Preview: R19 'Home' v Adelaide 36ers

The Brisbane Bullets have to quickly shake off losing at home on Monday night to now travel to the Gold Coast to take on the league-leading Adelaide 36ers in an Ignite Cup presented by Disney+ match up.

The Bullets take on the top-of-the-table 36ers at Gold Coast Sport and Leisure Centre on Wednesday night with the game beginning at 6:30pm Queensland time in what is now the fifth last game of the season.

The game on Wednesday night will also be the second time the Bullets have played a home at the Gold Coast Sport and Leisure Centre this season and they will be looking for an improved showing on last time when they suffered a 29-point defeat at the hands of the New Zealand Breakers.

The game is also an Ignite Cup presented by Disney+ contest and even though the Bullets can no longer reach the final that will be played back at the Gold Coast on February 22, the 36ers can secure their place.

With seven points on offer, the Sixers are currently in third place with 15 points behind the New Zealand Breakers (20) and Melbourne United (15.5).

They will be guaranteed of playing in the final by claiming five points on Wednesday night so that would be winning the game and outscoring the Bullets in two of the quarters.

However, both the Perth Wildcats and South East Melbourne Phoenix can still make it depending on what happens with Adelaide when they play one another later on Wednesday night.

For the Bullets, the challenges now don't get any easier against a 36ers team still sitting on top of the NBL despite having lost three of their past four matches including in Sydney to the Kings on Sunday before coming to the Gold Coast.

The Bullets can take heart from the last meeting when they were leading the Sixers at half-time back on January and despite Adelaide ending up winning by 11 points, there was a lot to like in the fighting effort from Brisbane.

Coach Darryl McDonald is now looking for a similarly strong showing this time on Wednesday night and a big focus is to try to keep Bryce Cotton quiet who has averaged 27.3 points in the three games against the Bullets so far in NBL26.

"Last time we played them we was up seven at half-time and then we let Bryce get going, and that wasn’t good for us but we feel like we can play with them," McDonald said.

"Going into this game they've lost three of four and they beat New Zealand at the buzzer, and just lost to Sydney so they're trying to finish top spot but we have to go in there and just try to put on as much scoreboard pressure as we can to give ourselves a chance to win.

"But Bryce is the guy and if we can do a good job on him then that's the difference because in every game we've played them he's pretty much got off on us.

"So if we can do a little better job on him and make other guys beat us, and I'm not saying they can't, but let's not lose because of Bryce and he had 18 in the third quarter last time we played them so we have to try to do something with him.

"But they're the top team for a reason and they've got Cheatham, they've got Humphries, their bench group is solid with Vasiljevic and now they've just signed John Jenkins who just lets it fly.

"We've got our work cut out for us but we just have to do our recovery, we need to get our bodies right because this is the group that we're playing with, and just go down to the Gold Coast and take a swing."

Following Monday night's loss to the Hawks, McDonald is just calling on his available players to stick together and just go out and give their all again against the 36ers on Wednesday night on the Gold Coast.

There won't be any relief on the personnel front with the returns of Tyrell Harrison, Alex Ducas and Sam McDaniel not expected until the following Friday, but McDonald just wants to see his players leaving everything out on the court.

"I've gotta come up with something, that's not us you know what I mean and we can't go down like that and get disappointed, and then the negativity on the bench creeps in because stuff's not going our way," McDonald said.

"I need to stamp that in the butt and get that out of the group because that hasn’t been us, and we can't be up and about and great when things are going well, and then as soon as it's not going well, become negative and that's what I don’t want.

"It's just about playing hard, man, when you're out there and if we can sneak some wins here and there, let's do it, but it's also staying together and that's another thing," McDonald said.

"It's easy to disperse and for everyone to go on their own way, and that's one thing I don't see with our group and we have a group that's been good, everyone gets along and we stick together, but it's hard because we don't get a lot of opportunity to train because we don't have bodies.

"There's a lot of walk throughs with what we're doing because we're trying to salvage bodies and keep guys on the floor you know what I mean, but it's really about staying together and continuing to pull for each other.

"Hopefully something good happens, but you have to leave here knowing that you played every possession like it was your last."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Adelaide 36ers

Tip off: 4:30pm (AEST), Wednesday 28 January, 2026

Where: Gold Coast Sport and Leisure Centre

Tickets: Available Here

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