Goorjian excited to see "vision" become reality

Sitting at 3-5, the Sydney Kings were just hanging on to a spot in the Hungry Jack's NBL26 top six.

At that time, they had the seventh-best defence. But that is now a distant memory.

Brian Goorjian's side have won four-straight games against Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Cairns, to propel themselves to 11-7 on the ladder.

At the crux of this turnaround has been the side's impressive defence. Not only are they now the second-best defensive team in the league now, with a 107.5 defensive rating (behind only South East Melbourne by 0.4), but they also only concede 85.9 points per game, which is the best mark in the competition.

Mix in the fact that opponents only shoot 44 per cent from the field, which is the third lowest mark in the league, and Goorjian's side have become a defensive juggernaut.

"The ball pressure development [has been a massive factor in our improvement], as well as the cultural piece of everyone playing for one another," Goorjian said in Sunday's post-game press conference.

"A lot of these guys are on the journey of doing whatever is needed to win and move this thing forward, [rather than concentrating] on their stats.

"When we were 3-5, I went into the box and leant into what is the main piece of their group, which is the length and ability to play defence up the floor.

"The guys are starting to buy in now. It's been a process but you can see they're becoming comfortable with it.

"[Honestly] with the pieces we've brought together into this group, with our vision, it's great to see the results we're getting and the direction we're heading."

While the heartbeat of Sydney's defence over that stretch has been Bul Kuol, the South Sudanese international didn't suit up on Sunday due to a knee injury.

So, in true next man up mentality, the Kings used different players to slow Cairns' million dollar man Jack McVeigh, who only managed 11 points in the 119-77 loss to Sydney at Qudos Bank Arena.

"Watching him [McVeigh] play the other night (scoring 47 points against New Zealand), I was walking around the hall [with my hands on my head] every time he shot the ball," Goorjian said.

"Then tonight, he only shot the ball six times, making five of them, but that goes back to our philosophy and making sure you're in his pocket at all times, like how you'd defend Andrew Gaze or Bryce Cotton.

"[Without Bul] we started Delly (Matthew Dellavedova) on him and although he only played 12 minutes, he really laid the platform of how we wanted to defend him, using a physical presence where possible and making it hard for him to catch the ball.

"It was an incredible team effort [by everyone on defence]."

Next up for the Kings is a Christmas night clash with Illawarra at Qudos Bank Arena, tipping off at 8.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN and Channel 10.