Preview: NBL26 R6 Home v SE Melbourne Phoenix

For the second straight week the Brisbane Bullets are back home fresh off a stirring road win and this Saturday afternoon they play host to the South East Melbourne Phoenix at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

Last week the Bullets produced a brilliant all-round performance to beat the Wildcats in Perth, and then delivered a strong showing back at home on Friday night to push the undefeated Melbourne United more than perhaps any other team has so far in NBL26.

It's now a similar schedule for the Bullets this week having played in New Zealand on Thursday night ahead of returning to host South East Melbourne this Saturday as part of the NBL Indigenous Round with the game at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre tipping off at 4:30pm.

Brisbane return home for the first of three straight games on a high following a stunning comeback victory against the Breakers in Auckland on Thursday night.

The Bullets found themselves 24 points behind during the second quarter, but were able to dominate the second half outscoring the breakers 45 points to 26 for the one-point win to now improve to a 3-5 record on the season.

There was a lot to like in that performance including Casey Prather finishing with 23 points and 12 rebounds, Lamar Patterson 20 points and six boards, Jaylen Adams 14 points and five assists, and Taine Murray 10 points and five rebounds.

Tristan Devers also did a standout defensive job on Parker Jackson-Cartwright while Tyrell Harrison was a powerful force inside as the Bullets now attempt to score their first home win of NBL26 on Saturday.

The Phoenix arrive in Brisbane also having played on Thursday night where they defeated the Sydney Kings 112-95 in a strong all-round showing to have now won their past two matches by a combined 57 points for a 4-2 record.

Having been through a similar scenario last week with the win in Perth on Wednesday and coming home to play Melbourne on Friday, Bullets coach Stu Lash isn’t too worried about how his team will handle the quick turnaround especially on the high from Thursday's win.

"We'll ride the momentum of being .500 on the road right now and having a three-game home stand," Lash said.

"I don't think we've been home for that long since training camp so there's a lot of excitement to get in front of our fans at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, and to play in front of our family.

"We've been ships in the night with them a little bit with all the travel so we wanted to get this one real bad before going home, and threw everything we had at it. We'll deal with Saturday now when we get to Saturday."

Harrison had a fascinating battle with his Tall Blacks teammate Sam Mennenga on Thursday night in the win over the Breakers, and finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.

He also secured the win for the Bullets with the two hits off the rim on the last two shot attempts for New Zealand on the final possession as he continued his standout season so far.

Harrison is averaging 16.9 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.0 blocks a game this season on 70 per cent field goal shooting, and he couldn’t be prouder of the fight that this Bullets group continues to show.

"We've had a pretty interesting start to the season with all these injuries but with all of these key players going down for us, we've had some chats as a team and everyone is just taking that one per cent forward and stepping up to fill in those missing player's shoes," Harrison said.

"We want to go out there and play super physical, and really test other teams and that's something that we haven’t done for a while I feel like. Then again, I'm super proud of the boys in the second half and how we go our way about how we play really, and I'm proud of the boys."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs South East Melbourne Phoenix

Tip off: 4:30pm (AEST), Saturday 25 October, 2025

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

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