Goorjian proud of Kings' fightback against Phoenix

Brian Goorjian put faith in his leaders to get them out of their NBL25 struggles and it paid off on Thursday night, as the Sydney Kings recorded an incredible comeback win.

By three quarter-time on Thursday night, the Kings were staring down the barrel of a third straight loss at Qudos Bank Arena, with South East Melbourne Phoenix in control.

But the Kings had already come from behind five times to win this season and Goorjian had faith in his team, even off the back of one of their worst losses of the season against Adelaide.

"It seemed like the group wasn’t having fun (against the 36ers) and that last game didn’t have an edge to it, and that was on me and take the basketball away, this fight game, the spirit and the live bench is on the captains in this game," Goorjian said.

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"X (Xavier Cooks) and (Shaun) Bruce had the conversation and it was time to get away from my voice, and I didn’t do the pre-game, they did. Their job was to make sure everybody was ready to play and I'm not into the basketball X's and O's right now and that side of it.

"I'm trying to concentrate on getting better each day and I'm proud of the captains, and for the contributions we got through that with (Makuach) Maluach, Bul Kuol and with some funny lineups with Keli (Leaulepe) out. We changed it up and I'm just proud of them."

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The key, though, was the fact that by having Bruce play 22 minutes as the point guard for the game, Adams was relatively fresh come the fourth quarter. The result was him scoring 21 of the team's 38 points as they turned a 13-point deficit into a nine-point win.

Sydney looks set to bring in an import point guard to allow Adams to continue to play in the two spot, but it was Bruce in that role on Thursday and Goorjian had full faith that the NBL22 champion would deliver when it mattered.

"We keep wanting to get JA off the ball and Bruce was huge by giving him the chance to do that and if he didn’t, you don't get a fourth quarter out of him like that, if you wear him down the whole first half," Goorjian said.

"In all honesty, he's one of the least guys during a game I've ever communicated with. We talk before the game and I've talked to him about early in games I'll give him rest and play Bruce so he can pace himself the whole game.

"Just in general, he's been much better in the second half and we've talked about the impact in the first half he can have. I played Bruce tonight, started him, and got JA off the ball and we just have a discussion before the game, and then I leave him be during it."

The Kings are fourth on the NBL standings ahead of their Summer Shootout clash against Brisbane on Saturday, live on ESPN from 8pm AEDT.