'Savvy Kings veterans' too much for revamped Bullets

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Kendric Davis was back to his best and Torrey Craig smothered Arnas Velicka as the Sydney Kings dismantled the new-look Brisbane Bullets on their way to a 93-78 win at Afterpay Arena to start their Ignite Cup campaign.

In a scary sign for the rest of the league, Davis is already in dominant form despite only arriving in Australia just says before the start of the season, as he helped spark the Kings back from an early double-digit deficit to the previously undefeated Bullets as Sydney took over in the second and third quarters.

Brian Goorjian's team's trademark defensive toughness was on full display as their length and athleticism, led by Craig, proved to be Velicka's toughest challenge in his short but impressive NBL career to date.

The Lithuanian star has just two assists going into the fourth quarter and although he finished with 15 points and five assists, didn't impact the game the way the Bullets need to in order to challenge the defending champions.

Bullets coach Will Weaver said his young team would take the performance as a significant learning experience as they look to bounce back from their first loss of the season.

"(The first half) had some good moments, that's obviously an exceptionally good side over there with the champions being at home, we struggled to take advantage sometimes of how their savvy veterans were able to place themselves in positions to where we could have had a pretty significant lead in the first half," he said in the post-game press conference.

"In the second half, I thought there are moments that a team that's playing the youngest roster and building together and a lot of new faces coming together for the first time playing on the road against the champions.

"There's tonnes of stuff to learn from the second half and that's what we'll get stuck into."

Weaver also said he had confidence in players, such as Max Mackinnon, to bounce back despite a tough performance against the league leaders.

"Our job is to watch the film and think probabilistically and have an approach that's focused on how consistently can we make the right decision and there are a million decisions going on in every single possession," he said.

"So for any first-year player in the NBL, that's going to be a sharp adjustment. But you could say the same thing for everybody on our team.

"They've all got to adjust to me and they've got to adjust to each other and they've got to adjust to officiating and adjust to opponents and that's part of what I feel like I can do a better job with, is helping them know in their core that they can trust themselves and each other and the spots that they're in and play with a freedom with that knowledge and that confidence."

Brisbane host Tasmania on Saturday while the Kings don't play again until October 11.

Ignite Cup Points Rules

• 3 points for winning the game
• 1 point for winning each quarter
• 0.5 points each for a tied quarter
• Most a winner can get: 7 (4 quarters + the win).
• Most a loser can get: 3 (by winning three quarters)
• ‍Overtime: no extra points apart from the 3 for the win

What you need to know

• Sydney Kings beat Brisbane Bullets 93-78 at Afterpay Arena in NBL27 Round 3, the second game of the NBL27 Ignite Cup and the first played in Australia.
• Brisbane won the first quarter 34-23 and still led 44-43 at half-time, but Sydney won the second, third and fourth quarters, 20-10, 29-14 and 21-20, to take six Ignite Cup points to Brisbane's one.
• Kendric Davis ($436,000) top-scored with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on 9-from-22, and Jaylin Williams ($277,000) led Brisbane with 19 on 7-from-17.
• The game turned in the middle two quarters. Sydney outscored Brisbane 49-24 across the second and third, holding the Bullets to 10 points in the second after they had scored 34 in the first.
• Brisbane made 13 threes to Sydney's six, a 21-point edge, but Sydney scored 54 points from inside the arc to Brisbane's 30 and 21 at the line to nine.

Sydney Kings

• Kendric Davis ($436,000) top-scored with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists on 9-from-22, without a make from seven three-point attempts, and went 6-from-6 at the line.
• Makuach Maluach ($134,500) scored 19 off the bench on 8-from-12, including 3-from-5 from three.
• Andrew Carr ($277,000) added 12 points, seven rebounds and four assists on 5-from-9, including 2-from-5 from three.
• Xavier Cooks ($308,000) had 12 points, seven rebounds, two steals and two blocks on 4-from-5, and was a game-high plus-17.
• Torrey Craig ($290,400) scored 10 on 2-from-10 and went 5-from-5 at the line, with six rebounds, three of them offensive.
• Harry Wessels ($100,000) scored eight off the bench on 3-from-4 in 9:59.
• Will Johnston ($69,000) had five points and five rebounds off the bench on 1-from-5, and went 3-from-3 at the line.
• Sydney shot 33-from-74 from the field, 6-from-26 from three and 21-from-26 at the line, with 44 rebounds, 19 assists and eight turnovers. The Kings (3-0) next play Adelaide 36ers at Afterpay Arena on Sunday, October 11 at 3pm AEDT.

Brisbane Bullets

• Jaylin Williams ($277,000) top-scored with 19 points and eight rebounds on 7-from-17, including 4-from-11 from three.
• Arnas Velicka ($277,000) added 15 points and five assists on 5-from-12, including 4-from-10 from three.
• Nate Hinton ($277,000) had 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals on 4-from-12.
• Max Mackinnon ($200,000) scored nine on 3-from-11, including 1-from-7 from three.
• Tyrell Harrison ($336,100) blocked three shots and scored six on 3-from-4 with five rebounds.
• Jacob Holt ($176,300) scored four off the bench on 2-from-4 in 14:00.
• Lat Mayen ($69,000) had six rebounds and three points off the bench in 15:03, and was the only Brisbane player to finish with a positive plus-minus, plus-one.
• Brisbane shot 28-from-75 from the field, 13-from-47 from three and 9-from-13 at the line, with 45 rebounds, 16 assists and 14 turnovers. The Bullets (2-1) play their second game of Round 3 against Tasmania JackJumpers at Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday, October 3 at 5:30pm AEST.

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