Adams leads Kings to Game One triumph in Wollongong

By Matt McQuade

Result: Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings 89 Illawarra Hawks 79

Stats that matter: Kings 46 points in the paint; Kings 47.1% FG, Kings six turnovers; Kings six blocked shots

Kings MVP: If there was any shred of doubt about Jaylen Adams winning the league MVP, it was erased by his marvellous performance.

Turning Point: A devastating 18-0 run in the second period was the difference in the ballgame.

The game was over when: Jaylen Adams buried a triple with 16 seconds left.

Trending in the right direction: Angus Glover heard it from his old home crowd all night but showed great heart and guts and made plays when they mattered.

One down.

One remaining.

The Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings are just one win away from their seventh NBL Grand Final appearance after a sensational 89-79 victory over the Illawarra Hawks in Game One of the NBL22 semi-final series on Friday night at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

Sydney will have a chance to close out the series on Sunday at Qudos Bank Arena after a brilliant second quarter helped power them to their astounding 11^th consecutive victory on the road.

After a tightly contested opening period where the Kings recovered from an early Hawks onslaught to trail 24-22 at the end of the quarter, the purple and gold launched a savage offensive assault that stunned the massive sell-out crowd of 5,621.

Sydney led 32-31 with just over six minutes remaining in the second quarter, and two free throws from Makur Maker (11 points, four rebounds) kicked off an extraordinary five minutes where the Kings did everything right and the Hawks were powerless to stop what became an avalanche.

League Most Valuable Player Jaylen Adams (30 points, six rebounds, five assists) and NBA champion Ian Clark (16 points, two rebounds) were the architects of an incredible 18-0 surge by the visitors.

Adams did whatever he wanted to do and had eight points in the run and Clark had seven as the lead ballooned to 50-31 and Illawarra were shellshocked.

A layup from Angus Glover (five points, four assists) completed the Hawks’ misery and the Kings went to the rooms with a scarcely believable 52-33 advantage, after holding Illawarra to just 3 of 19 shooting from the field in the second period, including a run when the home team missed 11 consecutive field goal attempts.

Illawarra was always going to make a move after being embarrassed in front of their fans, and they came out with more of a purpose in the third quarter, cutting Sydney’s lead to 14 as Hawks’ forward Duop Reath (26 points, 10 rebounds) started to impose himself with eight points in the period.

But the Kings’ held firm behind the incredible Adams and the tireless Xavier Cooks (11 points, ten rebounds, four assists, three blocked shots) and a lay-up from Ian Clark gave the purple and gold a 74-57 lead with a quarter remaining.

It looked at that stage that the Kings would cruise to an easy W.

But of course, this is the Sydney-Illawarra rivalry, and as was the case with so many of these battles over the years, there was one more twist left in the tale.

Naturally, it was the Hawks coming out in the fourth with a level of desperation they hadn’t shown in the opening three periods, fuelled by a crowd that got louder and more energised by the second, and for the first time all night, Sydney got the staggers under some immense pressure.

Led by Reath, who had 13 points in the final period, and Antonius Cleveland (21 points, seven rebounds, two blocked shots), Illawarra stormed back into the game with a remarkable 18-4 surge, capped by a Reath triple that blew the roof off the building and sliced what had been a comfortable margin to just three, 78-75, with more than three minutes left.

Would the playoff-tested Hawks prove too strong down the stretch for a young Kings’ outfit?

Not when the best player in the league was on the floor.

Jaylen Adams had two big free throws and a drive to the rack for the deuce to calm his troops, Clark added a pair of lay-ups in traffic, and with the Sydney D getting every stop they had to, Adams buried a triple with 16 seconds left to cap an 11-4 run that closed the show and gave the Kings a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

The Kings shot the ball at 47% from the field, were 8 of 23 from three-point range and 17 of 22 at the free throw line in their sensational victory. They had a whopping 46 points in the paint and got 32 big points from their bench.

The series now shifts to Game Two at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday 1 May, with tipoff at 3:00pm AEST. And if a third game is required, it will be held back at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Tuesday 3 May, with tipoff scheduled for 7:30pm.

Tickets are on sale for Game Two of the series via Ticketek.

#WE ARE KINGS

BRYDENS LAWYERS SYDNEY KINGS 89 (Adams 30, Clark 16, Vasiljevic 12)
ILLAWARRA HAWKS 79 (Reath 26, Cleveland 21, Harvey 10) at WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong.

BOXSCORE