ADELAIDE — Sports is the best form of reality television, and playoff basketball is one hell of a script-writer.
A tied game with 29 seconds left and the ball is in the hands of Kendric Davis, who wants nothing more than to drive a dagger into the hearts of the Adelaide crowd that once adored him. The shot misses, and of course the ball can only fall into the hands of one man.
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Because, in the NBL, Bryce Cotton is as inevitable as they come.
Four seconds, 80 feet to cover, then releasing the ball with 0.2 remaining. Silence, for a fraction of a heartbeat, before an eruption.
Just like that, after a 44-point shellacking in the opener offered us no hope of a competitive string of games, we now have a series. And it didn’t come without its fair share of drama … on and off the court.
Here are the takeaways from the Adelaide 36ers’ gripping Game 2 win in the 2026 NBL Championship Series.
The incredible final moments
Let’s paint the scene.
There’s 29.1 seconds remaining in the contest. The 36ers have just tied the game at 89-89. Kings ball.
The ball is in Kendric Davis’ hands — exactly where the Sydney Kings want it — as the clock winds down. He isolates atop the key, hits Flynn Cameron with a left-to-right crossover and attempts a contested layup going downhill.
It’s no good. The ball fumbles around and ends up in the hands of — who else? — Cotton.
There’s 4.0 seconds on the clock when Cotton catches it just below the free throw line. He then puts on the burners, glancing at the clock a few times as he takes it coast to coast.
“When I got the rebound… I didn’t realise it was three seconds left on the clock,” Cotton said.
“I was trying to decide, really quickly, if I wanted to get a pullup three or try to take it to the basket. From there, instincts took over, and I ran as fast as I could.”
Cotton zooms by Torrey Craig and contorts his body for a left-hand layup attempt. The ball leaves Cotton’s hand with 0.2 left on the clock. It drops. The Adelaide Entertainment Centre is perhaps as loud as it’s ever been.
1:44
36ers steal Game 2 in the dying seconds
Bryce Cotton came up clutch after scoring a clutch fast-break lay-up on the final buzzer to win the game for Adelaide
“I didn’t see the shot, to be honest,” he said. “I just heard everybody screaming. It took me a while to figure out what actually happened.”
What happened was extraordinary, even by his standards. End-to-end in under four seconds, finishing around contact, off-hand, at full speed, under maximum pressure. The 36ers won 91-89, tying the Championship Series at 1-1 and instantly reframing everything we thought we knew after Game 1.
There was even a layer of symmetry to it. Earlier in the game, Cotton attempted a near-identical finish in transition, only to be denied by Craig. This time, he adjusted, using his body to create just enough separation, extending away from the shot-blocker.
It was just an objectively, unequivocally incredible moment.
Cotton lit up the 4th Q… but the rest of Adelaide also came to the party
Cotton’s exploits always — rightly — earn top billing, and Friday evening’s performance is particularly worthy.
The 33-year-old poured in 28 points, 15 of them in the fourth quarter, repeatedly finding seams against a defence built entirely around stopping him: “I play based on what I see on the floor,” Cotton said. “The effort was there the entire game. I think I was able to find some pockets a little bit more in that fourth.”
Bryce Cotton soaks up the game-winning moment. Sarah Reed/Getty Images
The defence on Cotton was still as physical and targeted as ever, with Dellavedova taking on the bulk of the task, but the American-born guard was able to shake free at times in the final quarter of the game.
“They flattened out the defence and gave him a lot of room to work,” Kings head coach Brian Goorjian said of Cotton’s game.
“He hit some tough shots, and he got to the foul line. We fouled him shooting a three, we fouled him to tie the game, he got the layup at the end of the game. It was things we discussed that are easy to talk about but they’re hard to do, and they’re hard to do it over the amount of time we were trying to do it; he’s a great player. I like our strategy on him; he’s a great player, he made some great players. I like the plan for him.”
In his post-game media availability, Cotton was quick to throw praise and adulation toward his many impactful teammates on the night. Flynn Cameron broke out of his mini playoff slump by posting 17 points — shooting 4-of-7 3PT — while John Jenkins had an impressive shooting night of his own, hitting 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. Zylan Cheatham filled the stat-sheet with seven points, eight rebounds, and seven assists, while Isaac Humphries finished with six blocks in 20 minutes.
“Guys still stepped up and hit huge shots,” Cotton said.
“Flynn was big, Z was big, John Jenkins was amazing; 14 points in 18 minutes, incredible. It was a team effort, and that’s what it took. That’s what it’s taken all year to get to this point, so you wouldn’t expect anything to be any different.”
Wells continued: “Ice was really, really good in the second half. [He had] six blocks, eight rebounds, he was 3-of-3. He was in there, and he was really affecting KD. I thought his second half was really key; he anchored us.”
Cotton, in shock, added “Six blocks in 20 minutes is crazy.”
It was the type of game the 36ers needed. We know Cotton can find ways to produce, no matter the defence, but who was going to come along for the ride? And, in a series where they’re mostly sending two players at Cotton, openings will almost always be there for his teammates.
It all starts with Cotton’s gravity. Early in fourth period, the 36ers used some guard-to-guard screening to get Jenkins good looks at the three, while the Kings’ decision to trap Cotton late in the game led to his team’s bigs effectively playing two-on-one basketball.
“At the end of the day… I say to every guy in the locker room: at this point in the season, everybody has proven their value to the team,” Cotton said.
“Whatever they do, we live and die by it. If we had a night where Flynn shoots 4-of-7, we’re living with it. If we have a night where he shoots 0-of-10, because, at the end of the day, that’s what basketball is. You’re gonna have ups, you’re gonna have downs. At the end, it’s always gonna even out to the player that you are. At this point, people just have to be true to who they are; that’s what he did, and he found his rhythm.”
That is the formula. The question now travels with the series: can Adelaide replicate that level of support on the road in Game 3 in Sydney on Sunday afternoon?
Tensions flare on the court
There was no shortage of dramatic moments in the immediate aftermath of Cotton’s game-winner.
And no, not the contrived, manufactured drama that might be deployed to fill dead space in a six-day break between the first two games of a series. This was true, authentic emotions spilling over; such was the tension within the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, after a shot that caused such an ovation that the ensuing minute was a blur.
As Cotton celebrated his shot near the score-bench, Davis got in his face and clapped, before he began to hold up a ‘three’ sign with his fingers, presumably indicating that the pair will see each other in Game 3. It was a forceful act from Davis, and Cotton responded by saying some words back, before the two leading MVP vote-getters were separated.
“Tempers flare; it’s part of playoff basketball,” Cotton said of the incident.
“It is what it is. I grew up playing at the parks, where things get feisty like that. That’s just another day back in America… it’s just another day.”
It’s probably noteworthy context that Cotton won this regular season’s MVP award over Davis, who publicly and forcefully voiced his frustrations at the outcome. When Davis first arrived in the NBL ahead of the 2024-25 season, the pair displayed a relationship that had a mentor-mentee feel to it; though, there’s a territorial element that appears to be developing.
Tempers flared after Cotton’s game-winner. Sarah Reed/Getty Images
Still, Cotton made it clear that, at least on his end, there was no personal element to the two ultimately coming face to face.
“I’ve never had a rivalry in this league,” Cotton said. “This is just playoff basketball.”
Goorjian, meanwhile, pointed to the broader environment.
“I just think the two teams are trying to win a championship,” Goorjian said of the post-game drama.
“You guys write a lot of stuff that energises stuff like this. Everybody reads it; I think you poke… It’s everybody, both teams. We had it last game, we had it this game… I like where my guys are at. We’re not taking a backwards step; we’re trying to win a championship.
Tensions also flared off the court
As the dust was beginning to settle on the on-court situation that was unfolding, there was some commotion right in front of our media bench at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
In front of the door that leads to the tunnel, 36ers owner Grant Kelley and Kings assistant coach Andrew Bogut had a tense exchange of words. The pair had to be guided their separate ways — Kings’ owner Luc Longley was next to Bogut — with the three-time Olympian heading into the tunnel, while Kelley returned to the court area.
Bogut and Kelley have a tense history that goes back several years, but came to a head earlier this season. In February, Bogut made public comments on X — formerly Twitter — about an alleged meeting within the 36ers regarding head coach Mike Wells’ future with the team. Kelley denied the claim and lobbied for a social media Code of Conduct for team officials and an apology from the Kings. Bogut responded by posting a photo of Peter Griffin from the popular animated sitcom Family Guy.
We’re told the verbal exchange between Bogut and Kelley on Friday evening featured some profanities.
1:23
These teams “do not like each other”: Uluc
ESPN’s Olgun Uluc breaks down the Adelaide 36ers’ series tying win, including Bryce Cotton’s match-winner, and altercation with Kendric Davis.
Sydney’s offence loses its shape
After a positive start — where they jumped out to as many as a 14-point lead — this sure turned into a clunky offensive game for the Kings.
Goorjian’s team only managed 12 points in the fourth period, and it was due to an abandonment of an offensive process that got them to that point.
The 36ers continued their heavy switching schemes in Game 2, which creates mismatches all over the floor. In the first seven quarters of this series, the Kings had done an elite job at finding their advantages against those mismatches, bending the defence and getting good quality looks. It was particularly effective in the first half by way of targeting Cotton, who perhaps has never been forced to play more defence than he did on this night. Cotton even picked up two early fouls, and the Kings consistently attacked him, which force the defence to collapse and help, opening up opportunities for others. Dellavedova seemingly hasn’t had that many post-ups since the Kings’ preseason game against the Tasmania JackJumpers.
During the final quarter of Game 2, the Kings hunted those mismatches — primarily Cotton switching onto the ball-carrier — however, it seemed like Davis saw that as a license to size up his man and attack in isolation. It’s the trap a team can fall into against switchy teams, and that unfortunately led to low quality shots from the Kings’ point guard, who went 6-of-25 from the field for his 20 points and six assists.
“He’s our guy,” Goorjian said of Davis. “I like where he got the ball tonight, and I like the shots he got.”
Davis and Cotton were in the thick of the action yet again. Sarah Reed/Getty Images
With Dellavedova as a primary defensive matchup on Cotton, there was an element of finding his role in the offence, where we saw poor spacing with he, Davis, and Cooks sharing the floor. Davis would often have a favourable matchup in front of him, and Dellavedova’s man was able to help off him and plug gaps, effectively forming a wall, which forced the American into tough looks. The 36ers allowed Dellavedova to catch the ball around the free throw line, and he would miss the bulk of his floaters in the lane down the stretch.
“I’d have to look at the tape,” Goorjian said, when asked about his team’s shot quality in the fourth period.
“We put three guys on the baseline and ran middle pick-and-roll for our best player, and got Delly the ball in nice spots. Got the ball around the rim. He got some good shots with his feet in the paint. It was similar to what they were doing. I don’t have any complaints. I thought we got some easy baskets running off our stops and, in the fourth quarter, we couldn’t control them defensively, so we were more in a half-court grind.”
In the first half, the Kings stayed within a certain flow against the 36ers’ switching defence, and manufactured good looks every time down the floor. As the game was winding down, though, it seemed like the offence got stagnant — both from the standpoint of Davis’ creation, as well as how his teammates moved off the ball — with the 36ers forcing them into lower-quality shots.
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By contrast, Adelaide kept scoring, which eliminated Sydney’s transition opportunities and forced a half-court grind.
“Any time you hold somebody to a 12-point quarter… in playoff basketball, those are the things you’ve got to do,” Wells said.
“You’ve got to make plays, you’ve got to get a rebound, you’ve got to foul at the right time… We just tried to get the shots that we wanted, and tried to have them take the shots we wanted.
“With great players — I don’t care what league it is — you’re trying to make him play in a crowd. It’s extremely difficult. That’s what they’re trying to do to Bryce, and that’s what we’ve got to try to do to KD to a degree.”
It wasn’t all bad for the Kings on the offensive end. Torrey Craig finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds (four OFF), while Xavier Cooks chipped in with 18 points and 10 rebounds of his own, hitting some crucial shots in the paint down the stretch of Game 3.
