The Sydney Kings won into their fourth NBL Championship series in seven seasons after sweeping their Semi-Final series against the Perth Wildcats at RAC Arena on Saturday.
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The Kings won the second of a best-of-three games series against the Wildcats 89-75, following Wednesday’s 105-104 victory in Sydney.
Saturday’s clash was hardly the offensive showcase that Wednesday’s game was. The two teams managed only 30 points between them in the third quarter.
That suited Perth.
But after leading by one point at the final break, the Kings depth shone through in the final term.
After finishing top of the table, the Kings can now plan to claim their third title in five seasons.
Missed by a foot
The Wildcats chances of reaching the Grand Final series probably ended in the last second of game 1 on Wednesday.
First, they failed to score on the final play of the game that left them one point shy of victory, losing 105-104.
Second, import Dylan Windler was left sitting on the court with a foot injury after that play, that would then keep him out of Saturday’s game 2.
He’s been playing with a plantar fascia injury for a few weeks but needed help to get off the court after the one-point loss, after he’d knocked down 17 points.
David Duke Jr was elevated to Perth’s starting line up for the first time since returning from an elbow injury in round 21.
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Job done on defence
Duke Jr was given the job initially of defending the Kings Kendric Davis.
He and his teammates did a great job in the opening half, keeping him to 11 points to half-time.
The league’s MVP runner up scored 35 points in game 1.
Davis looked like getting off the chain with some early points in the third quarter and his tally did creep up to 18 going into the last 10 minutes.
He finished the game’s highest scorer with 27 points.
Torrey Craig, who quietly went about piling on 20 points in game 1, was also a handful in game 2, with 12 and seven boards..
Makuach Maluach also knocked in 23 points and was probably the player who swung the momentum the Kings way.
Couldn’t do enough
The Kings did a great job of keeping Perth’s most dangerous players, Kristian Doolittle and Jo Lual-Acuil Jr, quiet.
Doolittle almost got Perth across the line by himself in game 1, knocking down
31 points, to go with six boards and four assists. Lual-Acuil produced a double double.
At half-time on Saturday, the pair had contributed only nine points between them, although Perth led 46-43.
Ben Henshall led all for score at the break, with 17 points, including four from long range.
That would surprise many considering he had had a frustrating finals series, littered with turnovers, before this game.
Henshall couldn’t go on with it though, adding only three points after half-time to finish with 20.
Doolittle (15 points and nine boards) and Lual-Acuil (nine points and 14 boards) did get going, but their teammates couldn’t go with them after the break.
SOBEY’S GAME FOR AGES KEEPS SEASON ALIVE
A game for the ages from superstar Nathan Sobey has kept South East Melbourne Phoenix’s season alive.
The Phoenix were as good as dead and buried when they stared down an 18-point deficit midway through the second quarter of a do-or-die game two at John Cain Arena on Saturday night, but a career-best 41 points from Sobey resuscitated their hopes.
From the brink of elimination, the Phoenix completed a remarkable comeback to take game two 101-92.
Tempers frayed late with 36ers guard Flynn Cameron taking a swipe at Sobey, lighting the fuse for what could be a fiery game three in Adelaide on Tuesday night.
Sobey produced an out-of-this-world 17-point third quarter, including four threes, to somehow turn the tide.
The 35-year-old finished with 41 points on 14-27 shooting, including 8-16 from three, five rebounds and three assists to show why he had been deep into the MVP conversation with 36ers star Bryce Cotton and Kings young gun Kendric Davis.
There were important cameos from John Brown III (12 points and seven rebounds), Angus Glover (10 points) and Ian Clark (10 points), while Owen Foxwell had six points and seven assists.
Phoenix Next Star Malique Lewis hit two big threes down the stretch.
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Cotton quelled late
Cotton, after scoring an incredible 42 points in the series opener, was much quieter on this occasion as Phoenix made the defensive adjustments it needed to keep him to a manageable output.
The six-time league MVP had 29 points, six rebounds and five assists, but was not as dominant as he was in game one.
Cotton went scoreless in the opening nine minutes of the fourth.
High stakes
The Phoenix stand one win away from their first ever NBL Championship Series.
The stakes are just a high for the 36ers.
They are in search of their first championship series since 2017-18 and they are eager to end their 24-year title drought.
The 36ers went on a 14-2 run to end the first period to open up a 30-19 lead.
Thriving as the villain
Aggressive big man Nick Rakocevic played the role of the villain.
The 28-year-old entered the game to a chorus of boos after playing a physical game one and was hugely influential with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Cotton had 19 points in the first half as the 36ers marched to a 57-44 half-time lead after leading by as much as 18 midway through the second.
The 36ers were beating Phoenix at their own game, getting their hands dirty on defence and disrupting the Phoenix’s offensive flow.
Lewis looked to have cracked the code for a routine dunk, only for 36ers forward Zylan Cheatham to lurk up from behind to produce one of the blocks of the season.
Phoenix hit a low point when Clark made a routine pass to Brown, who was directing traffic and got hit in the shoulder with the ball.
In a rush
The Phoenix was in no mood to talk about their first half troubles, re-entering the court with seven minutes left on the half-time break clock.
In a truly remarkable turn of events, Phoenix threw caution into the wind, running riot on the back of Sobey to erase a 13-point half-time deficit during a sizzling third period.
Sobey arrived at his career-high 37 points as Phoenix took an 83-77 three quarter time lead.
The Phoenix led by 10 with three minutes to go, but the Sixers got it back to six, before a Lewis three put the icing on a sweet Phoenix cake.