The Sydney Kings, still annoyed by a horrific setback, demonstrated their resilience by defeating the NBL-leading Melbourne United 98-86 at home.
Sydney’s performance was brilliant, despite the absence of forwards DJ Hogg and Jaylin Galloway.
The hosts were on a mission from the outset, scoring 58 points in the first half to lead by as many as 15, before closing with a crucial 12-point victory.
Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah was a proud man afterwards.
“Credit to the guys, they did a hell of a job,” he said.
“It just goes back to the defensive end and we kept them to 43 points each half.
“That was a phenomenal job but the guys wanted to do it, they stuck together.
“I’m just proud of them and happy for them.”
Two weeks ago the Kings suffered a poor road loss to the then last-placed Adelaide 36ers.
They then hit back at home to hammer the New Zealand Breakers by 29 points, and it was a similar scenario this time around at Qudos Bank Arena.
Sydney hosted Melbourne fresh off a shock loss to the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Thursday, who were missing five key players.
Under pressure to hang on to their top-six spot, they were faced with a significant challenge against the league-leading United who were back to full strength and playing their last of seven consecutive road games in January.
The signs weren’t great for Sydney with Melbourne leading 26-22 at quarter-time after a Shea Ili (10 points) four-point play, but the hosts got rolling in the second quarter.
The Kings put up 36 points to light up the 12,921 crowd to lead 58-43 at the half with former NBA trio Jaylen Adams (16 points), Jonah Bolden (10 points, seven rebounds) and Denzel Valentine (15 points, nine assists) combining for 32 points on 12-of-20 shooting.
It didn’t take long for United to close to within three points during the third quarter, but Makuach Maluach (18 points, 7-of-11 shooting) provided the steadying spark for Sydney with nine points just before three quarter-time.
Melbourne kept approaching, but Sydney held them off, moving up to fourth place with a 12-13 record.
Jordan Hunter added 12 points and nine rebounds, captain Shaun Bruce had 12 points and five assists, while Angus Glover scored 10 points after starting.
Chris Goulding had a difficult shooting night for Melbourne, going 2-of-11 from deep for eight points, while the club shot 6-of-30 from the land of plenty.
Luke Travers led the visitors’ scoring with 15 points, 10 rebounds, five blocks, and three assists.
Dean Vickerman, Melbourne’s coach, felt the third quarter cost his team.
“I can’t get my mind off the second quarter at the moment,” that’s what he said.
“We made massive improvements in the third to get ourselves back in the game and got back to three on Tanner’s (Krebs) three-ball, and there was a lot of things that we did to look aside from shooting the three-ball like we’re capable of.”
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