The air inside Qudos Bank Arena was thick with tension and the deafening roar of 13,181 fans last night, setting the stage for what would become an unforgettable chapter in NBL history. If you came looking for a polite, feeling-out process to open the NBL26 Championship Series, you were in the wrong building. From the opening tip, the atmosphere was hostile, electric, and fiercely tribal. The Sydney Kings fed off that raw hometown energy, launching an absolute masterclass that left the Adelaide 36ers completely shell-shocked.
The physicality was dialed to a ten right out of the gate, setting a tone of chaotic intensity that even spilled over after the final buzzer with a fiery, headline-grabbing handshake snub between Sydney assistant Andrew Bogut and Adelaide big man Nick Rakocevic. It was clear from the jump: this wasn’t just a game; it was a statement.
The MVP Rivalry and the Scoring Surge
The underlying story of the night was fueled by pure, unadulterated revenge. Kings star Kendric Davis stepped onto the hardwood playing like a man who had his heart ripped out by the MVP voters, desperate to prove a point against the man who beat him for the award by just two points, Adelaide’s Bryce Cotton. Davis was the absolute maestro of the evening, dropping a game-high 25 points and dishing out 7 assists at a breakneck pace that the 36ers simply couldn’t handle.
While Davis orchestrated the perimeter, Tim Soares decided to absolutely take over the paint. Soares bullied his way through the Adelaide defense, catching fire in a historic second quarter where he poured in 15 of his 22 total points. His efficiency was staggering, finishing 8-of-10 from the field and single-handedly pushing the game out of reach before halftime.
For the 36ers, the night was a struggle for oxygen. Isaac White fought bravely off the bench to top-score for the visitors with 11 points, and big men Isaac Humphries and Nick Rakocevic chipped in 10 apiece. However, the story for Adelaide was the silencing of Cotton. Sydney’s “Operation Bryce”, a relentless, physical tag-team effort led by Matthew Dellavedova and Torrey Craig, held the six-time MVP to just 10 points on a rough 4-of-12 shooting night.
Above the Rim: The Night’s Top Dunks
The true roof-raising moments, the plays that instantly ignited the crowd and sucked the air out of the Adelaide bench, happened above the rim. In the opening minutes, Kendric Davis drove hard and lobbed a picture-perfect alley-oop to Jaylin Galloway, who soared through the paint to throw down a monstrous slam that sent a shockwave through the arena.
Not to be outdone, Galloway (who finished with 15 points) continued his aerial assault later in the half, finishing a fast break with a clinical one-handed flush that underscored Sydney’s athletic dominance. Even the final minutes provided cinematic moments, with Sydney’s Jason Spurgin stepping onto the court after a grueling 401-day injury layoff to nail a triple and spark a celebration that felt more like a title win than a Game 1 victory.
When the final buzzer mercifully sounded, the scoreboard displayed a staggering 112–68 victory for the Kings. That 44-point demolition didn’t just secure a 1-0 series lead; it shattered the record for the largest winning margin in NBL championship series history, surpassing a 30-year-old mark.
Sydney shot a blistering 66% from the field and dominated the glass 47–28. They didn’t just win the game; they delivered what commentators are already calling the “Saturday Night Slaughter.” As the series shifts to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre this Friday, the 36ers face a monumental task to pick up the pieces of a historic defeat.
