Basketball On The Internet.

THE words "never under-estimate the heart of a champion" were rarely more apt than today in Auckland as the defending NBL champion Sydney Kings, behind the all-court efforts of Justin Simon and a cast of role players, erased Friday's Championship Series home loss to New Zealand with an 81-74 devastation. 

Reducing their Game 1 conquerors to a shadow of a chalk outline of themselves, Sydney led from start-to-finish and succeeded despite its two NBL First Team All Stars Derrick Walton Jr and league MVP Xavier Cooks mostly anchored to the bench.

Walton, hurt late in Game 1, mustered 4:50 of action at the start before the after-effects of his cramping kicked in, the Kings making an early call to put him on ice.

Cooks had a couple of attempts and played a mostly irrelevant 9:05 before also wrapped in cotton wool - the door wide open for New Zealand to storm to a near series-deciding 2-0 lead.

But right from tip-off Dejan Vasiljevic was the best version of himself (16 points, 4-of-6 threes) as the nervous and errant start from both teams continued unabated for the Breakers.

Sydney was not exactly firing on all cylinders, but a 21-9 lead at the first break did reflect it had settled while the Breakers were hesitant, passing up good open looks and basically playing like debutants at this level.

Stage fright?

You bet, as regular major contributors such as Dererk Pardon again was a total offensive passenger, Tom Abercrombie and Rayan Rupert gave NZ nothing in attack and William McDowell-White, the star of Game 1, instead was passive and almost reluctant to stamp any authority on the contest.

And bear in mind, he wasn't going up against Walton either.

He chalked up six turnovers and Barry Brown Jr had four, many of his drives at Sydney big Jordan Hunter a rejection waiting to happen.

Held to 30 points for the first half - the Breakers led 30-23 after one quarter in Sydney - a barnstorming second half as the Kings' deficiences became more obvious was to be expected.

Instead, Kings such as Simon, Kuoat Noi (20 points), Angus Glover and Shaun Bruce refused to relent, Sydney's 34 free throw attempts to NZ's 19 reflecting its assault on the rim.

On the rare occasions the Breakers threatened after the main interval, Sydney dropped into various zone alignments and kept doing enough to keep New Zealand on a back foot.

Simon (12 points, 9 rebs, 6 steals) had five of his steals in the second half, two of them leading to fast break dunks as he capitalised on some amazingly casual and borderline frivolous passing by a Breakers team melting under the heat of the spotlight.

Meanwhile the Kings just went about their business, never losing focus and never behaving like those entitled spoilt brats who routinely challenge and moan about every call and then cannot understand why most of the country dislikes them. This was a team on a mission.

Taking a 57-41 buffer into the last quarter, Sydney had it out as far as 18 before New Zealand finally stopped second-guessing every offensive play and just started to let loose.

Jarell Brantley, Brown and Izayah Le'Afa - who has been off his game and shot for weeks - all found the mark in a 33-point final quarter assault.

But it was too little, too late. It may have sparked up Spark Arena, but the Kings controlled the tempo and the clock, the Breakers never any closer than the final scoreline.

Game 3 is on Friday at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena, the Kings with their key men now having time to recover, the Breakers with their turn back at the whiteboard.

Curiously, neither team has beaten the other at home this season. Sydney won twice in NZ and the Breakers won their remaining regular season fixture in Sydney. It adds intrigue to Game 3.

CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (NBL GRAND FINALS) Best-of-5
Game 1: NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 95 (McDowell-White, Brown Jr 19, Brantley 16; McDowell-White 9 rebs; McDowell-White 9 assts) d SYDNEY KINGS 87 (Simon 18, Hunter 15, Walton 12, Vasiljevic 11; Simon 6 rebs; Walton 6 assts) at Qudos Bank Arena. Crowd: 13,145
Game 2: SYDNEY KINGS 81 (Noi 20, Vasiljevic 16, Simon, Glover 12; Hunter 10 rebs; Bruce 3 assts) d NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 74 (Brown 21, Brantley 20, Le’Afa 14; Pardon 11 rebs; McDowell-White 4 assts) at Spark Arena. Crowd: 8,429

Series tied 1-1