Preview | R7 Home v Cairns

The Sunshine Stoush comes to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre for the first time in NBL27 with the Bullets back home and looking to continue to build in NBL27 as they play host to the in-form Cairns Taipans.

The Bullets return home on a high after a big win in Wollongong against the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday night as they host a Taipans team also playing good basketball of late.

The two Queensland rivals do battle at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Thursday night with tip-off set for 7pm in what is the start of a Round 7 double for each team.

The Bullets are back home having split their road games last weekend but finished on a high with the 98-81 victory against the Hawks that sees them improve to a 4-4 record on the season.

The Taipans, meanwhile, now sit on a 5-4 record and they are fresh off a thrilling home win against the New Zealand Breakers on Sunday that now sees them having won four of their past five matches.

It's the second Sunshine Stoush match up between the two teams so far in NBL27 with the first clash taking place in Cairns back on October 8.

That saw the Taipans end up prevailing 97-91 but it was night where the Bullets did plenty right including a breakout performance from Nate Hinton with 30 points and six rebounds while Tyrell Harrison dominated with 23 points and 18 boards.

Hinton and the Bullets already played the Taipans in the pre-season and then back in Round 4 of this season in Cairns in that tight match up, and he's looking forward to the first Sunshine Stoush battle in Brisbane that he's been part of.

"It'll come down to the details and they've got a lot of smart guys on their team, and looking at the film from when we played in the pre-season and last time we played them in the Cairns, I think it came down to the details," Hinton said.

"I think that again sometimes it's not a big change that needs to be had, it's just the attention to detail and focusing on a few of the main things and the details that we need to win."

As for the bigger picture, Hinton sees no reason the Bullets can't be aiming big this NBL season and it's just about continuing to focus on the little things to end up reaching where they want to get to.

"There's no ceiling and no cap on what we can do," Hinton said.

"Again it's just about the details and that's the little thing that comes with being a new culture and being in a new environment, and the ups and downs of the game of basketball.

"Once we continue to just stack days and really believe that we're establishing a culture, that belief is one of those things that can get in the way of you going from one level to the next.

"So I think right now it's about us having some confidence wins and having some moments where we watch film and see what we can fix and could have had a different story.

"That's the main thing that everybody around here is getting the feeling of and our confidence and faith is building every single day. We'll just continue to build the culture and uplift this program in this city, and doing the best for the Brisbane Bullets in the NBL."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Cairns Taipans

Tip off: 7:00pm (AEST), Thursday 29 October, 2026

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel, Kayo and Disney+