Sydney Kings back in playoff picture after big win over Breakers

Sydney Kings are firmly back in the playoff picture after a comprehensive 84-57 trouncing of the New Zealand Breakers.

Sydney Kings’ Greg Whittington hangs on the hoop after a big dunk against the Breakers yesterday. Picture: Brett Costello

BASKETBALL: Sydney Kings are firmly back in the playoff picture after a comprehensive 84-57 trouncing of the New Zealand Breakers yesterday.

Sydney’s win followed Friday night’s road victory over Brisbane and boosted their record to 13-13 with two games remaining. The Kings are in fourth spot, narrowly behind Perth and Illawarra, while the Breakers (12-14) drop two places to seventh.

New Zealand were playing their first game since losing American forward Akil Mitchell to a terrible eye injury in Thursday’s home loss to Cairns.

Greg Whittington starred for Sydney with 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, while Kevin Lisch and Jason Cadee combined for 28.

Kirk Penney and Tom Abercrombie scored 13 apiece for the Breakers, who finished with a whopping 25 turnovers and made just 31 per cent of their shot attempts at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena.

Sydney started slowly, forging ahead 23-19 at quarter-time and taking control with a dominant second period.

The Breakers cut a 20-point lead to 45-32 at halftime, only to be overrun in the third period.

New Zealand import Paul Carter might be in hot water with the league after being ejected from the game late in the third quarter. Carter was automatically booted after receiving two technical fouls for heatedly protesting a no-call. He had to be restrained by teammates and then received a third technical foul that was subsequently issued to the New Zealand bench.

The Kings held an unassailable 32-point lead at three-quarter time, allowing coach Andrew Gaze to empty his bench and rest some of his stars.

Sydney’s next game is at home on Saturday against Melbourne United, while the Breakers are away on the same day to the Adelaide 36ers.

Meanwhile, Perth Wildcats import Bryce Cotton will retain his licence to shoot beyond the three-point line, despite his attempts not currently falling.

His coach Trevor Gleeson has warned the rest of the NBL that a 30-40 point game is coming from him shortly. Cotton has averaged almost 19 points a game in seven outings since joining the Wildcats in round 14 but has struggled to find his range with the long shots.

His three-point shooting is running at just 22.4 per cent efficiency for the season and in the Wildcats’ 73-71 win over Melbourne United on Saturday night, he was 0-6 at halftime and finished the game with two successful shots from 11 attempts.

Gleeson is confident the shots will start to drop. “The whole team has confidence in him. We want him to shoot those shots,” Gleeson said. “We see it at practice, he knocks them down, flushes them all the time.

“At the moment they are not going, but look out when he does. He’ll drop a 30-40 point game here shortly, because he’s that explosive.”

AAP