Sydney guard Jason Cadee believes the Kings have kick-started their season leading into Friday's clash with the league-leading New Zealand Breakers.
In a big double-header weekend, the Kings then travel to Adelaide to face the 36ers on Sunday. Sitting at a 4-4 for the season, two wins on the road this weekend could lift the Kings into the top four. Following a solid home win at the Kingdome against former co-league leaders Cairns Taipans, Cadee – who came across from Adelaide in the off season – had a break-out performance last weekend and is looking to ride the momentum into this weekend.
"We played well in the second half last week ... we really put our foot down in the third quarter and got the lead and held it," he said. "We spoke about where we want to be come Christmas and if we can put some wins back to back, it will be a good lead-in to the end of the season. Any time you're on the road it's never easy ... so going into Vector [Arena] tomorrow will be tough. We're quietly confident that if we come out and play well, then we can get a win."
Coming away from Auckland with a win won't be an easy feat for the Kings as they come up against a red-hot outfit that has won its past four games and is 8-3 for the season. The Breakers have a balanced outfit across the court, but American import Cedric Jackson has been particularly effective this season, leading the league in assists per game.
Cadee warned about Jackson's influence over the game, but said he was not nervous in going up against the American. "[Cedric] is a quality player, but he's not someone you can be nervous around," he said. "Otherwise he's going to take advantage of that. He's very good.
"For us it's about playing a team game and if we can just knuckle down and grind out for four quarters, we will be there at the end to give us a chance at the win. Anyone can win on any night and we'll just see what happens."
Cadee is looking forward to matching up against former teammates in Adelaide. "It will be weird," he said.
"I've never had to do that, play against a former team at the old stadium. I've still got many friends there in the team and in the club. I have nothing against Adelaide."
After playing junior basketball in NSW, Cadee was offered an NBL contract with the 36ers where he stayed for two years. On finishing his contract with Adelaide, he made the move back home to Sydney and hasn't looked back since. "It just didn't work out with Adelaide, they had things they needed to sort out, and I ended up speaking to Damo [Damian Cotter, Kings coach] and it was better me coming to Sydney."
