Preview: NBL26 R20 Home v Cairns Taipans

Brisbane Bullets coach Darryl McDonald immediately shifted his team's focus after Friday night's road loss to Sunday's Sunshine Stoush with the Cairns Taipans which he wants his available players to treat like their playoff game.

Things went from bad to worse for the Bullets in Hobart on Friday night with the eventual 44-point defeat at the hands of Tasmania JackJumpers.

Already missing Tyrell Harrison, Sam McDaniel, Javon Freeman-Liberty, Terry Taylor, Casey Prather, Dakota Mathias and Lamar Patterson, the Bullets lost Tristan Devers (ankle) and Alex Ducas (achilles) to injury before half-time.

From that group, Taylor will return from his one-match suspension and both Devers and Ducas will be in a race against time to be able to hit the floor on Sunday afternoon when the Bullets are back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre against the Taipans.

The two teams are in similar positions in a lot of ways with the Bullets having now lost 10 straight to be 6-24 with the Taipans now 8-22 having lost their last couple.

Both teams also played on the road on Friday night with the Bullets suffering that heavy loss to the JackJumpers while the Snakes put in a competitive showing in Perth before ending up losing to the Wildcats by 14 points.

With Brisbane having a horror run on the injury front, Cairns will get some reprieve in that regard for Sunday's game with the return of sharpshooting guard Reyne Smith while they will be still without Sam Waardenburg, Mawot Mag and Alex Higgins-Titsha.

The Queensland rivals have already played one another three times this season with the first back on September 26 where Cairns won a thriller in the Tropical Far North 83-82.

The next clash was at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with the Bullets winning big 113-85 before the most recent contest was also at the Cairns Convention Centre with the Snakes winning a close one 88-83.

Following Friday night's tough loss in Hobart, McDonald quickly had the Bullets turn their attention to Sunday's game which they are now looking at as a chance to put in a performance in front of their home fans they deserve to see.

"They're pretty much in a similar position to us and they don't have a chance to make the playoffs, it's a bit of a rivalry game and we know we've got Perth and Sydney down the line, two teams that's already in the playoffs," McDonald said.

"So this is kind of like our playoff game, this is our final game, and we've got to come out and leave it all out on the floor on Sunday and we don’t play Perth until the following Friday so there's no excuses, man.

"You just have to give it your all for this game on Sunday and let's try to get a win at home, it's been a while."

Both teams are coming off playing on Friday night as well and the Bullets did play two hours earlier than the Taipans and the trip from Hobart to Brisbane is a little shorter than from Perth like Cairns will be doing.

So if there is any positives, at least the Bullets aren’t at a disadvantage from a travel point of view but McDonald isn’t interested in excuses no matter who's available to play.

"I think it helps but again, we're down on bodies and it is similar to them and hopefully we might be able to get guys up and ready to do," McDonald said.

"But if we don’t, whatever we go into the game with, those guys have got to come ready and be ready to play.

"We lost to them at their place early in a close one but now there are no excuses once we're going home, we have to go in there and just compete."

McDonald's biggest takeaway from Friday night's loss to the JackJumpers was that no matter who is or isn’t available to play and pull on a Bullets jersey on Sunday, they can't produce that type of performance again on their home floor.

"I'm struggling and I don’t like to lose, and it has been tough it absolutely has been, but you still gotta coach what's on the floor and see what you can get out of them," McDonald said.

"I didn’t like what I saw out there because I thought we were better than that and now that we're going home, we can't play at home like that.

"We've got fans and supporters coming to the game, and we have to put everything on the floor for them. We can't put that out there on our home court, we have to be better than that."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Cairns Taipans

Tip off: 3:30pm (AEST), Sunday 8 February, 2026

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

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