Preview | R6 Away v Illawarra Hawks

The Brisbane Bullets have their first road double of NBL27 in Round 6 and back up now on Saturday to take on the Illawarra Hawks looking to get back to a .500 record.

The Bullets started the road trip on Thursday night in Hobart and now back up at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Saturday with the game tipping off at 4:30pm Brisbane time.

Both the Bullets and Hawks are coming off playing earlier in the round and attempting to bounce back from losses.

Brisbane lost at MyState Bank Arena to the Tasmania JackJumpers by 21 points while Illawarra lost at home to the defending champion Sydney Kings on Thursday night by 26 points.

That leaves the Bullets sitting on a 3-4 record coming into the Saturday match up while the Hawks are 2-7.

The Bullets were playing without Tyrell Harrison, Jacob Holt, Sam McDaniel and Arnas Velička against the JackJumpers on Wednesday, but did receive a significant boost with the inclusion of Raul Neto and return of Taine Murray.

Three-time Olympian Neto impressed in his NBL debut with nine points and six assists in almost 14 minutes of playing time while Murray was a handy inclusion with eight points and two rebounds in his first game of the season.

Bullets coach Will Weaver enjoyed the chance to get to Wollongong on Thursday and watch the Hawks play against the Sydney Kings to get ready for the Saturday night match up.

"We've had a good battle against them already this year and obviously our team's looking a little different to that, and so is theirs looking a little different," Weaver said.

"Each day that goes by I think we're going to get better at coping with the ins and outs, and figuring out how to best position ourselves to win basketball games.

"But the opportunity we have to get over there, watch them play Sydney and get a good bit of recovery in is an opportunity that we're excited about."

The two teams have already played one another once in this NBL season with the Bullets beating the Hawks 103-95 in an entertaining affair at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre back on September 25 in a Round 2 match up.

On that occasion, Max Mackinnon produced a breakout performance for the Bullets with 31 points and 12 rebounds with Harrison adding 17 points, five boards and four assists, Velička 17 points and 11 assists, Nate Hinton 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Holt 12 points and four boards.

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Illawarra Hawks

Tip off: 4:30pm (AEST), Saturday 24 October, 2026

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre (Wollongong)

Watch: ESPN via 9Now, 9GO, Foxtel, Kayo and Disney+