Kings expecting electric atmosphere in Game 3
Written By
Wayne Cousins
The Kings return to their palace following a heart breaking two-point loss to Adelaide 36ers on Friday night with the Series now locked at 1-all.
More than 17,000 tickets have already been sold for Game 3 at Qudos.
“This (Game 2) is a hard one to swallow, but it's a best-of-five series,” Goorjian said.
“We’ve worked all year to get home court, and now we're coming back to our place. I like our chances.
The Kings will be hoping for a repeat performance of their game one 112-68 victory that saw them dominate the 36ers in front of over 13,000 fans at Qudos Bank.
Game two was always going to be a tougher challenge for the Kings with the 36ers delivering a much better effort in front of their home crowd.
The Kings took a nine-point lead into the final quarter before Adelaide outscored Sydney 23-12 on the back of a Bryce Cotton masterstroke.
A missed basket from Kings superstar Kendric Davis with five seconds left saw Cotton swoop on a fast break to produce a layup on the buzzer to win the game 91-89.
Both players exchanged words in a fiery encounter after the buzzer.
“Coming here, we knew we were going to see a different (Adelaide) team. They had a nice period of time to make adjustments, coach did a great job, the team played a much better game, played very well tonight, worthy winners,” Goorjian said.
“Last game, we did a good job of working our arse off on the defensive end, rebounding and keeping Bryce off the foul line. Last game, they shot six as a team, and tonight they had 21, so that’s an area for us to improve on.
“It’s finals basketball. To win the championship, you’ve got to do a good job on Bryce.
“He hit some tough shots, and again he got to the foul line. We fouled him shooting a three, we fouled him to tie the game, and he got the layup at the end of the game.
“It’s all things that we discussed. They’re easy to talk about, and hard to do.
“He's a great player, but I like our strategy and plan for him. I thought for most of the game, we did a damn good job.
“It's now a Series, and it's the two best teams going at it.
“We expect dogfights the rest of the way, but I'm not disappointed in my team. I thought we gave ourselves an opportunity to win here, it's a tough place to play, and now we’re on to the next one.”
Game 3 tips off at 2.30pm at Qudos Bank Arena.
Less than 1000 tickets remain. Get yours before they're gone.