NBL powerhouses Melbourne United and Sydney Kings were both suffering after losses, but they have rediscovered their harder edge by handing out a couple of NBL thumpings.
Melbourne had lost a fourth-straight match to the Cairns Taipans the previous Sunday but on their home floor seven days later, United hammered Adelaide 106-79.
Sydney, still smarting after a disappointing showing on Friday in Adelaide with a 10-point defeat to the 36ers, responded by defeating the Taipans 99-73.
They were two statement performances with Melbourne improving to a 4-2 record after the opening four rounds, while Sydney are sitting at the same mark, even though they were without 2022 MVP Jaylen Adams on Sunday with a back complaint.
Melbourne have now bounced back emphatically from defeats twice this season.
The first time was when they lost to Tasmania before hitting back to hand Perth their biggest ever loss inside RAC Arena to the tune of 29 points, and they had a whole week to stew over last Sunday's defeat to Cairns.
American Ian Clark is in his second season with Melbourne, having won a championship previously in Sydney and also being an NBA champion at the Golden State Warriors, and once again he top-scored, with 18 points.
But Clark particularly enjoyed Melbourne's defensive resolve, especially in the second half when they held the 36ers to 27 points.
"The defensive end is what we hang our hat on and all week at practice that's what we've been trying to execute, and get back to who we are," Clark said.
"That's with our connection and physicality, and making sure guys aren’t getting easy looks and making their top offensive guys take shots we want them to take. I think we did a good job of that."
Sydney had a tough night in Adelaide on Friday with Adams hurting his back and Xavier Cooks coming into the game still shaking off illness but they scored the first 12 points on Cairns and never let up.
After conceding the game's last 16 points last Saturday night to Brisbane, Kings coach Brian Goorjian was especially pleased to see them show no let up.
"It's about the consistency of effort for 40 minutes and not taking the foot off the gas pedal which we have done, and then it becomes part of your nature," he said.
"That was something we needed to overcome and we had two major fallouts already this season, and tonight in that fourth quarter we talked about winning that.
"Part of hardness is being able to keep your foot on the gas and a consistency of effort for 40 minutes."
