Preview: NBL24 Round 18 v Illawarra Hawks at WIN Entertainment Centre

The Brisbane Bullets have the opportunity to consolidate a top four spot on the NBL ladder when they take on the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday.

The Bullets have just three games remaining of the NBL24 season across the last three rounds and coming into their Round 18 game, Brisbane holds a 12-13 record to be in fourth position.

That has them right in the middle of a fascinating battle for spots in the top six behind top two teams, Melbourne United (17-7) and Perth Wildcats (16-8).

With the current finals system, the top two teams are guaranteed of being part of the semi finals leaving the teams finishing third through sixth fighting out for the right to join them.

Finishing third or fourth gives you two chances to qualify to be one of the final four teams while it's cut-throat all the way if you finish fifth or sixth.

The first opportunity to solidify their top four position presents this Saturday at the WIN Entertainment Centre with the Bullets taking on a Hawks team also locked in a battle over one of those four remaining top six positions.

Illawarra come into Saturday's match up sitting in fifth position on an 11-12 record to be hot on the heels of Brisbane heightening the stakes in the contest for both teams.

The two teams have already met twice so far this season with the Bullets having won both encounters starting with a thrilling one-point win back on December 3 at Nissan Arena thanks to a game winner from Chris Smith.

Next up was a win also at Nissan Arena for Brisbane back on January 14 with a 110-103 final scoreline with the Bullets now looking to repeat the dose in their only visit to Wollongong for the 2023/24 season.

What Hostplus Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller is hoping to see is a strong response from his team following last Friday night's 16-point home loss to the league-leading Melbourne United.

Last time the Bullets lost was on a Friday night in Perth, two days later they were in Cairns, and produced a standout performance to perform a 50-point turnaround in little over 36 hours to score the 18-point victory.

Schueller is now hoping to see a similar response this Saturday against the Hawks albeit having had eight days in between to get ready this time around.

"I want to see a response like we had after the Perth game. The two best teams right now in this league, we haven’t handled them the way we've wanted to so we need to respond," Schueller said.

"We talk about a response because there's discipline in that and how we approach it, and that's where we'll start. But we're not going to get too low on it, we know there were still some good things to take out of any game and we know that we control our own destiny.

"For us it's living in the moment and staying in that presence where we keep working on our habits, we know we're not our finished product yet and that's the exciting part.

"I know there's so much that we've got to grow with this group and we've got three weeks to get to that point, and try to put ourselves in a playoff position."

One positive to come out of last Friday's game for the Bullets against Melbourne was the increased minutes played by three-time NBL champion Casey Prather.

The reason he had to make his first start for the Bullets and play 23 minutes might not have been ideal in the absence of Josh Bannan, but he showed encouraging signs with nine points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Schueller is confident Prather will only continue to improve as he gets used to playing again after a two and-a-half year absence while he's also looking forward to having Bannan back to face the Hawks.

"We got thrown a curve ball late with Bannan being ill and it was a perfect opportunity for Case to take another step forward for us," Schueller said.

"I got in a little bit of trouble for playing him a little bit more than I was meant to, but he's definitely getting close to where there's no more restrictions on it.

"His impact is going to be great and has been great already for us. He might have fatigued late, but the way that he started the game helped set a bit of a tone for us and we expect him to keep getting better and better.

"What we need is to get our other four man back and we can feel pretty good about how we're going."

Sam McDaniel continues to prove himself one of the more versatile and important two-way players with the Bullets and he will have another significant role to play against the Hawks on Saturday.

Last time against Illawarra and he split his time guarding Hawks forward Gary Clark and guard Tyler Harvey showing just how versatile he can be, but all he's focused on is helping the team produce over the last three weeks to finish where they hope to.

"The coaches do a great job of preparing us each and every week, and getting all our bodies back for this week and the rest of us taking care of our bodies is gong to be key for these next three games," McDaniel said.

"I think we'll put our best foot forward and we can come out with a good result at the end of these three weeks as long as we do that."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Illawarra Hawks

Tip off: 4:30pm (AEST), Saturday 3 February, 2024

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo