Bullets lay down the Law in style in Adelaide

The quirks of this unique NBL season continued to close Round 5 on Monday night with the Brisbane Bullets emphatically bouncing back to beat the Adelaide 36ers 93-74 just 48 hours following a similarly hefty loss.

It's a remarkable trend now this NBL season that with the way the fixtures have shaped up over these first five rounds that a lot of teams have found themselves playing each other in back-to-back games.

The trend has seen the losing team from that first game find a way to bounce and that was on show again this weekend with the South East Melbourne Phoenix producing a 56-point turnaround on the Perth Wildcats, and now the Bullets have pulled off a 34-point switch.

The 36ers played their first road game of the season on Saturday night and hammered the Bullets by 15 points in a dominant showing led by big men Isaac Humphries and Daniel Johnson.

It was the Bullets turn to play their first game on the road of the season on Monday backing up at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, and with Vic Law on fire with 19 first half points, Brisbane proved unstoppable to claim the 19-point victory.

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As all teams now head to Melbourne for the NBL Cup where they will play each other once, incredibly from the eight times that teams have played one another back-to-back this season, on six occasions the team that lost the first game has switched around the result.

Virtually all areas of the game totally turned around from in Brisbane on Saturday to Adelaide on Monday for both the Bullets and 36ers.

It was a better shooting night from Brisbane going 45 per cent from the floor and hitting 11/28 from downtown, but it was the effort areas that made the ultimate difference. 

They dominated with 50 rebounds to 37 along with 15 offensive boards, and once again the team that won the possession game finished on top on the scoreboard.

It was on the back of Law that the Bullets broke the game open in the second quarter and by half-time he had 19 points and seven rebounds on 8/10 shooting before finishing with 27.

Law was a determined man to respond from Saturday night and he sure did.

"I was just really disappointed in myself for that last game. Not just shooting, but I felt I didn’t help my teammates and I felt I let them down," Law said.

"I made a real big effort to come back, watch the film, get the shots up, get the work in so I was confident and comfortable with the game plan, and I was ready for it. Adelaide made a conscious effort to double and try to get the ball out of my hands. Do it once OK I wasn’t going to let it happen twice."

The rest of his teammates then got the job done from there with Nathan Sobey delivering 19 points, five rebounds and five assists, Orlando Johnson 15 points and nine boards, and the returning Matt Hodgson eight points and eight rebounds in his 150th NBL appearance.

Daniel Johnson had another 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Adelaide with Isaac Humphries having 15 points, eight boards, two assists and two blocks, but they didn’t get enough help.

Josh Giddey did have nine points and eight assists while Jeremy Kendle made his first appearance since replacing Donald Sloan. In 10 minutes, he had an efficient five points and three assists.

Sixers coach Conner Henry didn’t hide his disappointment in the execution post-match.

"I'm really disappointed. After such a good game the other night up there I thought we'd come back given we had the same amount of rest and hours on a flight," Henry said.

"I thought we'd come out and match their intensity, which we didn’t, and they played harder and faster than we did, and we didn’t execute a lot of things in the scouting report. I'm extremely disappointed in the loss."

Adelaide continued on from the momentum on Saturday night at the start with Daniel Johnson and Isaac Humphries providing a 7-1 start. But the Bullets responded thanks to and-one plays from Vic Law and Tyrell Harrison to spark an 11-0 run.

That turned into a three-point quarter-time lead and it just continued to grow. Another 10-0 run in the second quarter blew the lead out to double-digits and it all began with a dynamite alley-oop Nathan Sobey pass to Law.

Law then continued on that momentum eight more quick points to give him 19 for the half with the Bullets up 47-37.

It was then Orlando Johnson's turn to catch fire to open the second half in his best display of the season as he hit a three, made a bucket and converted a three-point play. 

Harry Froling then made a cameo with five quick points and ex-Sixers Jason Cadee and Sobey hit triples to close the third term with an 18-point edge before both teams were just filling out time in the fourth.

Brisbane's first game in the NBL Cup comes on Sunday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix while Adelaide plays the Sydney Kings later the same day.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 5

ADELAIDE 36ERS 74 (Johnson 20, Humphries 15, Giddey 9)

BRISBANE BULLETS 93 (Law 27, Sobey 19, Johnson 15) 

BOX SCORE