Jaylen Adams has helped the Sydney Kings finally overcome South East Melbourne's vastly improved defence in the dying minutes to secure a 74-69 win in the NBL.
The Phoenix have significantly turned their season around after losing their first five games - and it's all come at the defensive end since they replaced coach Mike Kelly with Josh King.
South East Melbourne had won four of five matches since improving from conceding 93 points a game to just 77 in that stretch, and for most of Friday night in Sydney they had the clamps right on the Kings.
The Phoenix held Sydney to just 14 points in the first quarter, 18 in the second and 17 in the third, and were able to do enough at the attacking end themselves to be leading by 10 points with seven minutes to play when former King Angus Glover hit a three-point bomb.
However, it was all Sydney from that moment. They went on a run of 11 straight points, beginning with seven from Kouat Noi, before former MVPs Adams and Xavier Cooks put them in front for the first time in the game.
After the Phoenix briefly regained the lead with a three to Owen Foxwell, Adams took over to show his sore back was on the improve with the game's last seven points, including a dagger corner three.
That meant the Kings would finish the game scoring 20 points to five over the last seven minutes to shake off the stifling Phoenix defence and go from 10 down to win by five and improve to 7-5 for the season.
Adams was brilliant for Sydney with 20 points and seven assists while Cooks wasn’t far behind with 17 points and 12 rebounds, with Noi adding another 16 points. Cam Oliver had another scoreless night with just three shot attempts and 10 minutes.
Kings coach Brian Goorjian was not pleased, despite the win.
"What pleased me was finding five guys that would play together and play hard late in the game," he said.
"I don’t remember feeling like this after a win in a long, long time so there's a sense of relief, but it was a real kick in the guts tonight, I'm really disappointed."
The Phoenix were in control of the game for most of the opening 35 minutes.
Glover finished with 17 points against his former team, while Nathan Sobey added 12 points and seven rebounds, and Joe Wieskamp nine points.
Gun scoring power forward Matt Hurt had a tough night with six points on 3-of-16 shooting.
"I'm proud of my team and I thought they really fought, and competed, and won a lot of areas of the game," coach King said.
"But in the last five minutes of the game we couldn’t make a shot even when we got pretty good looks.
"Then they got physical, the crowd got into it and it's nothing to be ashamed about, Sydney's a really good team and everybody knows that."
