Cooks confident his Kings can handle Finals pressure

Sydney Kings forward and MVP winner Xavier Cooks admits the team will encounter a bit of pressure heading into their first game of the Playoffs after a 10-day break.

The Kings clinched top spot in the Finals and advanced directly to the Playoff series, avoiding sudden-death games in the Play-In tournament.

Hopeful to win back-to-back championships, Cooks confirmed the pressure on the Sydney siders’ backs and they’re weary of the Cairns Taipans.

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The Kings will face the Taipans on Wednesday in game one of their best-of-three series.

Cairns has played in the Seeding Qualifier and Play-In Game while Sydney has been resting and waiting.

“It’s a bit of a different feel in the group right now. The pressure is definitely coming,” Cooks said.

“It’s a completely different beast.”

Cooks added the Kings came into the season hot after their title win last year. But a 10-day break and two losses in Round 18 have slowed the Kings down slightly in the most crucial part of the year.

“It’s a different challenge from last year where we were one of the hottest teams in the league at the time. We had ground our way up and built up confidence,” Cooks said.

“This year we’re kind of in the wrong direction somehow. We were really hot at the start of the year and we’ve gone a bit slow right now.”

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Sydney guard Dejan Vasiljevic acknowledges the importance of remaining headstrong for their game on Wednesday and urges the pressure should not faze the Kings going after the trophy.

“Now that we’ve dropped a few games I think everyone thinks, they’re a bit vulnerable at times. So we’ve got to fix that up in practice,” he said.

“We’ve always had a target on our back this entire season and we’re trying to do something elite and go back-to-back.”

The regular season champions will host the series' first game at Qudos Bank Arena on Wednesday, February 15 from 7.30pm AEDT - with tickets still available here.