Bullets can't quite complete job in Sydney

The Brisbane Bullets did plenty right to be nine points in front early in the fourth quarter but couldn’t quite complete the deal for a fourth straight win with the Sydney Kings claiming the 93-81 home win.

The Bullets arrived at Qudos Bank Arena with momentum following three impressive wins against the Adelaide 36ers, Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix while scoring 113 points across those three victories.

While still missing Josh Bannan, Deng Adel and Jarred Bairstow for the Sunday afternoon match up with a fresh Kings outfit, the Bullets put themselves in a strong position to make it four straight wins.

The Bullets were leading by as much as nine points early in the fourth quarter, but from there the Kings scored 15 straight points and closed the rest of the game outscoring Brisbane 27 points to six to claim the 12-point win.

For the first three quarters the Bullets were right on track to make it a fourth consecutive win and by the end of the game following the eight-point last term, they shot at 46 per cent from the field with 13/33 from three-point range and just the 8/9 at the foul line.

The 18 turnovers proved costly with the Kings scoring 25 points from those.

Casey Prather once again top-scored for the Bullets with 28 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks on 10/16 shooting from the field and 5/7 from three-point range.

James Batemon provided another 19 points, three rebounds and three assists with 5/11 three-point shooting with Tyrell Harrison contributing 14 points and four rebounds, and Keandre Cook five points and four assists.

Tohi Smith-Milner added four points and five rebounds, Rocco Zikarsky four points and four boards, Mitch Norton three points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, Emmett Naar two points, and Isaac White two points.

Jaylen Adams finished with 32 points, four assists and four steals for Sydney with fellow former MVP Xavier Cooks contributing 25 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, and Kouat Noi 13 points and six boards.

The Bullets have been playing with great confidence the last three games and kept that momentum rolling into Sydney on Sunday starting with baskets to Casey Prather and Tyrell Harrison.

James Batemon, Prather and Mitch Norton then knocked down three balls too to make it a 13-6 advantage before that soon became 20-11 including Prather making another from behind the arc.

However, by quarter-time the scores were all square at 25-25 and even though the Kings managed to open up a five-point lead, the Bullets responded with three consecutive three balls from Keandre Cook, Batemon and Prather.

That saw Brisbane back up by four before the hot shooting continued with triples to Batemon, Prather and Batemon again as the lead got out to as much as four just before half-time.

A sloppy finish to the half did cut that lead to 54-48 but there was a lot to like what the Bullets were doing including going 11/18 from deep with Prather and Batemon combining for 9/12 for 34 points between them.

Then after Sydney scored the first six points of the second half as well, Brisbane steadied and three-pointers to Prather and Tohi Smith-Milner shortly before three quarter-time made the margin nine once more.

The Bullets were still up 73-66 heading into the fourth and then the lead was nine when Harrison opened the final quarter scoring but things really went cold from there.

Sydney scored the game's next 15 points to take a six-point lead before it was Harrison who scored again for the Bullets to stop the run and bring his team back within four.

However, the Kings had the momentum and scored the next six points to lead by 10 and even after two points each from Prather and Batemon, the Bullets couldn’t get back into it with Sydney winning by 12.

The Bullets are now back to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday night to play host to the Cairns Taipans before then playing in Adelaide against the 36ers on Christmas Eve.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

BRISBANE BULLETS 81 (Prather 28, Batemon 19, Harrison 14)

SYDNEY KINGS 93 (Adams 29, Cooks 25, Noi 13)

BOX SCORE