The Adelaide 36ers have levelled the NBL grand final series at 1-1 after thumping Melbourne United 110-95.
In front of noisy sold-out home crowd, bench reinforcements Majok Deng (18 points at 87 percent) and Ramone Moore (17 points at 78 percent) led an even charge with seven Sixers hitting double figures.
United were piloted by Casey Prather (20 points) and Chis Goulding (19).
But both camps were left licking their wounds with former NBA players Josh Childress of the 36ers (shoulder) and United's Josh Boone (back) sustaining injuries.
Childress exited the match midway through the fourth quarter after crashing to the floor, clutching his shoulder, while Boone hurt himself when he landed awkwardly in a first-term collision with Mitch Creek.
United's David Andersen also copped a nasty eye poke in the fourth.
The injury to Boone, who came back on clearly troubled before sitting out the entire final stanza, changed the complexion of the contest as Adelaide pulled clear 27-19 at quarter-time after the two sides had gone basket-for-basket early.
Boone returned midway through the second as fellow American Prather recaptured his best form to slice the deficit to three points before the 36ers completely dominated the rest of the term.
Deng and Moore ran riot in a 15-2 run to close the half, at the end of which Adelaide held sway 57-41 with significant edges in rebounds (31-18) and bench points (23-3).
The carnage continued in the third as the Sixers drilled four three-pointers to blow the buffer out to 74-47.
Melbourne rallied to reduce the deficit to 18 points at three-quarter-time before Goulding caught fire in the fourth to add some respectability to the scoreboard but Adelaide would not be denied.
The next match of the five-game series is in Melbourne on Friday.
"Right from the first play, we had the energy that we need to play with," Adelaide coach Joey Wright said.
"We play our best basketball when we've got multiple scorers and guys are attacking from different areas."
Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman will be hoping for a lift across the board when the series heads back to Hisense Arena for Game Three on Friday.
"There's a lot we've got to change from tonight," he said.
"We need Casper, Tai Wesley and Josh Boone to be the players that we know. They didn't give the contribution that they normally give us."
