Bullets beat Hawks to make it four straight

The Brisbane Bullets continue to shine no matter what's thrown in their way and it's getting contributions from so many players that was again key to Sunday's impressive 110-103 win against the Illawarra Hawks.

The Bullets were back home on Sunday afternoon to host a Hawks team at Nissan Arena who arrived on a four-game winning streak and sitting in fourth position after a double overtime win over the Tasmania JackJumpers on Friday.

Brisbane, however, were also fresh off beating the JackJumpers on Wednesday night and were on their own three-game winning run setting the stage for a terrific contest.

It didn’t disappoint even with the Bullets thrown a curve ball in the morning with Josh Bannan and Casey Prather both unwell and unable to play robbing Brisbane of both power forwards.

Up against the front court Illawarra pairing of Sam Froling and Gary Clark, that had the potential to cause problems. While it was a tight game most of the way, the Bullets were leading a lot of the contest and deservedly came away with the seven-point win.

It was small ball for a lot of the game with Sam McDaniel stepping into that four spot with Chris Smith, Nathan Sobey and Shannon Scott rounding out the four-man starting line-up alongside centre Tyrell Harrison.

That ended up working but so did the moments where the Bullets went bigger with Baynes joining either Harrison or fellow centre Rocco Zikarsky on the court.

The end result was a fourth consecutive victory for Brisbane to see them improve to fourth position, at least temporarily, on the NBL table with an 11-11 record, and momentum clearly building.

There was a lot to like with what Brisbane did to score 110 points on 53 per cent field goal shooting including going 9/22 from three and 35/46 at the foul line along with having only seven turnovers.

Sobey put up 22 points in the first half on the back of missing Wednesday's win against Tasmania. He finished with 25 for the game along with five rebounds and two steals on 6/12 shooting from the floor and 10/13 at the foul line.

Smith continued his strong form with another 19 points for Brisbane with Harrison delivering 18 points, seven rebounds and three blocks, and Mitch Norton his Bullets career-best of 18 points.

McDaniel was superb at both ends with eight points, six rebounds and two assists with Scott adding five points, six assists, five boards and three steals, Zikarsky three points, and Baynes two points and three rebounds.

Tyler Harvey top-scored for Illawarra with 29 points with Justin Robinson adding 15 points, Sam Froling 15 points and seven rebounds, and Gary Clark 13 points and eight boards.

Clearly Nathan Sobey didn’t like having to miss Wednesday's game with a foot injury and the Brisbane captain came out a man on a mission on Sunday starting with his team's first four points.

When Chris Smith also hit a three and Shannon Scott scored, Brisbane was up 9-4 and the momentum would continue with Tyrell Harrison producing some strong finishes inside.

Mitch Norton then came on to score and Sobey made two more free-throws for the early 17-8 advantage.

While the Hawks did close out the quarter scoring 18 points to 13 from there, the Bullets were still leading 30-26 at quarter-time on the back of the 14 points from Sobey.

Smith made a three-pointer early in the second quarter to keep the Bullets on top but back-to-back threes for the Hawks from Tyler Harvey did see the visitors briefly nab the lead.

Brisbane big men Harrison and Rocco Zikarsky restored the lead for their team before the Bullets scored nine consecutive points including a triple from Sobey after an Aron Baynes offensive board, and then another offensive rebound from Scott for Harrison to score – both on missed free-throws.

By half-time, the Bullets were still leading 59-56 after a high octane opening half between the two form teams. Sobey produced 22 points for Brisbane with Smith adding 13 and Harrison 11 as they shot 51 per cent as a team and 17/22 at the foul line.

However, the Hawks were staying in touch on the back of 16 points from Harvey and going 58 per cent from the floor themselves.

Brisbane then got off to an ideal start to the second half with five quick points courtesy of Harrison and Smith, but Illawarra fired back and three balls from Harvey and Justin Robinson levelled scores back up.

The Bullets responded with the next seven points as they continued to do a good job getting to the foul line, and then a pair of triples just before three quarter-time from Mitch Norton saw the home team on top 90-80.

The Bullets were able to push that advantage out to as much as 11 points during the fourth quarter as well and would end up winning by seven in impressive fashion to make it four consecutive against a team who arrived in Brisbane on their own four-match winning run.

The Bullets now head to Perth to take on the second placed Wildcats this Friday night which was the scene of a win that turned their season around back in Round 5.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 15

BRISBANE BULLETS 110 (Sobey 25, Smith 19, Harrison 18, Norton 18)

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 103 (Harvey 29, Robinson 15, Froling 15)

BOX SCORE