Preview: NBL26 R13 Home v NZ Breakers

The Brisbane Bullets are back to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Monday night looking to reward the loyal fans and members with an improved performance ahead of Christmas against the New Zealand Breakers.

The Bullets fell to a seventh straight defeat on Saturday night with the 29-point defeat in Melbourne at the hands of the South East Melbourne Phoenix in what was the first game in charge for interim head coach Darryl McDonald.

There wasn’t the ultimate boost that sometimes comes from a change in coach, but McDonald now gets his chance to put an imprint in his first home game on Monday night.

The Bullets have struggled at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre so far this season winning just one of seven games in the venue this season, but Monday does provide a chance to reward the fans, members and sponsors that continue to loyally show up.

The challenge ahead of the Bullets is a Breakers team also looking to bounce back from a loss on Friday night in Cairns where they were on the receiving end of a career-best 47-point outburst from Jack McVeigh.

That leaves both the Bullets and Breakers fighting to stay in touch of sixth position with Brisbane coming into the game with a 5-14 record while New Zealand are just ahead at 7-12.

The two teams have already played one another three times so far in NBL26 including the first two in New Zealand where the Bullets won first up 104-95 and then backed it up with the stunning comeback 84-83 victory on October 23.

The Breakers did get a measure of revenge on the Bullets in their more recent clash on November 12 on the Gold Coast when the visitors scored the 113-84 victory.

It has been fascinating across those three matches to watch the battle of Tall Blacks centres as well with Brisbane's Tyrell Harrison averaging 17.0 points and 11.3 rebounds while Sam Mennenga is putting up 22.0 points and 6.7 rebounds for the Breakers.

The Bullets are already without injured trio Casey Prather, Dakota Mathias and Lamar Patterson, and then to compound matters in Saturday night's loss to the Phoenix, Sam McDaniel aggravated a foot complaint and Taine Murray hurt an ankle.

Both will be in a race against time to be available to play for the Bullets against the Breakers on Monday night, but either way, McDonald remains confident that things can be turned around.

"We've got another game coming up and we've just got to get ready for Monday with the short turnaround," McDonald said.

"There'll be a little bit of a review from this game and we've got to move on to New Zealand who are coming in and are one of the teams we're fighting for in that sixth spot.

"All is not lost and we still feel like we have a chance and the league is that close with Illawarra losing today and you have all these games coming up so there's an opportunity to sneak in there.

"We just have to get a win under our belt."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs New Zealand Breakers

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Monday 22 December, 2025

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel, Disney+, Kayo and Fetch