Bullets open NBL24 season with a win

The Brisbane Bullets shook off a horror start to open NBL24 to take charge for much of the rest of the evening on Friday at Nissan Arena to beat the Adelaide 36ers 86-71.

New Hostplus Head Coach Justin Schueller couldn’t have had a nightmare worse than giving up the first 15 points in his debut in charge, but the Bullets soon stemmed the tide and would give the packed Nissan Arena crowd plenty to cheer about the rest of the night.

After conceding those first 15 points of the game, Brisbane outscored Adelaide 86 to 56 the rest of the way including opening up a 15-point lead late in the third quarter, and won by 15 having scored the last 10 points.

The most impressive aspect for the Bullets was the strong contributions they got right across the board. Nathan Sobey top-scored with 18 points while fellow Olympian Aron Baynes impressed with 12 points and 13 rebounds, but it was far from a two-man show.

Chris Smith ended up with 15 points and four rebounds, Sam McDaniel 13 points and 11 boards, Shannon Scott nine points and seven assists, and Tyrell Harrison six points, nine rebounds and four blocks.

Isaac White (four points), Mitch Norton (four points, four rebounds) and DJ Mitchell (three points, two boards) all had their moments too as did Next Star Rocco Zikarsky with a huge put back slam and block on Jacob Wiley in the final minute.

Isaac Humphries top-scored for Adelaide with 17 points and seven rebounds with Jacob Wiley adding 15 points, nine boards and five assists, and Sunday Dech 13 points and six rebounds.

While there was reason to expect a hot start given the pre-season form of the Bullets, the Sixers arrived at Nissan Arena with a chip on their shoulder and delivered a stunning start to score the game's opening 15 points.

That all happened inside the first two and-a-half minutes and while the 0-15 scoreline looked ugly for the Bullets, the reality was they missed some gimmes around the rim and made some careless turnovers, but it was all quickly fixable.

Brisbane's first score was a pair of free-throws to Aron Baynes and then after the team missed the first nine field goals, it was Baynes who scored at the rim after just over three minutes.

From there, Brisbane worked back into the game and some buckets to Shannon Scott, Ty Harrison, Nathan Sobey and Baynes, and an and-one from Chris Smith, and the margin was back to 10 after one.

It became the Sobey show to start the second quarter scoring seven straight points including a spectacular two-handed dunk.

That had the Bullets back within two and eventually it was a thunderous dunk from Harrison on the perfect pass from Scott that gave Brisbane a first lead in the game with 1:30 to go in the half.

A four-point play from Smith ensured the Bullets still led 41-40 at the break and then started the second half perfectly with a triple from DJ Mitchell.

Smith then scored five quick points, Scott added another and all of a sudden the Brisbane lead was nine. It got to double-figures shortly after with a triple from Scott, got to 15 with another three from Sam McDaniel and was still 12 at three quarter-time.

Adelaide did start the fourth period with dunks from Isaac Humphries and Trentyn Flowers before a quick timeout from Bullets coach Justin Schueller.

The Sixers scored first out of the timeout too to cut the Brisbane lead to six but the home team got a steadying dunk from Harrison thanks to the set up pass from Sobey.

The Sixers kept things close down the stretch but could never get closer than four with Sobey sealing the deal with a strong and-one play.

The Bullets delivered the first up 15-point win to start NBL24 with 7'3 17-year-old Rocco Zikarsky putting the icing on the cake late with a huge dunk and block in his debut.

The Bullets hit the road to open Round 2 of the NBL up against the New Zealand Breakers on Thursday before being back at Nissan Arena on Saturday to host the Cairns Taipans.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 1

BRISBANE BULLETS 86 (Sobey 18, Smith 15, McDaniel 13)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 71 (Humphries 17, Wiley 15, Dech 13)