Bullets fall in high-scoring affair with Kings

DJ Mitchell, Rocco Zikarsky and Tyrell Harrison all stepped up to fight valiantly up front for the Brisbane Bullets at Nissan Arena on Friday night but the Sydney Kings had too much firepower to win 113-102.

The Bullets started their Round 3 NBL24 double-header looking to bounce back from the first loss of the season to the Cairns Taipans last Saturday night. But being without Aron Baynes and injured Josh Bannan was always going to make things tough against the champions of the past two seasons.

Sydney then shot the lights out with 10 three-pointers in the first half and 16 for the night while piling on 113 points at 53 per cent shooting from the field.

While the Bullets couldn’t quite match them, they also never gave up the fight and kept on coming right to the final buzzer closing a 22-point deficit to start the fourth quarter to just 11 by the final buzzer.

The offensive numbers weren’t bad at all for the Bullets shooting at 49 per cent from the floor and making 13/34 from three-point range and being able to put 102 points on the board is an encouraging sign that things are flowing at that end.

Nathan Sobey once again top-scored for Brisbane with 26 points and seven rebounds with Chris Smith impressive too nailing 5/12 from downtown for 21 points.

In the absence of Baynes and Bannan, it was the others in the front court who impressed with DJ Mitchell landing 4/6 from three-point range for 16 points along with five assists and two steals.

Tyrell Harrison also produced 12 points and four rebounds with 17-year-old Next Star Rocco Zikarsky contributing six points, four rebounds and a block in almost 13 minutes.

Shannon Scott  had 11 assists, six rebounds and four steals. Sam McDaniel added four points, four rebounds and two assists for the Bullets,

The MVP of two seasons ago, Jaylen Adams, top-scored for Sydney with 26 points with Alex Toohey adding 18, Jaylin Galloway 16, Denzel Valentine 15, Kouat Noi 14 and Jonah Bolden 12.

After giving up the first 15 points to Adelaide and seven to Cairns in the first two home games of the season, it was a better start for the Bullets this time around including an early three-pointer to Chris Smith.

When Nathan Sobey also hit from downtown Brisbane was leading 10-7 before Rocco Zikarsky came in and had an immediate impact with the putback slam.

Sam McDaniel, DJ Mitchell and Mitch Norton all finished the opening period with three-pointers for Brisbane but Sydney was on fire too and went into the quarter-time huddle leading 29-25.

Mitchell and Smith hit three-pointers early in the second period for the Bullets too but the longer the quarter went and the Kings just were on fire.

By half-time, Sydney had knocked down 10 three-pointers as a team and were shooting at 53 per cent as a team with four players in double-figures to take a 56-42 advantage into the locker room.

Brisbane did start the second half strongly and it was the big man combination of Tyrell Harrison and Zikarsky doing plenty of good work. Then when Mitchell landed again from downtown, it was just an eight-point ball game midway through the third stanza.

However, Sydney shot away again and scored the next 11 points capped off by a triple from Kouat Noi and by three quarter-time it was the defending champions leading 85-67.

While the Kings lead blew out to 22 early in the fourth after three balls to Jonah Bolden and Jaylin Galloway, the Bullets weren’t giving up the ghost and scored the next eight points capped off by the fourth triple of the night from Mitchell.

Sydney might have again pushed out to an 18-point lead soon after, but Brisbane kept on fighting the game out and a 12-3 run had them back within nine to send a scare into the Kings.

Brisbane couldn’t quite get closer than that but continuing to fight was a good sign ahead of travelling to Melbourne to take on United at John Cain Arena on Sunday afternoon.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

BRISBANE BULLETS 102 (Sobey 26, Smith 21, Mitchell 16) 

SYDNEY KINGS 113 (Adams 26, Toohey 18, Galloway 16)

BOX SCORE