The Sydney Kings have spiced up the battle for spots in the NBL post-season after overcoming a slow start to down Tasmania JackJumpers 91-77 in Hobart behind Dejan Vasiljevic's hot shooting.
Following a two-game slide, Chase Buford's competition leaders rallied from a sluggish opening quarter to stun the home crowd and outscore their opposition 61-29 in the quarters either side of halftime as the JackJumpers' early energy and scoring dried up.
The JackJumpers entered Friday night's contest with a 14-11 record and fourth-placed on the ladder, needing a win in front of their fans to all-but secure a spot in the post-season.
But when Vasiljevic (24 points) caught fire early in the second term, their 11-point margin was quickly erased and defending champions Sydney maintained complete control for the remainder to move to 18-7 for the season.
In his first game at MyState Bank Arena since breaking the hearts of JackJumpers fans with a game-winner in game two of the grand final series, Vasiljevic missed just four shots and hit five of his eight attempts from three-point range.
Coach Buford said his side benefited from pushing the pace and transition play that disrupted Tasmania's defensive sets.
"From the first quarter right up until about the last three or four minutes we were just hard to handle in transition," he said.
"Tassie is a team that they want to force you to turn the ball over, they want to make you make mistakes and get up the floor and naturally when you do that, you're going to leave space behind to go exploit and we did that really well."
Tasmania will need to rebound quickly with a vitally important game against Perth on Sunday in hopes of returning to the playoffs after making the decider last year.
Scott Roth's side face Illawarra to finish their season next week as they currently vie for play-in seeding spots with the New Zealand Breakers, South East Melbourne, Perth and Melbourne United.
A shot clock issue delayed the beginning of the match but it did not hinder Tasmania's defensive intensity in the opening term, forcing nine turnovers and limiting the Kings to just five made shots.
Kings star Xavier Cooks had two fouls in two minutes and was forced to sit early with Tasmania's seven offensive rebounds in the opening term leading to second chance opportunities.
But they could only hit one of their nine three-point attempts to take a 25-14 lead at quarter time.
Sydney then completely flipped the switch and rectified their turnover issues, not giving up the ball once and outscoring Tasmania 37-14 heading into the main break.
Vasiljevic caught fire from behind the arc to begin their run and when Sydney took the lead at 39-38, they scored easy transition buckets through the eyes-up play of Derrick Walton Jr (16 points).
Tasmania outscored Sydney 23-17 in the final quarter but the damage was done as only Isaac White and Rashard Kelly tallied double figures for the hosts.
