Party pooper Melvin Thomas ensured there was no happy return for ex-Adelaide championship forward David Stiff by sealing the Wollongong Hawks' 92-87 national basketball league win over the Sydney Kings.

The veteran forward soaked up the pressure down the stretch, sinking the final vital free throws to snuff out a gutsy Kings comeback and break the hearts of more than 6,000 fans.

Sydney looked gone despite Stiff making his much anticipated Kings debut, trailing by double figures throughout the match.

But the Kings cut the deficit to 88-87 with 1min:41sec left and suddenly it was game on.

However, 34-year-old Thomas - a veteran of 11 NBL seasons including two as a King - was not to be denied, bringing down crunch rebounds and ignoring the deafening boos to hold his nerve on the charity stripe and seal the win.

Thomas had 17 points and seven rebounds, finishing off the good work of Boomers swingman Glen Saville (18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists), bench guard Damon Lowery (15 points) and import Cortez Groves (15 points, seven rebounds).

For Sydney, Boomers forward Matthew Nielsen (19 points, nine rebounds), Kavossy Franklin (13 points, six rebounds, six assists) and fellow import Chris Williams (13 points, 12 rebounds) tried hard against the monstrous Hawks front court.

Wollongong (10-4) looked to have leapfrogged Sydney (9-4) for second place on the NBL ladder.

The limelight was on Stiff before the game which marked his NBL return after a failed stint in the Austrian league and a bidding war for his services upon his arrival in Australia last month.

But Stiff looked just that as he tried to slot into the Kings' rotation, finishing with five points, four rebounds and five fouls from just under 20 minutes.

After the Hawks swooped on a 28-22 lead at the first break, Saville's 10 point second quarter sparked Wollongong to a 57-45 halftime buffer despite the introduction of Stiff.

It was an inauspicious debut for Stiff who was hit with a foul within a minute of his introduction in the second quarter and managed just one point, two turnovers and two fouls from eight first half minutes.

Bench guard Travis Lane tried to fire the Kings by sparking a 9-0 run early in the third quarter but that only seemed to make the Hawks angry as they stormed to a 78-62 break at the final change.

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