Preview: NBL26 R14 Home v Melbourne United

The Brisbane Bullets got a first win under the coaching of Darryl McDonald in style leading into Christmas and now will try to back that up again at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday against Melbourne United.

The Bullets were able to head into Christmas with some positivity after snaping a seven-game losing streak with a terrific performance back on Monday night against the New Zealand Breakers.

Brisbane recorded the 99-85 victory to improve to a 6-14 record on the season to stay in touch of sixth position to earn a Play-In berth and now the Bullets will look to back it after Christmas.

The Bullets are back home at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday night to play host to the third placed United who arrive looking to recapture some of their early season form as well.

The game is the lone NBL fixture for Saturday and will tip-off at 7pm Queensland time.

It's a Melbourne team that Brisbane have had trouble against for a number of years now and United have won 15 of the last 16 games against the Bullets.

That include two previous meetings already this season with the first back on October 17 at the Entertainment Centre with United beating the Bullets 95-86.

The more recent encounter was on November 15 in Melbourne and it was a tight battle with United ending up prevailing 99-93.

While the Bullets come into the Saturday night match up fresh off a win, Melbourne arrives having lost four of their past five matches including a 19-point defeat back on Tuesday on their home floor to the Tasmania JackJumpers.

While the Bullets will still be without Taine Murray with an ankle injury on Saturday night, his New Zealand Tall Blacks teammates Finn Delany and Shea Ili also won't be there for United while Sam McDaniel is a game time decision to play for Brisbane.

Coming off Monday night's win and the encouraging signs McDonald saw in the way the players responded and performed, the interim coach sees no reason why it now can't continue moving forward as well to stay in the hunt for a top six spot.

"I'm never going to give up on anything and I don't like to lose, I just hate losing and when you look at the league, the league is very, very close except for maybe the top three or four if you add Sydney in there now," McDonald said.

"But after that, the league is close, man, and we've got games against some of those teams and if we can get wins, and give them losses, it can help us.

"I'm definitely not counting it out and early on, maybe, but right now once you get a win it kinda helps you and gives you a little bit more confidence.

"We've still got a tough schedule coming up, we've got Melbourne, we have Sydney, we've got Perth and Adelaide so that's four top teams but if we can steal a couple out of those you never know what can happen."

Meanwhile, United coach Dean Vickerman has a long history with McDonald including having him as an assistant coach through a period of great success ahead of their first battle as head coaches this time around come Saturday night.

"Every game's important in this league and if you come off a poor performance, you want to respond and I thought they (Brisbane) played with great passion the other night and we're going to need a lot of that to make sure we go up there and put in a great performance," Vickerman said.

"I'm happy for him (McDonald) in the way he got his team to play the other night and he's a champion at our club so I'm always excited to go and compete against DMac."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Melbourne United

Tip off: 7:00pm (AEST), Saturday 27 December, 2025

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

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