Preview: NBL25 R5 Home v NZ Breakers

The Brisbane Bullets are back home on Thursday on a mission to make it consecutive NBL25 wins, to make up for a first up loss to the New Zealand Breakers and to reward the fans at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

The Bullets will be back on their home floor to open Round 5 of the NBL season on Thursday night playing the second game back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, and looking to make up for the loss to the Sydney Kings two weeks ago.

Since then, the Bullets went to Melbourne this past Saturday night and scored their first win of the season against the South East Melbourne Phoenix which they will now be attempting to build on the momentum from against the Breakers.

The Bullets started the season in Perth with a loss to the Breakers before then also suffering a road loss to the Illawarra Hawks, and going down in the home opener against the Kings.

They did take momentum from that game against Sydney scoring the last 16 points and then put in a strong showing against the Phoenix in Melbourne to score the 87-85 victory with Tyrell Harrison dominating with 21 points and 17 rebounds, and James Batemon hitting six threes for 20 points.

Casey Prather also had 15 points, six rebounds and three assists, Keandre Cook 15 points, seven boards and four assists, Josh Bannan eight points, nine rebounds and five assists, and captain Mitch Norton outstanding after being inserted to the starting five.

The Bullets put in a strong showing in all the effort, hustle and energy areas too, and for Jarred Bairstow who is in his first season back with his hometown team, he was just relieved to get on the board and now to look to build on that momentum.

"That first win of the season no matter what your record is, even if you're 0-0, it's always good to get the monkey off the back," Bairstow said.

"No matter when you get it or what your record is when you do, it's just nice to get that monkey off the back so you have one under the belt and you can start rolling from there. It's nice to have that done."

Bairstow was even pleasantly surprised to see more than 7000 fans turnout for the home opener for the Bullets at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre against the Kings.

He hopes just as many, if not more, show up on Thursday night for the game against the Breakers and he has no doubt the Bullets will give them plenty more to cheer about this time around.

"The turnout to BEC was unbelievable for that first game and there was a lot more filled that we even thought it was going to be," Bairstow said.

"You do hear things and the office were putting in a lot of hard work to get a good crowd there, but until you're actually there and experiencing the way it's set up you don't quite know what it would be like.

"It was such a fantastic atmosphere and the reality was that the performance we put in against Sydney for them wasn’t what they deserved for turning out in the numbers they did. So it will be nice to hopefully come and give them what they deserve this Thursday night."

Looking back on that first game of the season against the Breakers in Perth as part of HoopsFest, and Bairstow feels that there is the potential the Bullets got a little ahead of themselves after winning the NBL Blitz on the Gold Coast.

The Breakers made them pay by opening up a 26-point lead but the Bullets showed good fight late to almost snatch that game ahead of getting another chance to hand New Zealand their first loss of NBL25 this Thursday.

New Zealand also beat the Phoenix before departing to play three NBLxNBA games in the United States against the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of being back to the NBL this Thursday.

"I think there was a couple of things going on there in that first game and they weren’t so hot in the Blitz and we were so I think there might have been a bit of us coming in with some over confidence of what to expect in that game," Bairstow said.

"We've obviously now started to figure some things out in the last couple of weeks and then with them coming in straight from the US, it's going to be interesting how different things are.

"They've been here since Sunday so have had a few days to reset and get their bodies on the right time zone and everything.

"I have no doubt they will be raring to go and those NBA games are a great way to help you coming back into the season if you treat them the right way. It's going to be interesting to see how they come out."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs New Zealand Breakers

Tip off: 6:30pm (AEST), Thursday 17 October, 2024

Where: Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Tickets: Available Here

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo