Round 8 in NBL25 continues on Friday night with a single-game slate that sees the Sydney Kings host the South East Melbourne Phoenix at Qudos Bank Arena. The Phoenix are flying high under new coach Josh King and will fancy their chances of taking it up to one of the championship favourites. We bring you our full game preview and best bet below!
Also, we’re providing previews and expert betting tips for every game of the NBL25 season, so make sure to head over to our NBL Tips page regularly to keep up to date with all of our content.
NBL25 Round 8 Preview & Betting Tips
Sydney Kings vs South East Melbourne Phoenix
Friday 7:30pm AEDT, Qudos Bank Arena
The Sydney Kings entered Round 7 under pressure to perform after a couple of lacklustre performances. Still, they came up short against United in their first of two games last weekend, although it was a much-improved performance and they were unlucky to come away with the win (83-87).
The Kings returned to winning ways in the backend of Round 7 with a walloping of last season’s champions, the JackJumpers (88-60). It was arguably their best performance of the season to date, particularly on the defensive end where they held the struggling Jackies to just 31% from the field and 16% from deep.
Coach Goorjian shortened his rotation to just nine guys for the most part last weekend, which saw Shaun Bruce and Keli Leaupepe play very limited minutes. Cam Oliver was one of the key beneficiaries, as was Kouat Noi who was superb with 26 points last outing.
On the injury front, Jaylin Galloway is set to miss at least a couple of weeks with a shoulder injury as per the official NBL injury report. Jaylen Adams has been playing through some back soreness and will potentially continue to come off the bench.
Elsewhere, the South East Melbourne Phoenix have revived their NBL25 campaign on the back of a couple of terrific weeks on the court. They started the season 0-5 which led to Mike Kelly’s sacking, before going 2-1 under interim head coach Sam Mackinnon.
New permanent head coach Josh King took over last weekend and enjoyed immediate success with two wins from as many games. He began his tenure with a gritty two-point road win against the JackJumpers, before his side destroyed the Wildcats by 24 points at home on Sunday.
The Phoenix’s recent turnaround has coincided with a return to form for Nathan Sobey. He had by far his best game in his new colours last outing (20/5/5), as did Angus Glover who had 17 points. Matt Hurt has continued to play his part no matter the fortune of his team, and he currently leads the league in scoring with 20.6ppg.
In injury news, import point guard Derrick Walton Jr. is listed as a possible return in Round 8 which is another big boost for the Phoenix. He’s missed the last couple of weeks with a hamstring injury, although it’s a wait and see in terms of his availability on Friday night as there’s been no concrete news just yet.
Game Prediction: The Kings start almost all of their games as favourites simply due to the star-studded roster they’ve assembled. However, as we’ve seen on a number of occasions already this season, superior talent doesn’t necessarily lead to easy wins.
For me, there’s great value in taking the Phoenix to cover the big line here, and to potentially cause an upset. They’ve been playing with terrific intensity on the defensive end under Coach King and as long as that continues on Friday night, then they’ll be in this game up to their eyeballs.
Phoenix +6.5
$1.95 (2 Units)
