Kings believe they can still make the grade in NBL campaign

Sydney Kings coach Chase Buford struggles to give a definitive assessment of his side’s mid-table performance as the NBL season hits its midpoint.

“It’s hard to give a grade,” Buford said.

“Probably an incomplete. We’ve had so many [roster] shuffles.

“The biggest thing is I love the way we play defence, I love how the group competes. We’re tough to score against, tough to play against a lot of nights.

The Kings return to their home court against the Breakers on Sunday.Credit:Getty

“It’s just the consistency of the group is the biggest hurdle we’ve had. We play well in stretches, we play well in parts of games, but just have runs where we turn off and have some not-so-great shots that leads to offence for other teams.”

Friday night was a case in point. No team in the league is more effective in the first quarter of games, and Sydney again ran away with an early lead against Tasmania. However, Buford’s charges made just three of 23 shots from three-point range, which was a critical factor in the 77-70 loss.

The Kings will need to rebound on Sunday at Qudos Bank Arena against New Zealand, who they lost to in their last meeting after also squandering a promising start.

‘We’re having to play guys for longer minutes or different rotations because we haven’t had a lot of bodies.’

A number of factors have conspired against the Sydneysiders. An already relatively inexperienced roster has been decimated by injuries, including the season-ending variety for Jordan Hunter and RJ Hunter.

“We’re having to play guys for longer minutes or different rotations because we haven’t had a lot of bodies,” Buford said.

“A young team plays a factor. I thought we had some really bad turnovers [on Friday] night. I need to be better too, I need to help us out in those situations.”

Coaches are never happy after a loss, but Buford saw enough from his side against the JackJumpers to raise hopes of a better showing at home on Sunday.

“We’re confident in our group,” he said.

“I felt better after last night’s loss than any of the others. We played well for long stretches, we guarded well for long stretches.

“We just could not shoot the ball. After watching it back, it felt like we had a lot of good shots, we just didn’t make any of them.

“We’ve got to make some shots in this league if we are going to win games. If we have a better

shooting night and play the same defence we played for most of the night, we have a chance.”

Converting hot starts into wins will be a focus as the Kings prepare to host the Breakers.

“Our second quarters throughout the season so far have let us down a bit,” Buford said.

“We come out with a great mindset, knowing what we want to do to bother teams.

“At some points in second quarters, I don’t know if we relax or just get away from what is working so well. Other teams are obviously going to make shots or go on a run, and we haven’t always handled that great.

“We need to stick to what the gameplan is. Hopefully that will carry us through longer stretches in games.”

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