Adelaide's Mitch Creek has kept his side on track for the NBL finals, spoiling Kevin Lisch's long-awaited return for Sydney.
Creek, who didn't take a field-goal attempt in Thursday's win over Cairns, hit 10 of 11 on Saturday evening as the 36ers scored a 104-101 away victory over the Kings.
It was Adelaide's fifth-straight win and kept them within touch of the three teams above them on the ladder.
Creek made a three-point play to break a 97-97 stalemate in a game featuring numerous lead changes.
He also proved a pest at the defensive end, racking up a game-high four steals.
"I thought he played a really good game on Thursday night - he just didn't score," Adelaide coach Joey Wright said of Creek.
"But there was some challenges put there and I think he accepted them."
Guard and two-time NBL MVP Lisch, who was playing his first game in almost three months due to a calf injury, entered the game off the bench in the first quarter.
He was fouled out late in the game, having played just under 12 minutes, tallying seven points and four rebounds and making two of his seven field-goal shots.
After having just one full training session this week and being placed on restricted minutes on Saturday, Lisch admitted to being rusty in every aspect of his game.
"You find yourself running down the wrong side of the court and just your overall awareness especially at the offensive end," Lisch said.
"And defensively, just being a step behind on a lot of things and thus some of the fouls in 11 or 12 minutes."
Creek had strong offensive support from Daniel Johnson and Shannon Shorter, who scored 22 and 20 respectively.
Former Adelaide star Jerome Randle top scored for Sydney with 22 followed by Brad Newley with 21, which included four three-pointers.
Former Kings fan favourite Josh Childress finished with six points for Adelaide, hitting a couple of buckets in the last five minutes.
Neither Wright nor his Sydney counterpart Andrew Gaze were happy with their team's defensive effort, with the latter giving his troops a big spray in the second quarter.
"The defence is nowhere near where it needs to be, if you've got to score 105 to win," Gaze said.
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