The Sydney Kings have prolonged their lead on the prime of the NBL ladder, walloping the Brisbane Bullets 116-67 at Nissan Arena.
The ladder-leading Kings outscored the hapless Bullets 92-46 after a good opening quarter on Wednesday to submit their largest-ever road-winning margin and completed one level shy of their all-time greatest win.
Sydney’s highest profitable margin is 50 factors, in opposition to Cairns in 2001.
Kings coach Chase Buford boasted on Tuesday that his defending champions are the world’s fastest-paced group outdoors the NBA – and few may argue.
“(With) that mentality of keeping our foot on the gas and trying to keep running, I thought our transition pace was terrific,” Buford mentioned after the red-hot title favourites notched their fifth straight win by a mean margin of 25.4 factors.
“We’ve got so many guys who give us different things.”
Captain Xavier Cooks (20 factors, eight assists) did as he happy, so too did centre Tim Soares (20 factors) and level guard Derrick Walton Jr (18).
For the hopelessly outclassed Bullets, Nathan Sobey (14 factors) led the scoring earlier than coming off within the fourth quarter after an errant elbow to his face from Kouat Noi.
“We knew we had to be near-perfect for 40 minutes to beat them,” Bullets interim coach Greg Vanderjagt mentioned.
“That’s a hell of a basketball team.
“We’re not the primary group to cop that (from the Kings) this 12 months.”
Sobey was particularly busy early with nine-first quarter points as Brisbane, the rank underdogs, showed some early grit to only trail 24-21 at the first break.
They never looked remotely in the contest again.
Cooks dominated the second term with a series of spin moves, slick passes and even a rare three-pointer as Sydney won the quarter 35-19 to extend their advantage to 59-40.
It was Walton’s turn to showcase his talents in the third stanza, the American playmaker scoring 10 points for the quarter, including a 360-degree spinning drive-and-finish party trick as the Kings, with Angus Glover hot from outside, continued to pile on the pain.
Sydney refused to relent, uncorking a mesmerising 14-0 fourth-quarter burst, only missing out on their all-time record when Brisbane’s Gorjok Gak threw down a last-second jam.
“It’s deflating,” Bullets guard Jason Cadee mentioned.
“We’re looking for who we’re, what we’re, and proper now we do not know.”
