Lisch missed all three of his shot attempts, finishing the game with zero points and zero assists in his 29 minutes on the court.

But Gaze said Lisch selflessly "sacrificed" his offence to devote himself to shadowing Gliddon.

Sharpshooter Gliddon scored just five points and missed five of his six three-point shots in the face of Lisch's fierce defensive pressure.

"The work Kevin did was phenomenal," Gaze said.

"He was inspirational the way he was trying to stop Gliddon. He took three shots but the work he did at the other end of the floor and sacrifice he made was tremendous."

Kings centre Andrew Bogut was in awe of Lisch's defensive effort.

"He was huge for us, even though statistically most people would look at it as a bad game," Bogut said.

It wasn't just Lisch who played a key role, as Bogut added weight to his MVP claims with another dominant performance.

The 2.13m colossus finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and four blocks - two of which were in crunch time when the game was in the balance.

"I'll take a championship over the MVP and all the other stuff," he said.

"I take it personal about protecting the basket."

The Kings sit atop the ladder with an 11-5 record and are in their best position record-wise since the 2007-08 season. Sydney's next game is against the Illawarra Hawks on January 5 in Wollongong.

"We can't sit back and think we're there. We're a long, long way from it," Gaze said.

"We're putting up relatively modest (offensive) numbers over the last month but outstanding numbers defensively.

"What lies ahead is daunting, a very busy January schedule, and we have to improve so we can score more than 75 points, but I don't want to compromise our defence to get more offence."

Australian Associated Press