Buford and Vasiljevic praise 'gem' Cooks

By Dan Woods for NBL.com.au

Sydney’s Sunday night win over Melbourne United quickly turned into the Xavier Cooks show.

Whether it was his poster dunk on Isaac Humphries, his sharpshooting from the wing, his effectiveness on defence or his selflessness off the ball, Cooks looked a class above everyone on the court when the Kings were up and running.

Although they slumped in the second half to allow United to put some more respect on the scoreline, the Kings were absolutely brutal in the first, leading their capital city rivals by a massive 35 points at half-time.

Sydney guard DJ Vasiljevic and head coach Chase Buford had nothing but praise for Cooks after the game.

“He (Cooks) was obviously just in the zone in the first half. He’s fun to watch when he’s going. I don’t know if there’s anybody that’s more pleasing on the eye, at least from my value, to watch when he’s at full tilt,” Buford said.

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“He’s a joy to coach too. He’s a fun person, he’s a competitor, he just brings the guys together. He’s a gem."

“That’s probably the best dunk I’ve ever seen. ‘X’ is just a great all-around player. He can play point guard all the way through centre, he’s just really good at screening, rolling, playing long, he’s athletic,” Vasiljevic added.

“‘X’ is a big piece for us and he shows up every game and plays his heart out. I’m lucky to play alongside a guy like that.”

While it was all fun and games for the Kings in the first half, United hit back to win the second half by 13 points.

It was all in vain though, as the Kings’ incredible 30-6 second quarter set them up for the massive win.

Buford says while his side will take confidence from the first half, their second-half performance leaves them with a lot to work on.

“In the first half we were terrific – we made shots and the ball went in which is great, but what I was really pleased with in the first half was we really, really guarded them. We held them to two or four points in the paint, 20 per cent from the field, single digits from two, we were really guarding the way we wanted to,” he said.

“The second half they came out and put the clamps on us, our offence got stagnant. It was awful to watch in the second half. It was the slowest ... I had no fun watching that half – mainly because they were kicking our butts but it was just awful basketball.

“We’ll learn and we’ll grow and we’ll use this moment to get better. I’ll use this moment to get better because I think it’s a great observation of what not to do with a lead when you’re up 35 or whatever it was going into the half.”

The victory saw the Kings notch up their 14^th straight road win – a new NBL record.

Last time the Kings played United at John Cain Arena the final result was a vastly different scoreline, with United running out as 42-point winners. That clash was the last away fixture the Kings lost - it came on December 16, 2021.

Both Buford and Vasiljevic say the memory of that game acted as an extra burst of motivation.

“Everyone talked so much trash about us after that game and we basically put the same half on them, at least for a half. I go back to defence in the first half because that’s where the game was won and it was terrific,” Buford said.

“That was my first game back from an achilles (injury), so to come back and get smacked by 40 wasn’t really a good taste in my mouth,” Vasiljevic added.

“I think we’d only won one of the last 12 games here against United so to come here, the guys that were here last year were a little bit motivated.”