Preview: NBL25 R11 Home v Adelaide 36ers

The Brisbane Bullets are back home on Friday night at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre celebrating the 1985 NBL champions, George Gervin will be in the building and they will be hunting a win over the Adelaide 36ers.

It's Heritage Round in the NBL and the Bullets will be celebrating the 1985 championship winning team who are ringing in the 40-year anniversary of that triumph with Brisbane to wear special uniforms to mark the occasion.

Not only that but the man famously known as 'The Iceman' from his 1144-game NBA career mostly at the San Antonio Spurs, who has since joined the Basketball Hall of Fame, will be on hand to watch the Bullets take on the 36ers.

Gervin is part of GameAbove Sports who have recently joined the ownership group with the Bullets and Friday night will present his first opportunity to see Brisbane in action.

The Bullets will be hosting the 36ers who is the team they beat to win the championship back in 1985 with Cal Bruton, Leroy Loggins, Murray Shiels, Bill Ward, Robert Sibley, Mark Kitching, Mark McGowan, Peter Pendle, Fred Van Dongen and Neil Hamilton-Smith all to be there on Friday too.

It's a big game in the context of the NBL season as well for the Bullets who need to return to the winner's list after a tough trip west last Friday night against the Perth Wildcats with the eventual 28-point loss.

A host of players, and coaches, fell ill when they got to Perth including Tyrell Harrison missing the game to join Tohi Smith-Milner (concussion), Jarred Bairstow (ankle), Deng Adel (hand) and Josh Bannan (ankle) on the sidelines.

At least Harrison will be right to return to the line-up for the Bullets on Friday night while the rest of the team who were unwell last week should be just about 100 per cent healthy to face the 36ers as well.

Brisbane comes into the contest sitting with a 4-7 record on the season but despite last Friday's loss in Perth, there were positives including Casey Prather's 31 points, Rocco Zikarsky starting for 13 points and eight boards, and Tristan Devers, Kye Savage and Josh Kunen scoring their first NBL points.

They now take on Adelaide for the first time this season and even though the 36ers arrive in Brisbane missing the suspended Montrezl Harrell and Kendric Davis, and with captain DJ Vasiljevic injured, they are still dangerous.

That trio might be averaging 59.4 points, 16.7 rebounds and 10.4 assists across the season, but the Sixers do still possess the likes of Jarell Martin, Isaac Humphries, Sunday Dech, Nick Marshall, Lat Mayen, and former Bullet Jason Cadee.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller knows that nobody with his team can afford to take the 36ers lightly even with their stars missing.

"It's an interesting one, they've already had one game under their belt with that different line-up and they now know who they are going to be in this stretch," Schueller said.

"The reality is they've still got star-studded talent across the floor for them with Isaac Humphries who is still one of the best bigs in the comp to go with Jarell Martin.

"We know we need to be sharp and on our game, but we do feel there's a lot of advantages for us in this one and we're looking forward to getting back to our style of play with our depth of talent especially in front of our home fans."

So far the Bullets have played just 11 games over the first 10 rounds of the NBL season, but the schedule picks up dramatically including this Friday's game with Adelaide moving straight into Sunday's away clash with Melbourne United.

Schueller has no doubt his players in particular are looking forward to that.

"Our team is looking forward to this stretch," Schueller said.

"Coaches are the only ones that like having more practice, I think the boys are looking forward to getting into the games thick and fast, and arguably our best games of the year were the Tassie-Perth double before the FIBA window which has been our only double weekend so far.

"We're hoping that once we can get back into more rhythm with extra game play that we can things going back in the direction we want to be going."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Adelaide 36ers

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Friday 6 December, 2024

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo