The Sydney Kings are about to bring in help for Jaylen Adams but the former NBL MVP has dominated to lead his team to a spirit-lifting 110-101 comeback win over the South East Melbourne Phoenix.
The Phoenix controlled the contest for three quarters leading by as much as 18 points in the third, but the Kings roared back in the final period.
With Sydney set to bring in a new import guard to support him, Adams was coming off 41 points against Adelaide on Monday and produced a 21-point fourth quarter at Qudos Bank Arena to finish with 32 on Thursday.
The Phoenix took charge shortly before half-time with a 16-4 run including a triple from Joe Wieskamp (12 points, five rebounds) who also completed a three-point play as did Matt Hurt (13 points, 11 boards).
South East Melbourne matched their 60-point half from against the Hawks on New Year's Eve to be up 11 at the break before leading by as much 18 points in the third frame.
Sydney turned things around spectacularly in the final quarter starting with a 10-2 run which turned into them scoring 18 of the first 22 points, and eventually 38 to 16 to win by nine.
It was a big bounce-back win for the Kings as they improve to 12-9 with Adams also delivering nine assists.
Fellow former MVP Xavier Cooks had 15 points and 10 rebounds with Kouat Noi scoring 20 points.
NBL Next Star Alex Toohey hit 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds while Cameron Oliver finished with 13 points in 17 minutes.
"You take the basketball away, that fightback and spirit and live bench, that's all on the captains," Kings coach Brian Goorjian said.
"X (Cooks) and (Shaun) Bruce had the conversation and it was my time to let them take over and they did the pre-game, and their job was to make sure everybody was ready to play.
"It's one thing when you storm on top but we were taking it pretty good so I'm just proud of the captains and the different contributions we got with some funny line-ups."
It was a tough loss for the 10-10 Phoenix with Derrick Walton Jr finishing with 22 points, six rebounds and four assists and Nathan Sobey adding 23 points with four boards and four assists.
Phoenix coach Josh King will be confident his team will learn from the fourth quarter fade out.
"It was the same as last time but I still think when we're at our best we are one of the best teams in the league," he said.
"Obviously in the fourth quarter we didn’t play like one of the best teams in the league, but we'll get better and we have to learn from these things, and I'm confident my team will learn from this."
