The Taipans, coming off a victory on Thursday night against the Illawarra Hawks, couldn't continue their momentum as the Kings stormed to a shock victory at the Kingdome.

The Kings did not seem to miss their star forward Josh Childress, who was ruled out after failing a game-day fitness test, with centre Julian Khazzouh and guard Jason Cadee taking the reins.

Khazzouh dominated all quarters, finishing with 22 points, including two three pointers early in the game. Cadee was just behind with an impressive 19 points.

After the game, Khazzouh said Childress will add to the team, but will not be relied on to win games alone as he was last season. "Chil was out for a lot of the pre-season as well with niggling injuries, so the guys that are together now, we've had a chance to play together a lot," he said.

New import Marcus Thornton had an indifferent night with only nine points to his name.

The Taipans best was Mark Worthington with 13 points in a largely disappointing night for the North Queenslanders.

The Kings came out strongly in the first quarter, with Steve Markovic opening their season with a three-pointer. As the Taipans tried to assert their dominance, Kings centre Khazzouh responded, making three three-point plays in the space of a minute, pushing the score to 16-8.

Tom Garlepp and Jason Cadee extended the lead to 21-10, before Thornton, who had earlier missed his first three attempts, sunk to take the lead to 27-15. Garlepp added the last points of the quarter to make it 29-15 at the first interval.

The Kings extended their lead in the second, with Khazzouh dominating again. A Cadee three-pointer pushed the lead to 42-19, before the Taipans began a fightback. But with Khazzouh and Cadee in terrifying form, they pushed the lead out further.

Mark Worthington and Markel Starks were the Taipans' best, but could not find the answers to Khazzouh and Cadee.

At the break, Khazzouh had 13 points and Cadee had 12, with the Kings leading 57-32. The Taipans' best was Worthington with just 7.

The Taipans started the third-quarter strongly, with Alex Loughton getting the first points on the board. But once again, the Kings stopped any notions of an unlikely comeback, Cadee hitting a three to make it 60-34.

The quarter ended with the Kings leading 74-47 and the Taipans unable to find a solution to the Khazzouh/Cadee problem. Worthington took four points in the quarter, but he was not being helped by a Taipans side swamped at every opportunity by the Kings.

The Taipans looked to mount a last-ditch unlikely comeback in the fourth, bringing the scores closer at 76-53. But Cadee was on hand again to take control, skipping past two Taipans defenders to score.

In the back-end of the quarter, the Kings regained their control, 2014-15 Kings Player of the Year Garlepp making some key interventions in defence. Angus Brandt hit a late three to put the result beyond question.

Kings coach Damian Cotter was "rapt" with the result, especially after the side were pilloried in the media after a poor pre-season Blitz tournament.

"There was so much negativity from the performance at the Blitz, and I give credit to these blokes for focusing on what's important," Cotter said.

"The guys responded well and I guess now we don't overreact to negativity."

The Taipans were clearly fatigued from their season opener on Thursday night, but Taipans captain Cameron Gliddon would not use that as an excuse.

"Everyone's got to do it," he said. "Whoever can fight it best, whoever's tougher, will win."

Taipans' coach Aaron Fearne said his team didn't "match the edge" of the Kings.

"Defensively and offensively we were a step behind in everything," he said.