Fourth quarter continues to be issue as Kings go down to Bullets

By Matt McQuade

Result: Brisbane Bullets 96 Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings 87

Stats that matter: Bullets 38 points in the paint; Bullets 20 made free throws; Kings 15 three-pointers; bench points Bullets 23 Kings 8

Kings MVP: Jaylen Adams was in attack mode for most of the night and filled it up from the perimeter.

Turning Point: Xavier Cooks’ ejection in the second quarter turned the game on its head.

The game was over when: The Bullets’ Tyrell Harrison made two free throws with 42 seconds left.

Trending in the right direction: Jarell Martin was a force on the glass.

Another fourth quarter fadeout has seen the Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings fall 96-87 to the Brisbane Bullets on Friday night at Nissan Arena in Brisbane.

The Kings led by seven points with one quarter to play but were overrun by Brisbane 31-15 in the final ten minutes to see their record drop to 3-6 on the season.

But in truth, the game turned much earlier.

Sydney had played outstanding basketball for more than a quarter, with Jaylen Adams (33 points, four rebounds, six assists) and Dejan Vasiljevic (21 points, two rebounds) especially dominant.

The Kings’ starting backcourt combined for 19 of their team’s 31 first quarter points as they went to the opening break with a 16-point lead, their biggest of the season to date at the end of any first period.

But the guy making everything happen during Sydney’s blistering start was Xavier Cooks, who had five boards and five assists in the first 13 minutes and was controlling the action at both ends, holding down Brisbane’s leading scorer Robert Franks (16 points, 11 rebounds) and facilitating the offence beautifully.

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The Kings led 34-18 early in the second quarter when Cooks was assessed a technical foul; this after he had been called for a questionable unsportsmanlike foul in the first period.

Xavier’s tech saw him ejected from the game, an enormous blow to an already undermanned squad, and even though the team had dominated to that point, his absence for the rest of the game would prove too much to overcome.

“Obviously it changed the game quite a bit,” Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings Head Coach Chase Buford said of the loss of his star forward.

“We were a plus-17 with Xav on the floor.”

“It would have been great to have Xav out there in the fourth. He obviously would have helped us and it’s a bummer we couldn’t have had him out there for longer.”

However, there’s no disputing the fact that Sydney’s fourth quarter struggles are becoming a real concern, particularly given the group has shown that it can be highly competitive – a case in point tonight when the Kings led by as much as 19 points at one stage and their transition game was in high gear.

“I told the guys in the locker room that we have six losses and in four of those games we’ve been the better team for three quarters,” Coach Buford said.

“We’ve got to find ways to finish games better.”

“Obviously we can get better shots in the game which I keep saying; I think again we tried to do it on our own a little bit.”

“More importantly, that’s two games in a row we’ve given up 30 points in the fourth quarter, and offence or not, we pride ourselves on being a defensive team and getting stops.”

“Giving up 31 in a quarter and 61 in a half is just not good enough.”

Indeed, the seeds for Sydney’s defeat were sown in a third period that turned into a shootout after the Kings had held the home team to just 35 points in the first half and led by nine at intermission.

Brisbane had been stymied for the most part by an aggressive, swarming defence that denied them easy looks at the basket, but that tough Sydney D fell away early in the second half and allowed the Bullets to gain some confidence.

Despite Jaylen Adams’ 13 points in the third frame plus his spectacular dime to Jarell Martin (18 points, 12 rebounds) for an alley-oop slam, Brisbane came alive through Lamar Patterson (16 points, five rebounds, three assists), Jason Cadee (18 points, five assists) and Nathan Sobey (30 points, four rebounds, three assists), outscoring the Kings 30-29 in the quarter and grabbing all the momentum.

That trend continued early in the fourth when threes to Cadee and Sobey and a dunk to Tyrell Harrison (nine points, 15 rebounds) gave the Bullets their first lead since the 8:26 mark of the opening period.

Dejan Vasiljevic stopped the bleeding temporarily with a much-needed pair of buckets, but those scores were the last field goals the Kings would convert for a critical four-minute span when Brisbane went on a game-winning 10-0 run.

Poor decisions and lack of execution combined with defensive breakdowns didn’t help the purple and gold down the stretch, and they went on to suffer their fourth consecutive loss with a couple of difficult games upcoming.

Sydney shot the ball at 42% from the field, hit 15 three-pointers at 38% and went to the foul line just 10 times for six makes. For their part, the Bullets shot the ball at 47% from the field, 33% from three-point range and were 20 of 23 from the charity stripe.

The Kings will now return home for the second leg of this regular season mini-series with the Bullets. Sydney will face Brisbane on Sunday in the first leg of an NBL/WNBL double-header at Qudos Bank Arena this Sunday afternoon, with the Sydney Uni Flames taking on the Perth Lynx following the conclusion of the NBL game.

Tipoff for Kings-Bullets is scheduled for 1:00pm and the Flames-Lynx clash will begin at 3:30pm. Tickets for the NBL/WNBL double-header are available via Ticketek.

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BRISBANE BULLETS 96 (Sobey 30, Cadee 18, Patterson 16, Franks 16)
BRYDENS LAWYERS SYDNEY KINGS 87 (Adams 33, Vasiljevic 21, Martin 18) at Nissan Arena, Brisbane.

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