Tigers v Kings - Game Two Preview

The Sydney Kings quest for an unprecedented fourth straight NBL title may have hit an unexpected speed bump on Friday night, but Kings coach Brian Goorjian is still upbeat about his team’s chances heading into game two later tonight in Melbourne.

After a disappointing effort that resulted in a 100-93 loss to the Tigers in game one of the best of five grand final series, Goorjian said that his team was just a little off, but with improvement still had a great chance to record a ‘fourpeat’ of NBL championships.

“It wasn’t a lacklustre, no effort performance. If we get a little better here and there we can give this thing a shake,” said the 2005 NSW coach of the year.

“The ball is in our court and we are not that far off. It wasn’t great in the first game, but we are not that far away.”

According to Goorjian the task that has been set for the Kings is a simple one, win on the road to regain the home court advantage.

“They have to win three games, we have to win three games. You win at home and you go there and get one of these wins on the road and we are back in Sydney for game five.”

The Kings are the only team to inflict a loss on the Tigers in Melbourne this season and in the opinion of star guard Luke Kendall that gives both him and his team mates a big confidence boost going into ‘The Cage’ tonight.

“We know we’ve beaten them down there earlier in the season, so it is definitely possible to win in Melbourne,” said Kendall.

Tigers star player Chris Anstey was in a positive frame of mind after dominating the Kings in the first game of the series, but knows that Sydney will come at them twice as hard after their poor performance.

“I know they are going to play better than that. We can’t depend on CJ (Bruton) only having seven points and we probably can’t depend on out rebounding them by 20,” said the former Dallas Maverick.

“We are clearly going to have to play better than that to win the next game at home.”

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