Preview: NBL24 Round 12 v NZ Breakers at Nissan Arena

The Brisbane Bullets will look to build some momentum post-Christmas and for the second half of the NBL season starting on Wednesday night at Nissan Arena hosting the New Zealand Breakers.

The Wednesday night contest is a significant one for both teams as the race towards a play-in position in NBL24 ramps up and both the Bullets and Breakers are attempting to break into one of those top six positions.

Brisbane currently sits with a 7-10 record to be just behind the sixth placed Cairns Taipans who are 8-10 while New Zealand is just a game back at 6-9 highlighting the importance of the match up.

The Bullets come into the contest on their home floor having lost their previous three matches, but since a tough road loss to Melbourne United, the last two games leading into Christmas were only narrow defeats at home to the Taipans and away to the Adelaide 36ers.

The Breakers, meanwhile, have now won their past two matches against the Taipans and Sydney Kings while having welcomed back Brisbane local Will McDowell-White into the line-up, and being able to unleash Zylan Cheatham after a fractured leg.

Wednesday night's game will be the second meeting between the two teams this season with the first meeting coming back in Round 2 of the season with Brisbane scoring the tremendous 89-84 victory in Auckland.

On that occasion, Bullets captain Nathan Sobey top-scored with 24 points to go with eight rebounds and five assists while Shannon Scott contributed 17 points and four assists, Tyrell Harrison 12 points and eight rebounds, and Aron Baynes 11 points and three boards.

While the Bullets didn’t quite get the win they were after on Christmas Eve in Adelaide, there was plenty to still be encouraged about with what Brisbane are building and they aren’t far away from everything clicking.

The players and coaching staff were then able to get back home to enjoy Christmas with their families, and then ramp up preparations for this clash on Wednesday night at home to the Breakers at Nissan Arena.

"This is about this club continuing to move forward and doing the things we want," said Hostplus Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller.

"We didn’t get this result but we were fortunate to play on this day in front of a sell out crowd with a great atmosphere, and then get to go home to our families and have a day with them before getting ready for New Zealand after that."

Looking back on the Christmas Eve defeat to Adelaide, the Bullets did have to play small at times even though they did continue to rotate between centres Tyrell Harrison, Aron Baynes and Rocco Zikarsky.

One of those was on the floor at all times, but the lack of a backup power forward to Josh Bannan meant that Sam McDaniel and even Chris Smith had to spend some time in that four spot.

That's something that Schueller knows will be helped with the arrival of three-time NBL champion Casey Prather even if he doesn't specifically play that four spot, but in the meantime they'll continue to make do on Wednesday night against the Breakers.

"We did keep a centre out there all night but the thing that we did struggle with, and we have all year, is that when we don’t have our two fours and Sammy Mac had to spend some minutes there," Schueller said.

"He was gassed on one possession and we did get Chris in there for a couple of possessions just to try and hold the fort.

"Johnsy got into foul trouble too and we decided not to go back there, but again we have confidence in the ability of all our guys to be able to fill in for spots and moments, and in that patch we had a sloppy turnover and were a rotation away from being where we wanted to be.

"Full credit to our boys for being able to patchwork as we've needed to until we get 12 guys back."

Bullets point guard Shannon Scott is now five games into his return from a hamstring injury that left him sidelined for six matches after a strong start to his Brisbane career after an impressive first NBL season at the Taipans.

Schueller has been happy with what Scott has been producing in patches in that point guard spot he's sharing with Mitch Norton, but just wants him to believe more in himself because he has the full faith of his teammates and coaching staff.

"It's something we continue to work on to get him to believe in how highly we think of him as a player," he said.

"We want him to be our closer, we want him to come in and just be himself as a point guard and distributor. He did find guys all night and we felt that there were times that he gave us exactly what we wanted, and had some great defensive possessions.

"We know he's going to continue to find his rhythm, and that’s on me to continue to find ways to put our players in spots where they can have the confidence to perform. That's what we'll go away and look at."

Bullets captain Nathan Sobey is fresh off a career-best scoring performance in Adelaide on Christmas Eve and while it might not quite be in time for Wednesday night's match up, he can't wait to soon call three-time NBL champion Casey Prather a teammate.

"The group can't wait for him to come in and I can't wait," Sobey said.

"He's a winner and he has won in this league three times, and we want someone with that mentality and competitiveness to come in and really hit the ground running with us. We're super excited to add him in."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs New Zealand Breakers

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Wednesday 27 December, 2023

Where: Nissan Arena

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo