Basketball On The Internet.

MAKE no mistake. Game 2 of the NBL Championship Series on Friday in Adelaide will be a different story to the one Sydney told so brutally on Saturday as it set a Grand Final winning margin record of 44 points over Mike Wells' overwhelmed and extremely underwhelming 36ers.  

It defies logic that Wells could take his team into such a crucial game so ill-prepared for what was so obviously to come.

During the regular season, Kings coach Brian Goorjian repeatedly laid out the blueprint for success against the 36ers and completed a 3-1 record over Adelaide.

After Game 1, a 3-1 result from the best-of-five championship would be preferable to even a second such witless debacle by the 36ers.

So what do we know from Game 1?

That Adelaide only had a Plan A ... or should we call it Plan B, as in B for Bryce. Or even Plan C, as in C for Cotton. Because once Sydney shut down A-B-C, the 36ers had no D to offer, literally or figuratively.

They gave up 112 points, which isn't the most points accrued in a Grand Final game, but it's sure as hell right up there.

Defensively the Kings restricted Cotton to 10 points at 33 per cent and one free throw. One free throw! Michael Aylen must've been at home tearing at his hair!

The issue wasn't that Sydney succeeded yet again in curtailing the MVP's influence but that it was as if Adelaide had never seen that strategy before. It had. Several times.

Once Cotton passed out of the inevitable double and even triple teams, the 36ers had no method for how to beat the tactic. Of course Matt Kenyon found himself wide open in the corners. His is a long bomb the Kings will live with because he hits about 1-in-6.

But if Wells had a strategy in place, his players either didn't execute it or were unable to because of Sydney's stifling and fully committed defence. 

He overlooked (yet again) the fact Isaac Humphries was firing and clearly did not realise that Flynn Cameron, Dejan Vasiljevic and Zylan Cheatham combined for just 12 points on 5-of-27 shooting.

So here's what will change in Game 2.

For starters, at a sold-out Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Cotton will enjoy at least 16 trips to the free throw line and will convert 14 or 15 of those freebies. So he will have his eye in, which spells trouble for the Kings defenders.

Goorjian's defensive options also will be limited this time around, a few of his key men sure to be compiling fouls, the crowd working the refs as hard as some of Cotton's exaggerated antics.

And Jaylin Galloway, who aggravated a shoulder injury in Game 1 that previously required surgery, may not exactly be at 100 per cent.

The crowd also will be working to distract Kendric Davis and if you don't believe that's possible, maybe you didn't see how the fans drove into Nathan Sobey's head in Game 3 of the semi finals.

Now if someone could just mention to Kenyon or any other erratic 3-point shooter - the Sixers were 9-of-37 from range in G1 - the Kings will choose to risk leaving open, that there's a reason they're doing it, that issue could also be solved.

Instead of hoiking up hopes, try driving that clear lane to the hoop! You'll either get a layup or draw a defender, and that should leave someone such as Cheatham, Humphries or Nick Rakocevic open.

The saddest aspect of Game 1's abject humiliation for 36ers or non-committed fans was watching the capitulation continue unabated to the final siren.

Even after Wells cleared his bench, it's not as if there was any new strategy employed in preparation for Game 2. You know, like maybe some fullcourt pressure, or some zone, or some other mix of defensive ideas. It's not as if splinter gatherers such as Keanu Rasmussen or Michael Harris wouldn't have benefited from some direction in junk time.

But Wells left Game 1 with two unused time-outs up his sleeve and no appreciable way forward in Game 2.

Other than what will happen of course, as a matter of course - Cotton for multiple FTs with some Kings in early foul trouble, the crowd working over Davis, Sydney finding its plans restricted by circumstances outside its control.

Maybe Wells could insert Rakocevic into the starting five to crunch a few bodies?

Would it be enough to take the series to 1-1?

Yes, if the Kings come in as under-prepared as Adelaide was for Game 1. But then even with a cloud over Galloway, Kouat Noi is overdue for a break-out performance so 1-1 is far from guaranteed.

It's just that there is more of a chance than that 44-point demise might have suggested. 

NBL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Best-of-5)

Game 1: Sydney Kings 112 (Davis 25, Soares 22, Galloway 15, Maluach 12, Craig 11; Soares 8 rebs; Davis 7 assts) d Adelaide 36ers 68 (White 11, Humphries, Rakocevic, Cotton 10; Cheatham 7 rebs; Cotton 7 assts) at Qudos Bank Arena. Crowd: 13,181

Game 2: Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Friday

Game 3: Qudos Bank Arena, Sunday