened last start?

Both teams played on Thursday night to open the penultimate round of #NBL22 and couldn’t have been more impressive with the Sydney Kings stretching their winning run to 13 and the Adelaide 36ers producing what might very well have been their best and most complete performance of the season.

The Kings were in Wollongong against an Illawarra Hawks team on their own six-match winning streak, but in a terrific playoff-like contest that needed overtime to be decided, the Kings ended up prevailing for the 107-102 victory to take their winning streak to 13 and to guarantee a finals appearance this season, and to go a long way to at least locking away a top two finish.

There was once again a lot to like from Sydney's performance as not only did they win a 13th straight game, but it made it eight in-a-row on the road as they now prepare to make their return to Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday for the first time since March 6's win against the Cairns Taipans.

The Kings dominated to start the overtime period against the Hawks to score the win to improve to a 18-7 record on the season with DJ Vasiljevic brilliant delivering a career-best performance made up of 33 points including 6/10 shooting from three-point territory.

He was far from the only star in the night for the Kings with Jarell Martin putting up 21 points and six rebounds, Jaylen Adams 17 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, Ian Clark 17 points and five boards, and Xavier Cooks 14 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots.

That all means the Kings have every right to be feeling good about themselves having won 13 in-a-row, being guaranteed taking part in the finals and then getting to return to play in front of their home fans on Sunday for the first time in six weeks.

Meanwhile, Adelaide might be out of the race for finals but they began their run of four consecutive road matches to close the season on the best possible note on Thursday night with the 82-70 victory against the Perth Wildcats at RAC Arena.

Coming off their last two home matches last weekend firstly in a tight loss to the Kings on Saturday and then the Brisbane Bullets on Monday, the 36ers headed to Perth a determined and motivated outfit, and they turned on an outstanding performance.

With Daniel Johnson and Sunday Dech setting the tone early, and then Dusty Hannahs making his return with 11 points in the last four minutes of the opening term, the Sixers put up 30 points in the first period and opened up a 20-point lead in the second on the way to the eventual 12-point victory.

Dech might very well have played the best game of his NBL career not only with 23 points but playing brilliant defence on Bryce Cotton while Johnson put up 23 points and six rebounds, Hannahs 23 points on 3/5 shooting from downtown, and captain Mitch McCarron six points, nine rebounds, six assists and five steals.

It was a morale boosting performance from the 36ers showing just what they are capable of when switched on and motivated, and now there's no bigger challenge in the league for them than trying to stop Sydney's winning streak on their home floor on Sunday at 13.

Who’s in form?

Xavier Cooks – It might be easier to talk about who isn't in form for the Kings given they are on 13-game winning streak to be the hottest team in the NBL and to be playing full of confidence, but X is right back now to the form he was in for Sydney prior to missing two games with an ankle injury. Cooks was outstanding in all areas in Thursday's overtime win against the Illawarra Hawks returning to his hometown to produce 14 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots. He worked his way into the ground but was instrumental in doing so and his energy and ability to fight for every possession, and to make his teammates walk that bit taller throughout his work rate and energy is remarkable, and exactly why he's firming for a spot in the All-NBL First Team.

Sunday Dech – 'Church' could very well have played the best game of his 97-match NBL career in Perth on Thursday night. What he delivered at both ends of the floor was simply remarkable and instrumental in a terrific win for the 36ers in The Jungle. He finished the evening back in his old hometown with 23 points, nine rebounds, two assists and a steal on the back of shooting 8/13 from the field and a perfect 6/6 at the foul line. That only tells half the story. His hounding defence on Bryce Cotton was also instrumental in limiting the three-time MVP from Perth to just seven points on 3/16 shooting for the night. Dech also did a good job eight days ago limiting the influence of Jaylen Adams in Adelaide when the teams last met and he will be tasked with that job once again on Sunday.

Who needs to be?

Ian Clark – The NBA championship winner at the Golden State Warriors has proven invaluable since joining the Kings mid-season. He is yet to play in a loss in the NBL with the Kings 8-0 with him in the line-up, but back in Round 19 you also saw what his absence did. While Sydney kept winning on the road to Adelaide and New Zealand last week, they didn’t do so with the same proficiency that they had been doing with Clark in the line-up. He gives them that extra offensive weapon, shooting threat and experienced head that could be the final piece this team needed. He showed his importance upon return in Thursday night's win against the Illawarra Hawks with 17 points, five rebounds and two assists while knocking down three three-pointers.

Mitch McCarron – There's a reason he was such an important member of Melbourne United's championship triumph last season and why the 36ers were quick to make him captain upon his arrival for this season. He simply makes his teammates and team better when he is playing at a high level and that was on full display in Thursday night's win against the Perth Wildcats. He was instrumental in helping Dusty Hannahs, Daniel Johnson and Sunday Dech combine for 69 of the team's 82 points in the win while doing a bit of everything, and doing it all at a high level. He finished with six points, nine rebounds, six assists and five steals and it was exactly the type of performance as a leader Adelaide wants from him, and will need again against the Kings on Sunday.

Who’s statting up?

 - Sydney's current 13-game winning streak is the best by any team in the NBL since the New Zealand Breakers won 16 straight on their way to a third straight championship in 2013
 
 - Adelaide's impressive win on Thursday night was the first time the Sixers have had three players score at least 20 points in a game this season – with Daniel Johnson, Dusty Hannahs and Sunday Dech all scoring 23 points

Who’s matching up?

Jarell Martin v Daniel Johnson – There's a host of marquee match ups in this one including Sunday Dech attempting to lockdown Jaylen Adams and even the battle of the hustle machines Xavier Cooks and Hyrum Harris, but 'Rell up against DJ in the battle of bigs could very well be worth the price of admission alone. They are both bigs who love to step out and shoot, and who have very similar games in a lot of ways. Martin is fresh off delivering 21 points and six rebounds in Sydney's Thursday night overtime win against the Illawarra Hawks while Johnson went back home to Perth on Thursday to produce 23 points and six boards on 7/13 shooting from the floor and 4/9 from downtown in the win for the 36ers against the Wildcats. Both of them come into this battle in terrific form and only eight days earlier in Sydney's win in Adelaide, Johnson had 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the 36ers and Martin 13 points and six boards for the Kings.

Who’s talking the talk?

After Thursday night's overtime win in Wollongong over the Illawarra Hawks, Kings coach Chase Buford was looking forward to getting his team some rest before turning their attention to taking on the 36ers.

"We've gone home and got some rest first of all from Thursday before Sunday's game, but we came out and played with more energy, intensity and purpose in this game than the previous two," Buford said.

"That can't happen, we can't let that slip and I think if we come out and do that, and play the way we want to play, and the way we know how then hopefully playing at home can give us that added juice and we can come out well, and take care of business.

Kings sharpshooter DJ Vasiljevic was phenomenal in that overtime win on Thursday with a career-high 33 points and he loved every minute of taking part in such a hot game between two form teams in front of a near packed out WIN Entertainment Centre.

"We've won 13 in-a-row and just played against a great Illawarra Hawks team who were the No. 1 offence and defence on their win streak so to come in and play them in a playoff-like atmosphere was unreal. It was a great game," Vasiljevic said.

"We might be tired, but we understood the assignment and we hadn’t beaten the Hawks. We just had to come out and play hard. Obviously we had a sloppy first half but we were able to gut it out and to beat Illawarra in their house and continue our rolling streak is unreal."

It has been a rocky start to the head coaching career of CJ Bruton with the 36ers, but they are finding some greater consistency late in the season as they figure out the way he wants them to play, and everyone is settling into their roles a bit better.

The result was Thursday night's impressive win in Perth against the Wildcats and Bruton believes the key was both having more players available, but more importantly they way they followed their task and went out there and delivered at a high level.

"Clearly having more bodies available helps and Dusty coming back he made a big impact for our group it's fair to say. He was a major contributor and having more bodies was important to be able to go at them in waves, and I think it was more about spacing the floor," Bruton said.

"I think we did a pretty good job of using the clock well when we needed to, not rushing ourselves and then we attacked when the opportunities were there. We had the good look and the open looks. Sometimes they don’t go in and sometimes they do, and in this game we hit a few of them early which got us a lead. 

"We weren’t playing catch up which we have been for most of the season, and were able to stay under control, call a couple of timeouts at certain points when I felt they were about to make a good run and put that to bed. I let everyone know we were OK and I thought we did well scoring coming out of timeouts which I was very happy with again."

Sixers guard Sunday Dech was remarkable at both ends of the floor in that win on Thursday night for the 36ers including a standout defensive job on Bryce Cotton, but he also paid tribute to his teammates for being focused on doing plenty to help him out.

"I've played against Bryce now for a number of years and when I was here as his teammate as well and I think I know some of his moves. It's really about just following the game plan and in this game myself and the rest of the team just executed that to a tee," Dech said. 

"He's a great scorer and it's hard to keep him down, but when you're on and everyone is on the same page it makes everything a lot easier. Credit to my teammates and the bigs in particular who did a really good job of being locked in on when we were switching onto him as well."