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The Adelaide 36ers continued their hot run of form, dismantling an undermanned Sydney Kings outfit 87-73 at Titanium Security Arena.
Despite a hot start from the visitors, the 36ers blew them out of the contest late in the third and proved why they are the team to beat this season, notching up their fourteenth win in their last 15 games, and securing a finals birth in the process.
The Kings had the opportunity to move back into the top four after Brisbane handed Melbourne a shock defeat, but clearly missed the influence of Brad Newley. They now sit in sixth on the ladder.
Jerome Randle once again led the way, picking up a double-double with 19 points (7-14 FG) and 11 assists, and giving further evidence as to why he is the odds-on favourite to take out this year’s MVP award.
Kings coach Andrew Gaze saw some positives in the performance, but was ultimately disappointed with the fundamental mistakes that his side made.
“Throughout the first half I thought we did a good job dealing with their extended pressure. In fact, sometimes that pressure helped us to get some cheap baskets,” Gaze said.
“Perhaps we got worn down, made a couple of disappointing turnovers, they got that margin and unfortunately we couldn’t retrieve that.
“We couldn’t keep that scoreboard ticking over in the second quarter, and that puts a lot of pressure on our defence when you are only scoring nine points.
“A significant portion of what’s happening is self-inflicted. Either missing shots or not executing as well as we’d like.”
The loss was the Sydney’s seventh in their last eight games, and leaves them needing to win their remaining four games to have a chance of making the playoffs.
Despite not winning against Adelaide in their three earlier encounters this season, the Kings came out firing, hitting four three-pointers in the first three minutes to race out to a 15-4 lead. They maintained that 11-point buffer for most of the half, before the 36ers clawed their way back, with two crucial triples from Anthony Drmic cutting Sydney’s lead to 28-25 at the first break.
Adelaide picked up where they left off, with triples to Drmic and Nathan Sobey giving them the lead within 90 seconds. The Kings couldn’t manage to trouble the scorer much in the term, losing the period 20-9 to trail at the main break by 45-37.
“I thought we did a good job coming out of the halftime break,” Gaze said.
“We made some shots, played aggressively and got back in the game.
“Once we got relatively level, we had some difficult turnovers to recover from and they were good enough to punish us and score.”
Sydney fought hard early in the third term after a disappointing ten minutes previously, and managed to re-take the lead inside three minutes courtesy of a Craig Moller jump shot. The home side stretched the lead back out to five, before Brendan Teys was charged with a personal and technical foul, resulting in three foul shots and possession to the visitors.
Tom Garlepp hit all three attempts, and after Jason Cadee made a further two foul shots, scores were level once again. The rest of the quarter belonged to Adelaide however, taking advantage of two consecutive turnovers from Garrett Jackson to open up a 68-59 lead heading into the final term.
Kevin Lisch opened the scoring in the final term to cut the lead back to seven, but that was as close as they would get, with Adelaide putting their eastern rivals to the sword, outscoring the Kings 19-14 in the final term to come away with the easy win and sweep the season series.
Aside from Randle, captain Mitch Creek was influential as always for Adelaide, finishing with 17 points (5-9 FG) and seven rebounds. Eric Jacobsen was efficient from the bench as well, scoring 12 points (6-8 FG) with six rebounds and two blocks.
Tom Garlepp had a team-high 15 points (5-9 FG), three rebounds and three assists. Kevin Lisch improved on previous form, scoring 13 points (5-12 FG) with six rebounds and two assists as well.
Adelaide have all but secured the minor premiership after the win, a tremendous turnaround from where they were placed just two months ago. They now face the Hawks on the road next week, a side desperate to bounce back from their loss to New Zealand.
Sydney need to win both of their games next week to keep their slim finals hopes alive. They face Brisbane on the road next Friday, before returning home to host New Zealand on Sunday, the team responsible for their heaviest loss of the season just last week.
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