Preview: NBL25 R14 Home v Illawarra Hawks

The Brisbane Bullets went into Christmas on a high with a win in Adelaide and now are back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday night looking to keep their form going against the NBL leading Illawarra Hawks.

It shapes as a tantalising Friday night match up at the Entertainment Centre with two of the hottest teams in the NBL doing battle with the Bullets having won five of their past six matches, and the Hawks now on a four-game winning streak.

Brisbane is fresh off a terrific 111-90 victory back on Christmas Eve in Adelaide against the 36ers which improved the Bullets to a 9-8 record on the season to be above .500 for the first time in NBL25.

That means that the Bullets have won five of their past six matches and in all of five of those wins they have scored in triple-figures with an average of 111.6 points.

There was a lot to like in the win in Adelaide too even with James Batemon joining Deng Adel and Jarred Bairstow sidelined through injury with Casey Prather delivering another 26 points, Keandre Cook 24, Isaac White 22 and Tyrell Harrison 14 to go with 14 rebounds.

It's now another significant challenge at home on Friday night up against an Illawarra team sitting on top of the NBL with a 12-5 record having won four matches in-a-row themselves including beating the Sydney Kings 111-108 on Christmas night.

The Hawks are having no trouble scoring either having scored 100-plus points in each of their past six matches and averaging 111.2 points across that stretch.

Considering the Bullets are averaging 111.6 points in their past five wins and the Hawks 111.2 in their last six games, it sets the stage for quite the entertaining and exciting Friday night match up.

Bullets coach Justin Schueller wanted to make sure his team enjoyed Christmas following their win on Tuesday night in Adelaide before refocusing on the challenge that likes ahead with Illawarra.

"Absolutely I wanted the guys to enjoy Christmas and we've got a lot of first time dads this year so that needs to be the priority to spend that time with family," Schueller said.

"We spoke about how a big one in this one was about our brotherhood, and how our connection is within the group and then doing it for our families on Christmas Eve when we aren't with them.

"We got back home and spent the day with our families and then started to refocus on Illawarra. Right now it's either game days or practice days at this time of the year, but we're looking forward to being back home and for the challenge of the Hawks."

White stepped up in the absence of Batemon for the Bullets in Adelaide on Tuesday night where he earned the first start of his 127-game NBL career.

Not only that, but he set a new career-high with 22 points in the win including 18 to his name by early in the second quarter before he was able to enjoy Christmas back in his hometown ahead of turning his focus on preparing to face the Hawks on Friday.

"I got to spend most of Christmas day in Adelaide which was excellent so that was all about seeing as much family as I could before catching two flights to get back to Brisbane and my teammate Emmett Naar picked me up and our plan was to watch prison break all night," White said.

"The Hawks are a red hot team right now and we played them a long time ago, but we're a different team to that now.

"The focus is just on us and night on night out you'll come up against a potent offensive team so it's just about how you go about it.

"Right now the focus is on us and keeping on putting out a good product, and keeping teams to as close to 80 or 90 as we can, and going from there."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Illawarra Hawks

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Friday 27 December, 2024

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo