Preview: NBL25 R12 Home v SEM Phoenix

The Brisbane Bullets return to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Thursday night on a high after two tremendous Round 11 NBL wins as they host another team in strong recent form, the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

When the Bullets and Phoenix first played this season it was back in Round 4 in Melbourne with both teams winless up to that point and desperate to get a drought breaking victory.

In the end it was a tight and tense affair with Brisbane prevailing 87-85 and both teams have rapidly improved since, and now come into this Thursday's match up at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre with plenty of momentum behind them.

The Bullets come into the contest with a 6-7 record and having now won three of the past four matches including last Friday's 102-83 home win against the Adelaide 36ers. They backed up on Sunday beating Melbourne United in mighty impressive fashion 122-114 at John Cain Arena.

The Phoenix, meanwhile, bring good form with them to Brisbane too having won seven of their past 10 matches after going 0-5 to start the season.

They are playing a distinctly different style since new coach Josh King has taken over as well with their pressure defence and then faster pace on offence leading to them arriving in Brisbane sitting inside the NBL's top six.

That means that it's a completely contrasting contest in Round 12 than the one back in Round 4 as the Bullets host the Phoenix with the chance to win three straight games for the first time this season.

The Bullets have plenty of players in terrific form too with Casey Prather having 60 points on 8/10 three-point shooting in the two wins last week while Tyrell Harrison had 44 points and 24 rebounds, and Mitch Norton 28 points and nine assists.

Keandre Cook then put up 27 points, six rebounds and five assists against Melbourne while James Batemon had 25 points, four boards and four assists.

There's a chance Josh Bannan also returns to face South East Melbourne on Thursday night but it's a Phoenix team not short on weapons themselves.

That includes former Bullets captain Nathan Sobey who is returning to Brisbane for the first time and coming off 26 points last Saturday against the Cairns Taipans.

Matt Hurt also had 19 points and 14 rebounds in that win with Angus Glover adding 16 points, five rebounds and four assists, Joe Wieskamp 14 points and four boards, Malique Lewis 10 points and seven rebounds, and captain Jordan Hunter eight points and six boards.

Prather comes into the game in terrific form as do the Bullets as a whole, but he's fully aware of the threat that the Phoenix possess.

"It's going to be a real good game and very intense. They're going to come out with a lot of confidence as they should because they've been doing a lot of good work of late," Prather said.

"I know they're going to come out swinging, we're going to come out swinging too and I anticipate it being a tough game and a tough environment for them to come in to play in.

"But the way they are playing defensively, we just have to be smart and understand that they are trying to get after it. we have to take care of the ball and get into our sets as quickly as possible. It's going to be a hell of a game."

Looking back on Sunday's stunning win in Melbourne against United where Prather was one of four Brisbane players to score at least 25 points, he felt as good as he has in a long time after a win and hope that momentum now continues for the Bullets.

"What I liked was the fact that we remained disciplined to who we want to be and kept our identity especially on the defensive end," Prather said.

"We still gave up a lot of points but we played the way we knew we were capable of playing and then also what impressed was how involved from Schueller down and was hungry to get that win.

"It's a team that's hungry and everyone on the team has something to prove, everybody has ambitions for themselves and for the team so that was great to see it translate into that game.

"After the game I was just so hyped it was hard to bring myself back down to earth and not only because of the win, but just the fact of how we did it and went about it with everybody involved. We want to keep that going now."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs South East Melbourne Phoenix

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Thursday 12 December, 2024

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo