Preview: NBL24 Round 9 v Illawarra Hawks at Nissan Arena

The Brisbane Bullets won impressively in Cairns on Friday night and now have the chance for a double-win weekend when hosting the Illawarra Hawks on Sunday at Nissan Arena.

The Bullets have returned to action in Round 9 of the NBL after the break for the FIBA international window with two games this weekend. That began on Friday night with Brisbane coming away with the 84-79 Sunshine Stoush victory on the road to the Cairns Taipans.

That victory snapped a frustrating three-game losing run for Brisbane prior to the break which came after three consecutive wins, and each of those three defeats to Tasmania, Sydney and Perth could so easily have gone the other way.

That meant it was a long two weeks to wait to play again, but the positive was it allowed the Bullets to have a full squad available for the first time this season with the return of point guard Shannon Scott from a hamstring injury.

The result was Brisbane opening up a 20-point lead by early in the fourth quarter on Friday night and then holding out a fast-finishing Taipans team for the five-point victory to improve to a 6-7 record on the season.

The Bullets now have a fast turnaround to playing the Hawks at Nissan Arena on Sunday afternoon with the chance to make it a double-win weekend and to improve the season to a .500 record at what will be exactly the halfway point.

It's the first time that the Bullets will have played the Hawks this season and it's an Illawarra team that's challenging for Hostplus Head Coach Justin Schueller to prepare for given they could be decidedly new-look.

Prior to the FIBA break the Hawks played their first game under new coach Justin Tatum, who replaced Jacob Jackomas earlier in the week, and Illawarra came away with the 69-65 victory on the road to the New Zealand Breakers.

However, given the coaching change had only happened that same week, there was limited time for the new coach to make too many changes, but now that the Hawks have had two weeks to prepare for Sunday's game, Schueller is expecting them to come out with a somewhat new look.

"We know they haven’t had a game since they played down in New Zealand so I'm sure with Justin coming in as coach, he's probably been able to add some new things and we expect a bit of a different look about them," Schueller said.

"But to be able to go back home after this win to play on our own floor to go and put on a better performance for our fans is all that's at the front of the mind. I can't wait to get back to try and get another."

The timing of the FIBA window was mixed for the Bullets. On one hand it was good to give the bodies a rest after a hectic first 12 games of the season over the opening eight rounds.

It also provided the chance for everyone to be fully healthy and for the full squad to be available for this weekend's games for the first time this season.

However, it was also a long two weeks on the back of those losses to the JackJumpers, Kings and Wildcats where the Bullets did so much right in all three of them except for a rough last couple of minutes in each one.

For Schueller, he might have liked to make amends for that last up loss to Perth a little earlier, but in the bigger picture the two weeks was good for the Bullets and that showed in Friday night's win in Cairns over the Taipans.

"It definitely was good for the boys, we had some tired bodies and it allowed us to get fully fit for the first time we were able to have everyone on the floor," Schueller said.

"From a coaching point of view, I just wanted to keep playing because I felt like we needed to fix that one quick, but we didn’t talk about it as a break, we talked about doing what we needed to do to go from being good to great.

"We focused on getting better and having those habits that we want to have in place, and continue to work. That's the pleasing thing that we've got the reward for the extra effort we put in over that window and got a win."

After the Bullets opened up a 20-point lead early in the fourth quarter on Friday night in Cairns following three-pointers from Chris Smith and Mitch Norton, those late game demons did momentarily pop up once again.

In the final minute, the Snakes got back to within three points but in the end that was the test the Bullets needed to overcome. To have Nathan Sobey ice the game at the foul line means that Schueller hopes they can now build on it moving forward.

"We kind of felt like we needed to get through one of these again with those little demons in the back of the mind to be able to break through it now," Schueller said.

"Now that we've gone through that we know we're going to hit the ground running now and am looking forward to the continued growth from here."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Illawarra Hawks

Tip off: 3:00pm (AEST), Sunday 3 December, 2023

Where: Nissan Arena

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo

Listen: SEN Q Radio