The Adelaide 36ers have shaken off three straight heavy losses to blow away the Sydney Kings on their home court 111-96 in the NBL.
Pressure had mounted on the 36ers before Monday night's trip to Qudos Bank Arena after seven losses in eight games, with disharmony appearing in their squad.
But they put that all to one side for 32 points in the first quarter and another 30 in the second, and converted that into a 15-point win after leading by as much as 29.
It only continues to put the pressure on Sydney with the performance again highlighting why Jaylen Adams (41 points) needs more help in the back court and how much the defence of Bul Kuol is missed.
Sydney coach Brian Goorjian took the blame on himself.
"My job coming into this game was to make sure that my guys understood what was coming and what they were going to bring to this, and making sure that they were ready," he said.
"This is on me, totally. There was no comparison from the time the ball went up as far as anything that involved competitive spirit.
"They just kicked our a**e and again that falls on me."
It was always going to be fascinating how both teams came out and it was the Sixers who completely dominated from the outset.
Adelaide were already leading 32-12 by quarter time to completely silence the 11,765 home fans before the Kings got back into the game with a 10-0 run early in the second term to cut the deficit to seven.
But the Sixers were on a mission and closed out the half with seven three-pointers to finish with a 25-13 run to blow their advantage out to 19 again by the break, on the back of hitting 12-of-18 from downtown opposed to the 3-of-13 for the home team.
The lead ballooned to 29 points in the third quarter and the Sixers were never threatened, keeping their top six prospects alive at 8-11 after shooting 54 per cent from the floor and going 15-of-26 from deep.
Kendric Davis shone again with 30 points and nine assists with Montrezl Harrell delivering 25 points and 10 rebounds, DJ Vasiljevic 19 points, and Isaac Humphries 17 points and six boards.
"It was good to have that competitiveness and the group wanted to go out there and prove something," Sixers coach Mike Wells said.
"I couldn’t be more proud just of the effort, so there was a lot of good stuff out there and a lot has been said about our group, and there's a prideful group in there."
The Kings are still well placed in the context of the season at 11-9 but Adams was asked to do too much despite delivering 41 points on 12-of-24 shooting, 6-of-12 from three and 11-of-13 at the line.
Xavier Cooks did add 16 points and 15 rebounds but it was slim pickings elsewhere including star import Cam Oliver impotent once more for zero points and two turnovers in just 10 minutes.
