The Brisbane Bullets unveiled three-time NBL champion Casey Prather but it was Nathan Sobey who led a strong all-round contribution for a drought-breaking 101-93 road win against the Sydney Kings.
Brisbane had lost seven straight against the Kings and the last 10 at Qudos Bank Arena since 2017.
But they kept the crowd of 13,078 quiet for most of the afternoon in an impressive showing to hand Sydney a fourth defeat in their past five home games.
After trailing by a point at quarter-time, Brisbane scored 29 points to 15 in the second term to go into half-time leading 52-39.
While both teams shot virtually the same from the floor, Brisbane went five-of-10 from downtown and 13-of-15 at the foul line with just three turnovers to the Kings, who were one-of-10, four-of-five, and conceded eight turnovers.
Sam McDaniel (10 points), Shannon Scott (six points, four assists), Prather, Sobey, Isaac White (12 points) and Josh Bannan (13 points, nine boards) all made three-pointers to keep Brisbane on top in the third quarter.
The Bullets lead blew to as much as 18 points, and while the Kings came back in the fourth quarter to reduce the margin to four points, Brisbane closed it out to snap their run out of outs to Sydney and improve to 9-11 for the season.
Sobey again led the way for Brisbane with 27 points while Prather made his Bullets debut with almost 11 minutes for eight points. Olympian and NBA champion Aron Baynes had a crucial eight points in his 20 minutes.
Next Star Rocco Zikarsky had an impressive cameo for 10 and-a-half minutes for six points and four blocks.
Bullets coach Justin Schueller said he was delighted by the improvement in his team, who now sit sixth.
"We've been talking about possession by possessions, and winning habits and we knew they'd keep challenging us," he said.
"I thought every time it happened we just stayed the course and every game right now is playoff type vibes so for us to go through this, it's an important piece for us to deal with to move forward from here."
It was a double loss weekend for the Kings after their defeat against Melbourne United on Thursday. They slip to 10-10 with their three-peat quest hanging by a thread.
Former MVP Jaylen Adams had 21 points and eight assists with Jordan Hunter hitting two threes on his way to 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kouat Noi contributed 13 points and seven boards.
Coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah asked for his players to rise to the challenge with eight games to go.
"I told the guys they have a great opportunity ahead with eight games left in the season, but some things have got to change," he said.
"Unless we understand that it takes 40 minutes and you can't take possessions off, we won't be successful."
