Buford hopes last-second win acts as 'wake-up call'

Coach Chase Buford hopes his side's last-second win against Illawarra on Sunday serves as another lesson for his Sydney Kings o be aggressive from the start of games, regardless of the opponent.

“I hope we don’t keep having this ‘wake-up call’ at home,” Buford said.

“I think it’s too many times that we’ve just been on our back foot or let somebody come into our house and be the aggressor.

“Whether they’re going through struggles or not, we should be the aggressors, we should come in and play with a mentality presence where we intimidate other people in our house.”

GRAB YOUR SYDNEY KINGS TICKETS NOW

Although a tough trip to Cairns awaits the Hoops Capital side, the NBL22 championship-winning coach admits his side won't change too much heading into the round eight fixture, despite their under-par performance.

"Cairns is a tough outfit but honestly, I thought Illawarra played exceptionally and would have played stuck it to most teams in the league with that showing," Buford said.

"Going into the Hawks game, I thought we had a really good output leading into the Illawarra game - with some really competitive sessions, despite being low on numbers with guys being hurt or away with international teams

"We now have another good, long break, with eight days before that Cairns game, which will give us a chance to get a couple of solid three-day blocks in and see what we can get out of it."

The round eight fixture, in which the Kings are chasing their NBL record 18th road win in a row, takes place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 7.30pm AEDT on Monday, November 28.