GAME REPORT: Sydney fall to Adelaide in Brian Goorjian’s 300th for the Kings

GAME REPORT: Sydney fall to Adelaide in Brian Goorjian’s 300^th for the Kings

By Matt McQuade

Result: Adelaide 36ers 84 Sydney Kings 78

Stats that matter: 36ers 16 offensive rebounds, 36ers 14 second chance points, Kings 8/28 three pointers, Kings 46 points in the paint.

Kings MVP: Xavier Cooks produced one of his better offensive games of the season and even hit a triple.

Turning Point: Adelaide held Sydney to a season-low 12 third quarter points and the Kings struggled from there.

The game was over when: 36ers swingman Matt Kenyon knocked down a triple with just over a minute remaining to put the game out of reach.

Trending in the right direction: Tyler Robertson provided an offensive spark off the bench with a pair of three-point baskets.

You can’t win them all.

On a rough shooting night for the home team, the Sydney Kings fell 84-78 to the Adelaide 36ers in front of 13,365 fans on Sunday afternoon at Afterpay Arena.

It was Sydney’s first regular season loss after winning 14 on the bounce and their first defeat at home after enjoying an 11-game winning streak at their home stadium.

Disappointingly, the Kings couldn’t celebrate Brian Goorjian’s 300^th game in charge of the purple and gold with a win, but as the greatest of all-time said in the post-game press conference, his team never looked settled coming off a 10-day break.

“Good job by Adelaide; I thought their defensive plan for us was good and they executed well and played a good game of basketball,” Coach Goorjian said.

“We did have a rough night at the office and had no flow offensively.

“That triggered frustration and anxiety, and we went into a bad hole.

“We were ready to play probably four or five days ago, but in the last few days leading to this we were edgy, it wasn’t great, and it carried over to the game tonight.”

The Kings shot the ball at 46% from the field and had some success on the few occasions the team was able to get the game into their favoured high intensity, high pace system, but too often the offence was bogged down in the halfcourt and the group never got into any kind of rhythm.

There were also big issues for the purple and gold on the glass – they allowed Adelaide to grab 16 offensive rebounds, with the 36ers converting those into 14 second chance points.

“The offensive boards hurt us, and then guys were playing off (their man). I just thought that it took away aggression; there (should be) a little bit of a contest there and there wasn’t,” Goorj admitted.

“When you’re like that, it’s then hard to block that guy out if you’re going to stand three feet off and let him shoot.

“We weren’t getting a lot of bodies on those guys because they had a lot of freedom.”

In a game where the Kings collectively struggled, there was one clear standout – Xavier Cooks (22 points, eight rebounds, three assists, 8/11 from the field). The Kings’ captain was dominant in the opening period and tried everything he could to ignite his team on a night where superstar point guard Kendric Davis (16 points, five rebounds, seven assists) had an uncharacteristic off night shooting the ball and saw his franchise record streak of leading the Kings in scoring 15 consecutive times ended.

On the positive side, the Kings’ defence was mostly on point. Sydney did a good job for the most part in containing Adelaide superstar Bryce Cotton (17 points, eight assists) to just 6 of 20 shooting from the field and were effective in restricting 36er big man Nick Rakocevic (16 points, nine rebounds).

Normally, holding a team to just 84 points would be more than enough to get the W. But after leading 44-41 at the half with Tyler Robertson scoring all eight of his points in a nice cameo off the bench in the opening 20 minutes, the key to the ballgame was Adelaide holding Sydney to just 12 third quarter points, with the 36ers turning for home up 61-56.

And every time the Kings tried to make a run in the fourth quarter – and the group showed tremendous heart to keep fighting on an otherwise frustrating night – Adelaide had the answer, with John Jenkins (20 points), Matt Kenyon (11 points, eight rebounds) and Jacob Rigoni knocking down triples to keep Sydney at bay.

The Kings fall to 3-1 and third place on the NBL ladder with the loss, Adelaide jumps to seventh with a 3-4 record.

It’s a quick turnaround for the defending champs as they head to Canberra this Wednesday for an Ignite Cup clash against the New Zealand Breakers – tickets for that battle are on sale now via Ticketek. Following that one, Sydney heads back to Afterpay Arena for a summit clash with the streaking Perth Wildcats next Saturday night. Tickets for the Kings-Wildcats blockbuster are available via Ticketek.

ADELAIDE 36ERS 84 Jenkins 20, Cotton 17, Rakocevic 16)
SYDNEY KINGS 78 (Cooks 22, Davis 16, Maluach 12) at Afterpay Arena.
CROWD: 13,365

BOXSCORE

‍