Martin steps up as Kings fall short to the Bullets

Result: Brisbane Bullets 90 Sydney Kings 87

Stats that matter: Bullets 15 offensive rebounds; Bullets nine blocked shots; Kings 20 assists; Kings 13 three pointers

Kings MVP: Jarell Martin continued his torrid start to the season with yet another double-double.

Turning Point: a 17-4 Brisbane run late in the second quarter turned the game in the Bullets’ favour.

The game was over when: Casper Ware missed a desperation heave for three at the buzzer.

Trending in the right direction: Dejan Vasiljevic continued to press his claims for Rookie of the Year with another solid performance.

In a game that went right down to the wire, the Brydens Lawyers Sydney Kings have gone down 90-87 to the Brisbane Bullets in a thriller at Nissan Arena in Brisbane.

Once again, the Kings showed a ton of character to hang in there against a desperate home team, despite experiencing yet another hit on the injury front with the returning Didi Louzada suffering an ankle injury at the four-minute mark of the third quarter and unable to finish the game.

Didi watched his teammates scrap and claw their way all 40 minutes against a Brisbane team that was looking for its first win in NBL21. In the end, the Bullets barely survived, with Sydney refusing to yield at any stage in what were trying circumstances.

At various times in the fourth quarter, the Bullets looked like they would pull away for a comfortable victory, but every time they seemed to be in control, the Kings would respond, via a tough floater from Dejan Vasiljevic (13 points, five rebounds) or five points from the outstanding Jarell Martin (26 points, 11 rebounds).

As it did in the season opener, the game came down to the final possession. Brisbane led by four points with 11 seconds left, and Casper Ware (15 points, three assists) smartly drew a foul when going up for a three-point shot with 4.4 seconds on the clock. Unfortunately, he missed the first of his three ensuing free throws, made the second, and missed the third, but managed to grab the offensive rebound, sprinted to the three-point line and launched a desperation turnaround shot to tie the game that was off the mark, and the Bullets’ fans let out a giant exhale.

In the final analysis, as Head Coach Adam Forde admitted in the post-game press conference, Sydney’s defence was a concern throughout the night, as Nathan Sobey (26 points, six rebounds, seven assists) and import forward Vic Law (27 points, nine rebounds, five blocked shots) caused headaches for the purple and gold whenever they touched the ball.

“We’re struggling to be able to defend the rim at the moment,” Coach Forde said.

“There’s some real deficiencies in how we match up one-on-one and there’s some deficiencies in how we support off the ball.”

“We tried to change up a little bit; be a bit more aggressive in pick and roll and changed up to a little bit of zone.”

“The defensive side of things isn’t great at the moment, so we’ve really got to do a better job in that area more than anything.”

The Kings did show what they were capable of in a blistering start to the opening quarter when they made eight of their first ten shots, including three consecutive triples from Vasiljevic, and led 23-15 before Law and Sobey drove a comeback that saw the Bullets trail 28-26 at the first break.

But Brad Newley (10 points, five rebounds, three steals) stepped up as he has done all season and helped push the margin back out to eight, before the Bullets exploded with a 17-4 run that would turn out to be a key period in the ballgame. It took a Ware triple right in Sobey’s face at the buzzer to re-energize the purple and gold and they went to the main break trailing 47-45.

Martin’s six points in the third kept the Kings in touch before Brisbane’s 7-0 run gave them a ten-point advantage and when Louzada went down, Sobey pushed the margin to a game high 12 with things looking grim for a tired Sydney outfit. But remarkably, the visitors fought back, closing the quarter on a 11-3 run capped by a three-point play from Martin, and trailed 68-64 with ten minutes remaining.

Sydney’s role players were key in the early stages of the final quarter, with Shaun Bruce (seven points, four rebounds, three assists) and Tom Vodanovich (six points) both nailing triples to keep their team in touch. Unfortunately, Sydney just had no answers to Sobey, who penetrated the Kings’ D seemingly at will and had nine points in the quarter.

The Kings showed tremendous fight to hang in as long as they did, but fell short and now will look to bounce back quickly as they continue Round Three, heading to Adelaide for a Saturday night clash against the 36ers at Adelaide Entertainment Centre to close their road double.

Rise With Us Sydney.

BRISBANE BULLETS 90 (Law 27, Sobey 26, Harrison 11, Cadee 11)
SYDNEY KINGS 87 (Martin 26, Ware 15, Vasiljevic 13) at Nissan Arena, Brisbane

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