Sixers take home form on road for stunning OT win

The Adelaide 36ers have pulled off a remarkable overtime victory on the road against the Sydney Kings to continue their hot recent form with Daniel Johnson the hero while Josh Giddey amassed another triple-double.

The 36ers had kept alive their hopes of reaching finals with dominant performance at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in recent weeks, but to really be a contender they knew they had to back that up on the road.

The first test of that came on Sunday against the third placed Kings at Qudos Bank Arena, and for most of the game the Sixers were playing catch up and were as much as 16 points behind to start the second half.

But the 36ers continued to fight hard and it was huge three-pointers in the fourth quarter from Brandon Paul, Keanu Pinder, Jack McVeigh and Isaac Humphries that helped secure them able to force the game into overtime.

And in the extra period, it was Daniel Johnson the hero for the 36ers. 

He only had seven points on 2/13 shooting going into overtime, but he delivered a remarkable performance in the final five minutes nailing three triples on his way to 13 points to end up top-scoring for Adelaide with 20 points and eight rebounds.

Sunday Dech also scored his only points of the game in overtime as Adelaide went on a 13-0 run to secure the seven-point win and keep their playoff hopes alive.

On top of Johnson's overtime heroics, Next Star Josh Giddey collected his third triple-double in the last four games and secured it with the rebound on the game's last possession. He finished the afternoon with an impressive 11 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.

Brandon Paul was strong in the first four quarters with 19 points while Tony Crocker also scored 12 points for the Adelaide, Keanu Pinder 11 and Isaac Humphries 11 to go with nine rebounds and six emphatic blocks.

Dech also had nine rebounds and nine assists to go with his stifling defence but really Adelaide was impressive with 20 offensive rebounds for 33 second chance points, and with their 10 blocks as a team.

Jack McVeigh also had seven points and Daniel Dillon three.

Adelaide coach Conner Henry was delighted the 36ers were able to bring their home effort on the road with them.

"It felt like we were ready to play on the road. We know what's at stake here and we did kind of dig ourselves a bit of a hole in that first half. We had 10 pretty good looks and we couldn’t knock shots down so it was pretty bad offensively, but we were getting good shots," Henry said.

"We tried to talk about things at the half about being a little bit better executing on our play calls and what we wanted to do, and we were better in the second half. I also thought our second efforts overall in the second half and in the overtime really dictated our ability to gain possession, and pull the win out."

It wasn’t quite the start the 36ers were looking for on the road, at least at the offensive end. At one point in the first quarter the Kings did go up 17-10 before a three-pointer from Tony Crocker out of a timeout steadied Adelaide, and Sydney's lead was only 19-16 by quarter-time.

Some big blocks from Isaac Humphries and Keanu Pinder helped set the tone defensive in the first quarter for Adelaide and they then started the second term well to draw level when Brandon Paul hit a three-pointer.

But the Kings would score the game's next 10 points before the 36ers answered starting with a Daniel Johnson three-point play, and then another three-pointer from Paul.

That had the 36ers down by just two with four minutes left in the half, but they wouldn’t score another field goal up until half-time ending the half shooting just 11/39 from the field at 28 per cent with the Kings hitting three consecutive triples to be up 47-34 at the break.

Adelaide then fell 16 points down to start the second half before a Giddey basket and then an and-one play from Paul after a flashy move under the basket after a clever find from Johnson.

Humphries and Giddey then both hit three-point bombs as part of an 8-0 Sixers run to make it a five-point game, and then with a big three on the three quarter-time buzzer, suddenly the 36ers had drawn level with the Kings.

Adelaide then led for the first time in the game when Paul knocked down yet another three-pointer early in the fourth quarter. Pinder and Jack McVeigh also made three-pointers to keep the Sixers up by a point before Paul connected again from deep for a two-point edge with five minutes to go.

The Kings managed a 7-0 to regain an 81-76 edge but a bucket from Giddey and three from the corner from Humphries tied scores, and that is where things remained at the end of regulation.

What was to come was the most remarkable overtime periods. Sydney scored first but then Adelaide dominated with the next 13 points came from the 36ers with 10 of them to Johnson. He ended up with three triples and 13 points in overtime as the 36ers claimed the stunning overtime win.

It's a huge week still to come in NSW for the 36ers starting against the Illawarra Hawks on Tuesday and a rematch with the Kings on Sunday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

ADELAIDE 36ERS 97 (Johnson 20, Paul 19, Crocker 12) 

SYDNEY KINGS 88 (Martin 25, Ware 17, Hunter 13, Vodanovich 13)

BOX SCORE