Jonah Bolden's basketball comeback has gathered pace as Sydney ran through a Brisbane team missing Aron Baynes for an 11-point NBL road win.
The sides traded shots in a wide-open first quarter before the two-time defending champions clamped down on Friday night in enemy territory, Jaylen Adams (26 points, three rebounds, three assists) stamping his class to pilot the 113-102 assault.
Former Philadelphia and Phoenix forward Bolden was instrumental in the Kings' dominant second term, when they swelled their lead from four to 14 points to dampen the mood of a lively Nissan Arena full house.
The lead swelled to as many as 22 points before Brisbane pegged it back in the final minutes, a Bolden (12 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks, two assists) triple calming any nerves when the lead was cut to eight with 90 seconds to play.
It's his first campaign since he walked away from the sport as a 25-year-old in 2020.
On separate possessions he plucked possession and dunked on emerging 17-year-old Rocco Zikarsky (six points, four rebounds) while dominating the boards with six rebounds in the quarter.
It further amplified Baynes' absence, a man he ironically replaced on a 10-day contract at Phoenix when the Bullets centre was injured in what were Bolden's last NBA minutes.
"He's that talented; you saw it today, some of the rebounds he was getting, there's no reason he can't do the same thing he was doing for the Sixers or the Suns," Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah said.
Baynes will miss four more games after copping a suspension for three separate charges stemming from a fiery exchange in the Bullets' loss to Cairns last Saturday.
Without him, Zikarsky deputised for Tyrell Harrison (12 points on 71 per cent shooting), who has big shoes to fill in coming weeks.
Bullets coach Justin Schueller acknowledged Baynes' omission - on top of fellow forward Josh Bannan's knee injury - was a "hole".
But he said there was enough on show to prove they could still match it with the top side.
"We can't skip the little things," he said, lamenting loose defence that led to easy early Kings buckets.
"We needed to take the air out of the ball in this game."
Alex Toohey (18 points on seven-of-eight shooting) put the nail in the coffin late in the third quarter, a tough rebound and steal both leading to impressive finishes for the 19-year-old prospect.
The in-form Nathan Sobey's (26 points, seven rebounds) best efforts were swallowed up by the Kings' many contributors.
Victory moved the Kings to 3-1 before hosting Perth, while a second straight loss for Brisbane (2-2) comes ahead of a trip to face Melbourne, also on Sunday.
