Kings keen to end Blitz on high against Breakers

The Sydney Kings will look to end their 2022-23 NBL Blitz on a high note on Friday when they take on the New Zealand Breakers at the Darwin Basketball Facility.

The Hoops Capital side comes into the match fresh off a 12-point win against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, which impressed guard Shaun Bruce.

"The Phoenix is a well-structured team, especially on the offensive end, where they've been one of the best the past few seasons," said Bruce, who added seven points, two assists and one rebound in the victory.

"We saw that for periods during that game, where they were hard to guard and putting us under a lot of pressure, especially in the early stages of the fixture.

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"Thankfully, towards the end, we were able to keep them off the foul line a little bit more, which slowed them down and allowed us to gain the ascendancy.

"It was a solid improvement from that opening loss to Tasmania - a game we'd watch extensive film on.

"Primarily that came on the defensive end, where the whole group had more bite to them and dictated where we wanted our opponent to go.

"While offensively, we were more organised as a group, which comes with just spending more time on the court together - we're definitely not there yet but we can see the chemistry is starting to grow.

"It was great to see the growth we'd made between those two games, as we continue on this journey as a squad."

Further to that, Bruce was impressed by the strong play of young players Jaylin Galloway, Iggy Mitchell, Biwali Bayles and Jackson Makoi.

That game also saw Kevin Lisch man the sideline, one match after the harbour city side was led by Fleur McIntyre.

"The whole group was pumped that Kev and Fleur got those chances to be head coach up here in Darwin," the 31-year-old said.

"All the boys are really accustomed to them, as they generally are in charge of the two scrimmage groups at practice, so hearing their voices the past two games hasn't been that different - especially as all the hard work is done before the game.

"It was awesome to see them both get that chance, which was very well deserved."

Coach Chase Buford will return to the team bench on Friday though, as the Kings wrap up their three-game Blitz against the Breakers.

"The main thing for us on Friday is continuing to get better and build towards that season opener against Illawarra on October 1," the Horsham product said.

"Up here, we knew this Blitz was more about coming together as a group rather than results.

"As much as we'd love to win on Friday and finish on a high, playing the right way and growing as a group from Wednesday is more important to us, because we know teams are going to be coming for us all season as the defending champs."

Kings fans can watch the Breakers fixture from 5.30pm AEST via Kayo Freebies.