THE Sydney Kings have suffered their third straight loss, going down 77-96 to the Adelaide 36ers in an error-ridden game at the Sydney Entertainment Centre last night.
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It was a lacklustre night for the home side, who didn't manage to hit a three-point shot all night.
The first quarter was unremarkable, characterised by 11 turnovers. Seven of those were by the Kings, which gifted eight points to the visitors. The 36ers could only get one of their three pointer attempts to drop, and didn't manage to capitalise on their offensive rebounds, allowing the Kings to stay in touch.
Judging from the reaction of the 6165 in the crowd, more entertainment came from a marriage proposal in the quarter time break.
The 36ers started hitting their three pointers after the break, taking their lead out to 12 points. In contrast, the Kings looked amateurish at times throughout the first half.
Aaron Bruce, who had been in sizzling form in recent weeks, had a shocker of a night. He was responsible for five turnovers, as he struggled to keep a grip of the ball, lost his feet on more than one occasion, managed to hit only one two pointer from 10 attempts, and none from long range.
The crowd got some entertainment when Kevin Ratzsch laid a big block on Chris Warren leading to a basket at the other end from Luke Cooper, clawing the Kings back to within five points.
It didn't last, with 36er Darren Ng pulling out a buzzer beating shot from the halfway line, almost falling out of the court in the process. One for the highlight reel, it even had his opposition applauding as they went into the rooms at half time, down eight points.
Centre Daniel Johnson got the better of his Kings counterpart, Julian Khazzouh, restricting the prolific scorer to a respectable eight points for the half, while scoring 13 himself, before going on to score a game high 21 points with 14 rebounds.
Ironically, the 36ers game plan was not to restrict Khazzouh, who finished with 12 points after fouling out early in the last quarter.
"Surprisingly, we were going to let him get 40 … our plan tonight was to make him score more than us and cut down the other guys around him," Adelaide coach Marty Clarke said after the game.
The Kings opened the second half in better form, cutting the lead to two, but it wasn't their night. Poor passing and rebounding allowed the 36ers too many second chances.
Nathan Herbert, Stephen Weigh and Johnson were the main dangers, helping Adelaide to a 15 point buffer going into the final term, a lead Wade Helliwell helped take to 21 points at one stage in the final term.
Anatoly Bose, through some sharp free-throw shooting, helped the home side along in the last quarter, but 12 points was as close as they could get, the final margin blowing out again to 19 points.
