Sport
13 March, 2026
Matthew Dellavedova’s Sydney Kings takes finals thriller 105-104 over Perth Wildcats
Maryborough product Matthew Dellavedova is now just one win away from making a third consecutive NBL Championship Series after his Sydney Kings tamed the Perth Wildcats in a thrilling opener to their playoff series.
Despite a litany of injuries throughout the season, the Kings finished with the best record in the NBL at 24-9 thanks to a season-ending 11-game winning streak, automatically granting them a finals place as the one seed.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats recovered from losing the seeding qualifier to the South East Melbourne Phoenix by defeating Dellavedova’s old team, Melbourne United, in the Play-In game to meet the Kings in a best-of-three series.
It’s the second season running that Dellavedova has faced the Wildcats in the semi-final stage after he helped United outlast the Wildcats in a thrilling series, which saw the deciding game go United’s way by a point.
Playing in their first game in a little under a month, the Kings started sluggish while the lively Wildcats pulled an early lead.
As he first checked into the contest after four minutes of play, Dellavedova’s Kings trailed 12-4.
The veteran point guard quickly registered a rebound and assist before cutting the King’s deficit to two with his first points of the match right at the end of the first period.
With a three from the corner that caught nothing but net, Dellavedova gave the Kings their first lead of the night at the start of the second period.
After subbing back in with three and a half minutes left in the half, the Maryborough homegrown talent assisted a late Davis three with an inbounds pass, allowing the Kings to lead 48-44 at the half time break.
Even with the Kings building a nine-point buffer early and two Dellavedova threes in the third period, the Wildcats kept clawing at the series favourites, pulling out to a slight two-point advantage by the end of the quarter thanks to a mammoth 17 points from Kristian Doolittle.
Following a short respite to begin the final quarter, Dellavedova checked back into the game with seven minutes to play and the Wildcats leading by one.
With the Kings still trailing by one with less than three minutes remaining, a pair of clutch threes from Kendric Davis, who ended with a game-high 35 points, and an and-one from captain Xavier Cooks gave the Kings the lead.
The Wildcats had three tough chances at a buzzer beater on their final possession through the dominant Doolittle, as well as Jo Lual-Acuil Jr and David Duke Jr on the put back, but the Kings held on to a nail-biting 105-104 win.
Despite starting the game on the bench, Dellavedova logged the fourth most minutes for the Kings, producing 11 points, three assists and a +9 plus minus, the second best in the match.
The Kings can now finish the series tomorrow at the RAC Arena and meet either the South East Melbourne Phoenix or the Adelaide 36ers in the Championship Series, while the Wildcats attempt to force a do-or-die game three scheduled for next Wednesday.