Walton Jr Stars In Kings' Win

The Illawarra Hawks got a surprise 47 points from Lachie Dent, George King and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, but Derrick Walton Jr's NBL debut was something to behold as the Sydney Kings prevailed 106-97.

Walton has arrived at the Kings with the biggest of shoes to fill replacing reigning MVP Jaylen Adams, but what he showed in the season-opener on Saturday night is that he's more than up to the job.

While Dent had a remarkable first five minutes of the fourth quarter in his career-best NBL performance to threaten to lead the Hawks to victory, Walton wouldn’t let the Kings go down.

With the help of former Hawk Justin Simon in his Kings debut and then last season's championship stars Xavier Cooks and DJ Vasiljevic, Sydney scored the game's last eight points to win by nine at WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.

Walton finished with 32 points and eight assists with 5/8 long-range shooting in his NBL debut, in a spectacular performance, while Cooks added 24 points and four rebounds. Vasiljevic scored 16 points with 5/9 shooting from three-point land.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">? THREE-J-VASILJEVIC ? <a href="https://twitter.com/3jvasiljevic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@3jvasiljevic</a> has got it going ON in the GONG.<br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/18THc4VkzR">pic.twitter.com/18THc4VkzR</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1576173927818067971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The contrasting nights of Simon and Swaka Lo Buluk was fascinating to watch too, as they played their old teams for the first time.

Swaka Lo Buluk was a pivotal member of Sydney's championship last season as their starting three man and defensive menace, but he was looking to show more of offensive arsenal by joining the Hawks.

Simon was Best Defensive Player with the Hawks two seasons ago and he's joined the archrival Kings this season, looking to not only remind of his defensive prowess, but to show what he can do offensively.

They were both terrific for their teams too with Simon putting up 19 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two assists on 8/11 shooting, along with doing a standout defensive job on Tyler Harvey.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Justin Simon might not be a Hawk anymore, but he&#39;s still flyin&#39;<a href="https://twitter.com/simon_Says_so?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@simon_Says_so</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> <br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/PszJPmb98x">pic.twitter.com/PszJPmb98x</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1576154859945873408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Swaka Lo Buluk ended up with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists for the Hawks.

Kings coach Chase Buford was happy that his four stars, Cooks, Vasiljevic, Simon and Walton, stepped up when it mattered, but didn’t like his team's defensive performance.

"I thought it was a gritty win. There was a number of times in the second half when things weren’t going our way and they were hitting shots, and we weren’t doing a very good job offensive of getting it into the paint and had some shots that didn’t fall," Buford said.

"There were countless opportunities where we could have hung our head or sulked, or let go of the rope, but our guys stuck to it and kept grinding. DJ obviously helped pull us out a little bit with elite shot making, Derrick and X as well, and Justin carried us for large stretches of the night. 

"Those four really helped us put points on the board and in tough moments, but defensively we have a long way to go. That was a really poor defensive performance from my point of view."

It wasn’t the night that the Hawks were hoping for from import guards Harvey (18 points) and Justin Robinson (10 points, eight assists) who combined to shoot 11 of 39, but they had others step up.

Dent delivered the best performance in his 21-game NBL career, with 19 points on a perfect seven-of-seven shooting from the field and 5/5 from downtown, while new import George King showed his shooting touch knocking down 4/6 from three, for 14 points.

Hawks coach Jacob Jackomas took plenty out of the season-opening performance, good and bad.

"There was a lot of good and a lot of bad for this time of year, but we pride ourselves on the defensive end and obviously giving up 106 points is a little bit too much," Jackomas said.

"There's a lot to work on and the good thing about this thing is that we get play again quickly on Thursday."

The reigning champs started their title defence in style with the first four points of the game and then Grand Final MVP Xavier Cooks hit a three ball for the 7-2 start.

However, former Swaka Lo Buluk also began his time at the Hawks with their first four points and when new import King hit the floor, he drained a triple ... then Dent came down to hit a couple.

That brought Illawarra back into the contest even, though the Kings were still up 24-21 after one.

Simon scored again to open the second period and Walton Jr started lighting it up with a couple of three balls, and some nice dimes to set up his teammates.

The Hawks weren’t going away, though, and a couple more threes to King to give him nine points for the half kept them within a point at the main break despite Harvey and Robinson combining for just 10 points on three-of-21 shooting.

Harvey and Sydney's Vasiljevic had rough first halves, but hit early buckets to start the second half although it continued to be Swaka Lo Buluk and Simon leading the charge for their teams.

Walton was also continuing to shine for Sydney, but then Tim Coenraad hit three free-throws and knocked down a three ball for the Hawks to see their lead grow to seven after earlier being down seven.

It became DJ time though for the Kings. Vasiljevic drilled three bombs on consecutive possessions to give his team the lead and by three quarter-time the defensive champs were on top by three.

The story of the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter then became Dent. He drained three three-pointers, scored on another floater and that put the Hawks back on top by seven points with the Hawks fans loving it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LACHIE 2 HOTTY.<a href="https://twitter.com/lachlandent_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@lachlandent_</a> is having himself a night ? <br><br>A career-high 19 and counting <br><br>Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> live on ESPN via Kayo &amp; Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/P2WQVxJkmw">pic.twitter.com/P2WQVxJkmw</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1576176921695514625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 1, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Triples for Sydney from Kouat Noi and Vasiljevic had scores back level in the blink of an eye and the Kings continued on with the momentum from there, with the combination of Simon and Walton proving unstoppable.

A steal from Simon that led to a Walton proved instrumental, before the latter also drained a dagger three-pointer, with Sydney going on to win by seven.

Next up for the Hawks is another home clash against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday, while the Kings will raise their championship banner on Friday at home to the Brisbane Bullets.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 1

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 97 (Dent 19, Harvey 18, King 14, Swaka Lo Buluk 14)
SYDNEY KINGS 106 (Walton 32, Cooks 24, Simon 19) 

BOX SCORE