Preview: Round 15 vs South East Melbourne at State Basketball Centre

Following a spirited loss to United on Saturday night, the Bullets travel to Melbourne to play their third game of Round 15 against South East Melbourne Phoenix.

After trailing by 17 at the main break on Saturday night, the Bullets battled in the second half to draw the scores within 2 points until the visitors ran away with it. Brisbane will look to build on the defensive effort and the positive momentum of their second half in their Monday night clash with the Phoenix. 

GAME DETAILS

South East Melbourne Phoenix vs Brisbane Bullets

When: Monday 16 January, 6:30pm AEST

Where: State Basketball Centre

Watch & Follow: ESPN via Kayo and Foxtel, LIVESTATS

LAST TIME MATCHING UP
The Bullets were without a number of troops including Tyler Johnson, Tanner Krebs and Tyrell Harrison when they last faced South East Melbourne in Round 12. The Phoenix proved too strong defeating the home side 102-77.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 12

BRISBANE BULLETS 77 (Sobey 31, Baynes 14, Mitchell 14) 

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 104 (Creek 29, Kell III 17, Adnam 14) 

KEY MATCH UP

ARON BAYNES VS ALAN WILLIAMS

Aron put together a strong performance last game against Melbourne United, finishing with 21 points, 11 rebounds and shot 56% from the field. Baynes had a huge presence inside for the Bullets and not put points on the board, but also allowed his guards to get downhill on pick and roll actions as he drew a lot of attention from defenders.

Alan Williams has been consistently tough for the Phoenix throughout the season. Averaging 16.3ppg and 9.3 rpg Williams is a solid contributer inside. It will be another fun match up between the two bigs on Monday night.

ON THE RECORD

The Bullets put together a fighting performance in their last game at Nissan Arena. Following the game Nathan Sobey wasn’t satisfied with the result but acknowledged the positive step his side took in the game.

“Obviously disappointed, we want to win, that’s simple. But at the same time, you’ve got to look at what happened the other night and the guys coming back and responding in the right way,” Sobey told reporters after the match,” Sobey said.

“The way that we got after it on the defensive end was just positive signs for taking a step forward in the right direction.”

Speaking after the match, Hostplus Head Coach Greg Vanderjagt discussed Brisbane’s slow start in the first quarter, and how “the guys responded positively” throughout the rest of the game.

“Obviously an improved performance from Wednesday night,” Vanderjagt said.

“We played really good basketball for close to 30 minutes of that game, the first quarter obviously hurts us down 34-20 at that first break.

“I think the guys responded positively to what we talked about in huddles and timeouts and half-time… our intent to defend, to keep people in front of us, our aggressiveness with the pick and roll was really positive.”