While Sydney Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah called on his experienced ex-NBA players and NBL championship winners to right their season, it was their lesser-used pair of Angus Glover and Makuach Maluach who had the biggest say in tgeir latest win.
The Kings were up against it hosting the league-leading Melbourne United at their Qudos Bank Arena home on Sunday, having lost to the under-strength and down-on-confidence South East Melbourne Phoenix three days earlier.
The Kings had lost seven of their last nine matches to be just clinging to a place in the top six with key duo Jaylin Galloway and DJ Hogg out with shoulder injuries.
After Thursday's loss in Melbourne, first-year coach Abdelfattah had called on his experienced brigade to dig deep to keep their third straight championship hopes alive.
And in fairness, they did stand up, including former NBA trio Jaylen Adams (16 points, three assists), Denzel Valentine (15 points, nine assists) and Jonah Bolden (10 points, seven rebounds), who were all solid in the 98-86 win.
Centre Jordan Hunter (12 points, nine boards) and captain Shaun Bruce (12 points, five assists) were important too, but none more instrumental than Glover and Maluach.
The two players have often been afterthoughts this season with Maluach even having seven games when he didn't hit the floor while Glover's role has significantly diminished on last season.
That wasn't the case on Sunday with Glover starting and delivering 10 points, three rebounds and two steals in 25 minutes.
Maluach had the best performance of his 36-game NBL career that started at Melbourne with a high of 25 minutes for 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Abdelfattah might be rethinking their roles moving forward as Sydney attempt to lock away a finals spot currently sitting fourth at 12-13 with three games to play.
"Obviously, him (Glover) and Kuach (Maluach), both of them deserve more minutes but they've earned it," he said.
"It's nothing they are just going to be given, they've earned every single second they've gotten and I'm just proud of them.
"I guess I should have been playing them a lot more earlier in the season, but you can't change the past, baby."
On top of that, defensively the pair were outstanding limiting dangerous United pair Chris Goulding and Ian Clark to a combined 18 points on 6-of-25 shooting from the field and 2-of-15 from downtown.
Abdelfattah will find it tough to not keep playing the pair significant minutes even when Hogg and Galloway return.
"What they both did is they spaced the floor for us and they did a hell of a job guarding Goulding and Clark," Abdelfattah added.
"They went 6-for-25 combined but they also space the floor for us with their own shooting, and they just did the intangible things on both ends of the floor.
"It's all credit to them, they've done everything that's been asked and everything that's needed on my end, but they've earned it and deserve much more.
"I'm just proud of them and happy for them."
