Preview: NBL24 Indigenous Round v SE Melbourne at Nissan Arena

The Brisbane Bullets delivered a tremendous double win weekend in Round 5 and now will look to keep that momentum going to open the NBL's Indigenous Round on Thursday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix at Nissan Arena.

The Bullets hit back from four consecutive losses to produce an outstanding pair of performances last weekend to beat the Wildcats in Perth first up on Friday and then to back it up beating the JackJumpers at Nissan Arena on Sunday.

That improves the Bullets to a 4-4 record on the season and now to begin Indigenous Round they will play host to the Phoenix on Thursday night with the added boost of Olympian Aron Baynes back into the line-up.

It is a significant test for Brisbane with South East Melbourne having now won four straight matches themselves to sit in second spot on the table at 5-3 so it sets up a terrific contest between two in-form and confident outfits.

While the Bullets have every reason to be feeling good coming into Thursday night's game on the back of the Round 5 wins against the Wildcats and JackJumpers, Sobey is fully aware they can't get too ahead of themselves against an also in-form Phoenix.

"It was a good week for the boys and it's what we expect of ourselves, we just have to keep grinding and chipping away at it, and we turn the page now to get ready for this next game," Sobey said.

"We obviously want to build on that momentum but if you get too high on the high off those two wins we had, you can end up going back to square one as well.

"You just need to stay on a steady line, and we'll learn from it and use what we thought worked well and continue to work on that. We also can't ride it too high and have South East come in and do to us again what they did last time so we have to be ready to go."

Last time the Bullets did play the Phoenix was only back on October 21 and that was a night to forget in Melbourne with a 23-point loss. Sobey and his teammates are primed for the chance to get a measure of revenge now on Thursday night at Nissan Arena.

"They really did get the best of us that game and came out and hit us first, and I don’t think we did a great job of just playing the way we want to play over the course of the 40 minutes," Sobey said.

"We did have patches but it's not good enough in this league to just do it in patches, you've got to do it for the full game and that will be our biggest thing this game. We have to come out and be ready to execute our game plan for the whole time."

Sobey is in some outstanding form over the opening eight games of the season averaging 21.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game. He's fresh of 28 points in Sunday's win also at Nissan Arena against the JackJumpers.

It's all on the back of Sobey being back to full health and having had a brilliant off-season leading the Ipswich Force to a first ever NBL1 North championship. He's just enjoying being part of a team that's all pulling in the right direction.

"I always try to play the game the same way and that's as hard as I can. Sometimes you make more shots than others, but it's just been teammates getting me in the rights spots and making me be effective. That's pretty much it," he said.

"I definitely put in a lot of work with the body with our strength and high performance team, and that’s obviously one of the main factors, but also just having Justin come in.

"We all know our roles really well and we know where we're getting our shots from and everything, so it's been pretty straightforward so far this season."

Sobey is looking forward to welcoming back not only his Bullets teammate Baynes, but also the big man he went to the Tokyo Olympics with to play with the Boomers and ultimately come home with a bronze medal.

He has no doubt the big man will be chomping at the bit to make his return and to lock horns with the Phoenix and their in-form centre Alan Williams.

"He's keen to get back out there obviously, it's been five games now so we're just keen to get him back on board and get him back amongst it. We're looking forward to having him back out there," Sobey said.

"I think you'll just see Baynesy be himself. He's just going to play basketball and that's what he does, and he's really good at it. We're just pumped to get him back out there and for what he can bring to us, and to help continue to get us to the next level."

Hostplus Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller is looking forward to having Baynes back in the line-up on Thursday night, but doesn’t want to upset the apple cart and will stick with the same starting five – Mitch Norton, Sam McDaniel, Sobey, Josh Bannan and Tyrell Harrison.

"It's an exciting one for him to be back and i guess through this period we've had to learn to live without him. He can be such a value add for us and that's what we're excited about," Schueller said.

"He's going to be a huge impact for us especially in this game where they also have genuine size at the five.

"Tyrell is going to set the table for us but our discussions with Baynesy is about how he can impact winning when he comes in. The fact that he's willing to do that and wants to do that is a great thing for us. We've won two games in-a-row with this starting line-up so we're going to keep it rolling."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs South East Melbourne Phoenix

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Thursday 2 November, 2023

Where: Nissan Arena

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo

Listen: SEN Q Radio