Recap | Still positives in tough Bullets night

It wasn't the home Sunshine Stoush the Brisbane Bullets were hoping for on Thursday but there's always positives including a standout Taine Murray showing and the first NBL minutes for Rio Bruton and Billy McRae.

The Cairns Taipans did come into the Brisbane Entertainment Centre and produced a strong performance on Thursday night to secure the 107-85 victory over the Bullets to take a two-nil series lead in the Sunshine Stoush battles of NBL27.

There was plenty of work ons for the Bullets to take out of the game highlighted by giving up 25 turnovers for the game with the Taipans taking advantage to put 107 points on the board including making 20/48 of their three-point attempts.

But there still shining lights for the home team and none more so than Murray who was playing his third game back this season from injury. He knocked down 5/10 from three-point territory for 20 points in his 21 minutes.

Then late in the game, it was the first NBL minutes for development players McRae and Bruton. They both played almost five minutes with Bruton managing to score his first NBL points in the process just as his dad CJ and grandad Cal have done previously.

The Bullets are now 4-5 with the loss with Taine Murray top scoring with 20 points on 5/10 three-point shooting.

Nate Hinton also had 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals, Jaylin Williams 12 points, five rebounds, two steals and two blocks, and Raul Neto eight points and four assists.

Archie Woodhill also provided seven points and two rebounds on 3/4 shooting, Mitch Norton six points and two rebounds, Lat Mayen five points and two rebounds, Tyrell Harrison five points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Max Mackinnon had a rough night and ended up leaving the game in the third quarter for a concussion test after having four points and four rebounds with Mawot Mag adding two points and four boards, and Rio Bruton scoring his first NBL points.

The Bullets were back home for the first time since beating the South East Melbourne Phoenix two weeks ago and started impressively opening up an eight-point lead midway through the opening quarter with Raul Neto running things nicely and making his first three shot attempts.

But the Taipans worked back into the game and by the end of it they were leading 23-21.

The Snakes took further control in the second quarter where they ended up shooting 7/13 from beyond the arc for the 10 minutes on the way to putting up 34 points.

That saw Cairns leading 57-42 by half-time with the Bullets having 14 turnovers while Taine Murray was their leading scorer with nine points on 2/3 three-point shooting.

The Cairns lead got out to as much as 22 points in the third quarter before Brisbane tried to mount a fightback and did get it back to 13 late in the third term with Lat Mayen throwing down a monster two-handed slam in traffic.

But the Snakes responded with three balls to Kyrin Galloway and McVeigh to remain in control 78-61 by three quarter-time.

The Bullets again did make a brief run in the fourth quarter but it wasn’t to be although there was a late highlight with both Billy McRae and Rio Bruton getting out there for almost five minutes and the latter scoring his first NBL points.

The Bullets back up again in Round 7 by heading to Adelaide to now take on the 36ers on Sunday.

GAME DETAILS

BRISBANE BULLETS 85
CAIRNS TAIPANS 107

Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Thursday October 29

Taine Murray – 20 points, 5/10 3PT
Nate Hinton – 14 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals
Jaylin Williams – 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals
Raul Neto – 8 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds
Archie Woodhill – 7 points, 2 rebounds