Shane Heal picked the perfect time to score his only field goal as Sydney came from 17 points down to beat the Melbourne Tigers 95-90 in the national basketball league match at the State Netball Centre on Wednesday night.

Heal had been having a dirty night, missing his first eight field-goal attempts, picking up five fouls and earning the ire of the home fans.

But with the Kings trailing 90-89 and only 40 seconds left on the clock he drained a huge three-pointer to silence the parochial home crowd.

Kings forward Chris Williams scored the final three points of the match for a total of 22, plus 17 rebounds, to do his chances of winning the league MVP no harm at all.

The ladder leading Kings looked gone when they trailed by 17 points late in the third period.

But with Kavossy Franklin (27 points) picking up the scoring slack during Heal's dry spell, they fought their way back.

Andrew Gaze had a game-high 28 points for the Tigers and also got good contributions from Mark Bradtke (19 points and 12 rebounds) and Neil Mottram (18 points and eight rebounds).

But the spring-heeled Mottram will regret a missed dunk early in the final quarter when the Kings were in the middle of a 16-2 scoring run.

"The Kings have a reputation of folding under pressure, the Kings have a reputation for not playing the defensive end of the floor and not doing the tough things," said Sydney coach Brian Goorjian.

"Well I think the Perth game (which Sydney won 99-97 last week) and this game tonight, as we go into the games that are important the things that we have worked on all year are starting to come through.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP