Bullets break Sydney drought to move into sixth

The Brisbane Bullets produced a tremendous all-round team performance to break a drought in Sydney with the strong 101-93 road victory against the Kings on Sunday to make it consecutive wins.

The Bullets were able to back up a 12-point win at home to the South East Melbourne Phoenix to close 2023 by opening 2024 with the eight-point win at Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday.

It's the first win for the Bullets against the Kings since January 2022 and a first win in Sydney since December 2017 breaking a seven-game losing run overall and a 10-match streak inside Qudos Bank Arena.

The win improves the Bullets to a 9-11 record on the season as well to break into the top six ahead of hosting the Tasmania JackJumpers on Wednesday night at Nissan Arena.

What was most impressive about the Bullets performance was the number of contributors with four players scoring in double-figures and 10 managing to score at least six points.

All 10 players who hit the floor made an impact with captain Nathan Sobey again top-scoring with 27 points including going 12/13 at the free-throw line as part of Brisbane going 30/36 as a team.

Josh Bannan continued his strong form with another 13 points, nine rebounds and two assists with Isaac White contributing 12 points and Sam McDaniel 10 along with three rebounds and two assists.

What the Bullets got out of the centre spot was crucial too. Aron Baynes finished with eight points and two rebounds, Rocco Zikarsky six points, four blocks and two boards, and Tyrell Harrison five points, two rebounds and a block.

Casey Prather made his Bullets debut and showed exciting signs in almost 11 minutes with eight points and two rebounds including hitting a three shortly after first entering the game.

Mitch Norton also had six points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals, and Shannon Scott six points, four assists and two boards.

Jaylen Adams top-scored for Sydney with 21 points and eight assists while Jaylen Adams added 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Kouat Noi 13 points and seven boards.

Nathan Sobey again started the game with the first score but after the opening six and-a-half minutes the Bullets did find themselves down 10 with the Kings leading 20-10.

Casey Prather came on at the five-minute mark to make his Brisbane debut and hit a three-pointer soon after. That was followed up with another from Isaac White before Aron Baynes completed a three-point play.

Rocco Zikarsky then provided an immediate impact for Brisbane with a couple of late finishes down low and that helped Brisbane cut the Sydney lead to 24-23 by quarter-time.

The Bullets then opened up the second quarter on fire with a 9-0 streak that started with a pair of free-throws from Zikarsky. Shannon Scott followed up dropping a three ball, Josh Bannan scored and then so did White in transition on the back of Zikarsky blocking Jordan Hunter up the other end.

Another 6-0 run saw Brisbane's lead grow to nine and it was soon 11 with them having started the second frame outscoring the Kings 20 points to eight.

The Bullets then closed the half with the last seven points including a triple from Sobey who would go into the break with 16 points and Brisbane leading 52-39.

Brisbane might have shot 17/36 to Sydney's 17/35 from the field, but the Bullets went 5/10 from three to 1/10 and got to the foul line 15 times to just five from Sydney on top of having only three turnovers to eight to have the 13-point advantage.

Sydney were always going to make a run back at Brisbane in the third quarter on their home floor, but every time the Kings showed a sign of gaining some momentum, the Bullets had the answers.

Sam McDaniel, Scott, Prather, Sobey, White and Bannan all made three-pointers in the third quarter with the Bullets still on top 80-67 by three quarter-time.

The Brisbane lead was out to 17 points early in the fourth quarter too after a 6-2 run, but Sydney was always going to make getting the first win in the building for the first time in more than six years tough for the Bullets.

Sydney went on a 14-1 run after that to close the deficit to four but Sobey steadied the Bullets when he knocked down three free-throws.

That became the story of the rest of the way with the Kings getting back within four on several occasions, but Brisbane answered each time to respond to the challenges and close out the important eight-point victory.

The Bullets will return home on Wednesday night to play host to the Tasmania JackJumpers before backing up on Sunday also hosting the Illawarra Hawks at Nissan Arena.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

BRISBANE BULLETS 101 (Sobey 27, Bannan 13, White 12)

SYDNEY KINGS 93 (Adams 21, Hunter 17, Noi 13)

BOX SCORE