The Knights resuscitated their finals hopes in emphatic fashion with centre Bradman Best making an outstanding return from injury and Kalyn Ponga again at his lethal best in their 34-24 triumph.

Winger Enari Tuala was another major contributor, scoring a hattrick of tries off the back of another strong performance from the Knights pack and a quality kicking game from their halves in a game that was delayed almost 24 hours due to Queensland's snap Covid lockdown.

But no sooner had the side pocketed the vital two competition points, their attention turned to their next clash against Brisbane back at Suncorp Stadium in four days time with the Broncos, who played on Friday night, set to benefit from an extra two days to prepare.

An NRL spokesman last night told the Newcastle Herald there are no plans "at this stage" to reschedule the game despite the Knights clearly being disadvantaged by the 24 hour delay.

Knights coach Adam O'Brien said his side will "roll with the punches" but admitted it will be a physical and mental challenge given the lack of facilities available because of the strict lockdown currently in place.

"We apparently can't use the pool or the field at this stage back at the hotel so I'm not sure exactly what our recovery is going to look like," coach Adam O'Brien said after the win. "A four day turnaround, it's foreign to me, but we'll just adapt and do the best we can.

"We'll clean out some Otto [Wheelie] bins and fill them with ice back at the hotel and use them with our own bins for ice baths and go from there. At the end of the day, we can be grateful we are still playing and we have to thank Peter [ARL boss V'landys] and the Queensland government for that."

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O'Brien had one eye on the short turnaround when he opted to rest Ponga and the two Saifiti brothers with the win over the Raiders in the bag at 34-12 in the final 10 minutes.

"Yeah, that was the reason they came off, just to give them a breather but I was cranky then that we gave up 12 points there at the end," he said. "We'd defended so well up until that point - we kept them out for three or four sets on our line in the first half - so I'm not happy about that but over-all, I thought we did a pretty good job."

Best's return after being sidelined for the past seven weeks following ankle surgery, was massive for the Knights. He and Ponga terrorised the Raiders' right edge defence with Tuala the chief beneficiary, scoring the first of his three tries after just five minutes, showing great strength to twice shrug off Raiders fullback Jordan Rapana to touch down.

Best scored one of his own and then laid on a second for Tuala close to halftime to give the Knights a commanding 22-6 advantage at the break with centre Kurt Mann also scoring in the first 40 after climbing high to reel in a Jake Clifford bomb for an 18-0 scoreline.

The Raiders briefly threatened a comeback when prop Josh Papalii crashed over early in the second half before Tuala scored his third off a Ponga pass and then the brilliant fullback scored himself after a bust from a scrum win to push out the advantage to 22 points.

"Having Braddie back was a massive one for us," Ponga told Fox. "Every time I got the ball near him, I was looking for him."

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To further boost the Knights' finals quest, O'Brien is very hopeful Mitchell Pearce will be back from his hamstring injury to face the Broncos.

"I'm not going to say it's definite but he is tracking really well," he said. "In saying that, I was really happy with both Phoenix [Crossland] and Cliff and their contribution to that win."

On Best and his return, O'Brien said:

"He's only a young, young man starting out on his journey so it's hard to keep putting a lot of pressure on him but they certainly love playing with him," O'Brien said.

"His energy is infectious within the group. He's so committed to the sport, he wants to compete all the time so that's infectious for us. I'm really pleased for him, he's only a young man but I really enjoy coaching Bradman."