NBL Blitz: Kings beat Snakes

The Sydney Kings made 18 three-pointers in a 99-77 win over the Cairns Taipans at the NBL Blitz.

He might not be attracting the headlines of his teammates but Izayah Le'afa could be as critical a signing as anyone. The signs were certainly there on Monday night on the Gold Coast as he dropped 7/10 from three-point range for 21 points with the Kings opening their Blitz campaign with the 22-point victory against the Taipans.

The two teams combined for 10 three-pointers in the opening quarter as they put up 50 points with Sydney up 27-23 by the end of one and the Kings kept their hot shooting going in the second period.

Le'afa knocked down four three-pointers himself and Sydney went at 11/20 from behind the arc for the half to lead 56-45 but it was a huge dunk from Jaylin Galloway over Tanner Groves that grabbed the attention going into the break.

Le'afa then nailed another two triples to start the second half as he gets himself ready for a first season at the Kings. He hit a seventh in the fourth term and Cam Oliver threw down a monster alley-oop finish with 6:30 to play on the pinpoint pass from Bul Kuol.

Sydney went on to lead by as much as 22 points and win by that margin while knocking down 18/39 from downtown with Alex Toohey and Jaylen Adams not suiting up.

On top of Le'afa's 21 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, Kuol delivered 16 points, four boards and three assists against his old team.

Another former Snake, Oliver, also had 16 points, 12 rebounds and five assists with Makuach Maluach contributing 11 points, and Xavier Cooks eight points and six rebounds.

The Snakes were missing back court pair Taran Armstrong and Kyle Adnam with Tanner Groves top-scoring with 15 points and 11 rebounds with fellow imports Rob Edwards (14 points, four boards) and Pedro Bradshaw (13 points, nine rebounds) encouraging.

Kyrin Galloway also had 14 points, four rebounds and three blocked shots.

The Taipans have two more games still against the Perth Wildcats on Thursday and the Brisbane Bullets on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL BLITZ

SYDNEY KINGS 99 (Le'afa 21, Kuol 16, Oliver 16)
CAIRNS TAIPANS 77 (Groves 15, Galloway 14, Edwards 14)

BOX SCORE