Preview: Round 14 vs NZ Breakers | My State Bank Arena

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Monday 7 March 2022
Where: MyState Bank Arena, Hobart
Broadcast: ESPN & Kayo

The Bullets are set to face the New Zealand Breakers at a crowdless MyState Bank Arena in Tasmania tonight. Brisbane will still be without star guard Nathan Sobey due to injury, but will see the return of Anthony Drmic to the line-up. Both teams will be looking to get back in the winner’s circle after dropping their first games of Round 14 respectively.

WHO WON LAST TIME?
New Zealand 88 (Wetzell 27, Besson 12, Siva 11) d Brisbane 83 (Patterson 17, Drmic 14, Sobey 14) – Round 6, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

Coming off the COVID break, the Bullets were unable to get over the top of the visiting Breakers. Yanni Wetzell was the difference-maker with 15 points in the opening 15 minutes as NZ streaked ahead. The Breakers lead reached 17 in the third term, and while Nathan Sobey and Lamar Patterson led a revival, the Bullets trailed.

What happened last start?

An undermanned Brisbane squad missing Sobey and Anthony Drmic produced some great basketball as a number of their young stars stood tall. But the league leading Melbourne United proved too strong in the end, as the Bullets fell 95-83.

NZ went toe-to-toe with the JackJumpers but, simply couldn’t capitalise late, going down 66-62 in a low scoring affair.

WHO’S IN FORM?
Deng Deng – Deng has provided enormous energy of late. His past two games have shown up on the boxscore, with 21 points at 60 per cent and 3/5 from deep, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks in 47 minutes, and over the past eight games Brisbane are +19 with Deng on the floor.

Jason Cadee has also led from the front in the absence of key personnel, averaging 15 points and 5.3 assists in his last 3 outings.

Ousmane Dieng – Before injury, Dieng had a coming out party in Sydney with 14 points on 4/8 triples and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes. Fast forward four weeks and the teenager picked up where he left off with 17 points and 9 boards, this time doing his damage close to the basket.

ON THE RECORD

For Hostplus Head Coach, James Duncan it’s the same message of consistency after coming close to knocking off the champs.

“We were up one at half-time, we were down six with about five minutes left in the game, so we were doing a lot of things right,” he said.

“What we were obviously worried about was our transition D, they had 31 points in that area, taking care of the ball, we had 21 turnovers, it’s hard to win a basketball game (with that), especially on the road against the champs.

“Obviously we've got to clean up that area. Just a little bit frustrating because we played some good basketball but we weren’t able to execute for continuous stretches throughout the game and that hurt us.” 

STATS LEADERS

BULLETS
Points: Lamar Patterson 17.7ppg (#5 in the NBL)
Rebounds: Robert Franks, 7.94rpg (#8 in the NBL)
Assists: Jason Cadee, 4.7apg (#6 in the NBL)
Blocks: Tyrell Harrison, 1.25bpg (#7 in the NBL)

BREAKERS
Points: Yanni Wetzell, 16.9ppg (#7 in the NBL)
Rebounds: Yanni Wetzell, 7rpg

Assists: Peyton Siva, 4.1apg

Blocks: Yanni Wetzell, 0.9bpg

NEXT HOME GAME

Next up the Bullets take on Perth Wildcats during Indigenous Round, brought to you by Rork Projects. Tip-Off is at 4:30pm on Saturday March 12. Get your tickets HERE.