Preview: NBL25 R4 Away v SE Melbourne Phoenix

The Brisbane Bullets head to Melbourne to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday night blocking everything else out aside from focusing on producing a four quarter performance to get that first win of NBL25.

The Bullets take on the Phoenix at John Cain Arena on Saturday night in Round 4 of the NBL season with both teams in similar positions hunting for their first wins of the new campaign.

South East Melbourne has lost its first four games against the Perth Wildcats, Melbourne United, New Zealand Breakers and Adelaide 36ers while the Bullets have lost their three matches to the Breakers, Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings.

There's also the added intrigue of former captain Nathan Sobey coming up against the Bullets for the first time since joining the Phoenix, but those are anything but what Brisbane coach Justin Schueller is having his team focus on.

The Bullets scored the last 16 points of the game last Saturday night at Brisbane Entertainment Centre against the Kings and now will look to take that momentum into this week's road clash with the Phoenix.

Josh Bannan will now be playing his second game back from injury and will only continue to improve while Casey Prather is coming off his most encouraging performance of the season with Keandre Cook and James Batemon finished strongly against the Kings.

While Schueller is aware of the scenario where both the Bullets and Phoenix want their first win of the season on Saturday night, his focus for Brisbane is to keep them focused on just trying to play their best basketball and doing it for a full 40 minutes.

"We absolutely have spoken about the scenario of both teams looking for that first win, but we've focused on what we want our mindset to be," Schueller said.

"That's where we want to be hungry and not desperate, and we don’t want to be making brash decisions or be reactive.

"We want to be methodical and have that desire of how we want to compete form start to end. We know we're a good basketball team when we do that and the thing that's been the frustration so far is that we haven’t shown it for 40 minutes.

"That's for us quarter by quarter to have that mindset and approach, and if we do I feel pretty good about what we can do."

Schuller couldn’t have been happier with the week of preparation for the Bullets with the whole week spent at home following the first home game of the season on Saturday night against the Kings.

He has had a fully healthy squad to work with on the practice floor as well after a host of players battling niggles last week and then with Bannan still working his way back to return from a hand injury.

"We know we have prepared the right way and have put ourselves in a position to go and get results," Schueller said.

"What we haven’t quite found at the minute is that consistency of play, and we're not a finished product but we know the more we pound the rock and do the work that we'll get closer to ultimately what we want to do.

"I feel very good about the week we've had on the floor, but you can say whatever you want, it's the actions during the game that will speak the loudest.

"That's the part we have to put into fruition now and let our actions do the talking, and go and do what we've talked about for 40 minutes."

There will be a lot of focus on the outside leading into Saturday night's game about Sobey playing for the Phoenix against his former team for the first time, but Schueller is just worried about trying to stop him playing a match-winning role against the Bullets.

Schueller is fully aware of how dangerous Sobey can be especially in a back court alongside former Grand Final MVP Derrick Walton Jr so that's where his focus lies ahead of taking him on and the rest of the Phoenix on Saturday night.

"Sobes is an absolute talent in this league and I really enjoyed not having to come up with schemes to stop him last year," Schueller said.

"So now we're back to that and we know he'll be his usual aggressive self, and wanting to have an impact. I think he's been unfairly judged to date and we know what we'll see from Sobes, but what it is about this game that's unique is that both teams are looking for their first win.

"What we want to be about is not so much worrying about them, but focusing on us and worrying about getting better each possession and taking care of what we need to do. Because until we do that the opponent doesn’t really matter and that's been our main focus this week."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs South East Melbourne Phoenix

Tip off: 7:00pm (AEST), Saturday 12 October, 2024

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo