Bullets go 2-0 with road win over Breakers

The Brisbane Bullets have started NBL24 with back-to-back wins for the first time in four seasons with Nathan Sobey starring in Thursday's 89-84 road victory against the New Zealand Breakers.

The Bullets started the season with a home victory against the Adelaide 36ers last Friday night ahead of taking on the Breakers to open Round 2 on Thursday evening in front of 6280 fans at Spark Arena.

Brisbane might have got off to a slow start, but ended up settling. Despite missing the first eight three-pointers, Shannon Scott hit two bombs before half-time to help the Bullets to a four-point lead at the break.

The Bullets were able to stay narrowly on top most of the second half too on the way to the eventual five-point victory to give Hostplus Head Coach Justin Schueller the perfect start to his time in charge.

Despite coming into the game missing DJ Mitchell, Josh Bannan and Gabe Hadley, the depth of the Bullets was again on show with contributions accross the board. They ended up outrebounding New Zealand 36 to 32, while being aggressive on offence and getting to the free-throw line 27 times to 12 was crucial in the final result.

On the back of a terrific off-season, Bullets captain Nathan Sobey has hit the ground running to start NBL24. He delivered 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Shannon Scott ran the team tremendously too with 17 points, four steals, three rebounds and three assists, with Tyrell Harrison contributing 12 points and eight boards, and Aron Baynes 11 points, three rebounds and a block.

Isaac White also had eight points while Sam McDaniel produced seven points, four rebounds and two assists, Mitch Norton five points, six assists and four boards, and Chris Smith five points and three rebounds.

The Breakers opened up an early 9-3, and then 12-5 advantage. However, just like the Bullets did last Friday, they shook off that rough opening few minutes to work back into the contest and they went on a 15-2 run to turn that seven-point deficit into a four-point lead.

Nathan Sobey gave the spark before a couple of buckets to Isaac White capped off nine straight points, and then a late basket before quarter-time to Shannon Scott had the visitors leading 26-22 after one.

After New Zealand scored six consecutive points early in the second quarter, Brisbane answered with the next seven to regain a five-point lead after a Mitch Norton finish.

New Zealand did regain the lead briefly, but despite having missed the first eight three-point attempts as a team, that changed just before half-time with Scott knocking down two of them for the Bullets.

A beautiful side ball play from coach Justin Schueller then saw Scott find Sobey for the buzzer-beating dunk and Brisbane led 48-44 at the half on the back of 51 per cent field goal shooting.

The Breakers hit the first four points of the second half but Brisbane answered with a three ball from Sobey. Not only after and the Bullets went on a 9-0 run stated with an Aron Baynes triple with Sobey scoring the next six.

The visitors were threatening to open a handy lead up seven and the lead got out to nine soon after, but the Breakers hit the last five points of the third to close the gap to four at three quarter-time.

A couple of threes from Will McDowell-White and another from  Cam Gliddon had the Breakers briefly in front early in the fourth, but Brisbane answered with the next six points starting with Sobey and four straight from Tyrell Harrison.

Norton then extended the Bullets lead to four again with 3:30 to play and Sobey scored again to grow that lead to six, but the Breakers would come again.

New Zealand closed the gap back to one before a free-throw for the Bullets to Scott and then the biggest shot of the night was a catch and shoot long two from Chris Smith to put Brisbane back up four with 12.7 seconds to go.

A great defensive play from Sam McDaniel then saw the Bullets get a stop and Smith iced the game at the foul line for the five-point win.

The Bullets now return straight home to play host to the Cairns Taipans at Nissan Arena on Saturday. 

TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR BRISBANE BULLETS VS CAIRNS TAIPANS HERE

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 2

BRISBANE BULLETS 89 (Sobey 24, Scott 17, Harrison 12)

NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 84 (Jackson-Cartwright 20, McDowell-White 19, Cheatham 17)