Bullets ready for Kings after big home win

The Brisbane Bullets now prepare for what coach Stu Lash has labelled their biggest game of the season after their best NBL26 showing with Jaylen Adams facing the Sydney Kings and Tristan Devers excited for his back court challenge.

The Bullets produced their best offensive performance of the season in their first home win at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Thursday going on to beat the Cairns Taipans by 28 points.

They put up 113 points with 57 and 56 across the two halves while shooting 55 per cent from the field, 39 per cent from deep and also getting to the foul line 22 times while having 21 assists to just eight turnovers, and pulling down 12 offensive rebounds.

There were plenty of contributors too with seven players scoring eight points or more and while Tyrell Harrison (21 points, eight rebounds) and Casey Prather (21 points, 10 boards) dominated, they didn’t have to carry the load.

Taine Murray (16 points), Alex Ducas (13), Devers (eight) and debutant import Dakota Mathias (11) all fired too including combining to shoot 10/22 from three-point territory.

Coach Lash felt it all started for their offence at the defensive end.

"What it comes back to is that it helps when you're not taking the ball out of the basket," Lash said.

"When we can get stops and we can play with a little bit of pace and get into our actions, and are purposeful, then we're confident we can get the type of looks that we want.

"I will always go back to the defensive end and I tell these guys all the time, if you can get stops and we can rebound and get out and play, you all own the offence.

"We're not going to call plays every single time from the sidelines, they own the huddles and figure out what they want to run, and we go into a game with scripted action that we think will work well against our opponent.

"And we want to give these guys freedom to go out and figure it out."

Now following their most complete performance of the season on Thursday, the Bullets remain at home to host the Kings on Saturday night with the chance to win consecutive games for the first time in NBL26.

It doubles with the first time former league MVP Jaylen Adams will play against the Kings since joining the Bullets. Lash has no doubt he's ready for the occasion coming off his 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds against the Snakes.

"I'm sure he's ready and he won't say much, but he's a competitor and he knows who's coming into town," Lash said.

"He and I spent a lot of time this week talking about the mindset that he needs to put himself in for a game and what we need from him on the defensive end, and I thought today that was really evident.

"It was probably his best game all season just from picking up the ball in the back court, and being active and aggressive. I had a feeling like he was going to have a really solid game tonight to build into Saturday night."

One revelation so far this season for the Bullets has been 20-year-old guard Devers who has now started in the past five matches with the team +24 in that stretch while having won three of them.

He has been given the biggest back court defensive jobs while also had to take on the ball carrying duties. He's looking forward to another challenge on Saturday night with Matthew Dellavedova and Kendric Davis from Sydney.

"It comes back to the trust from the guys and Stu talking to me, and DMac and Vandy as well, and everyone is showing me that they really trust me," Devers said.

"I think that gives me a lot of confidence and I just try to be as tough as I can defensively, and that gives me a lot of confidence on the offensive end and it's a credit to the guys for giving me that trust to start with.

"It's definitely going to be a good challenge again now on Saturday and putting nerves aside, seeing it as a good challenge is going to be beneficial for me.

"It's all about getting to the scout, trusting the coaches and what they want me to do on them, and I'm looking forward to it."