Night of Sixers celebrations against Bullets

Daniel Johnson set the stage in his 350th NBL game, Keanu Pinder got rolling to back him up and then Josh Giddey made history with another triple-double on a night of celebrations for the Adelaide 36ers who beat Brisbane Bullets 101-79.

It was a Saturday night at Adelaide Entertainment Centre to savour in so many ways for the 36ers but ultimately what the impressive 22-point victory does is keep their slim playoff hopes alive.

The Sixers are now putting together quite the impressive run of form in front of their home fans backing up double-figure wins over the Illawarra Hawks and Perth Wildcats with the big win over a Bullets team coming off their own supremely impressive win in Melbourne over the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The improves Adelaide to an 11-16 record on the season while Brisbane slips to 11-14 with the defeat leaving both still looking on from the outside out the top four but they will be feeling the spots currently held by Sydney Kings (14-12) and the Phoenix (14-13) are gettable still.

There was so much to like from a 36ers perspective as well starting with the way captain Daniel Johnson stood up and set up the win with 20 points in the second half in his 350th NBL appearance. He finished with a game-high 26 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Keanu Pinder then caught fire in the second half unlike he's ever done in the NBL before to finish with 19 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two assists. 

It was the composure of the performance that was as encouraging as anything from the first-year NBL player. He took the open jumpers that were there, then fought for rebounds with great energy and his three blocked shots at the defensive were all statement knockbacks on Brisbane shooters.

Then there was Josh Giddey who made history by becoming the first ever Australian to record a triple-double in consecutive games, and this time he was setting up a big win with 15 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds.

It was only fitting his drive to the hoop and three-point play was set up with a beautiful bounce pass from Johnson with the 18-year-old finishing at the rim having been set by his milestone celebrating captain.

Adelaide had other key performers too with Sunday Dech finishing with 13 points, two rebounds and two assists, Isaac Humphries 13 points, four rebounds and three blocks on his return to the starting five, and Brandon Paul 11 points, five assists, three boards and three steals.

Sixers coach Conner Henry was most delighted with the way that ultimately his team knew the game plan, followed it and ended up executing well for the game.

"I think this week we came with a really good approach collectively from staff to team on the way we want to play, and that's really a simple way," Henry said.

"Tonight we played simple basketball, made simple reads and it really does show that we had 29 assists. We really passed the ball and shared it so that was the key. 

"We played simple ball, guys were communicating on the defensive end at a pretty high level, and we knew the scouted and executed it."

Brisbane couldn’t back up their big win two nights ago in Melbourne against the Phoenix, and ended up shooting 31/78 at 39 per cent from the field and 6/30 at 20 per cent from three-point range.

Nathan Sobey top-scored for Brisbane against his former team with 20 points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals. Matt Hodgson also had 19 points and nine rebounds, Anthony Drmic nine points and Harry Froling nine points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis was hoping to avoid an anticipated letdown from his group after being locked down for five days last week, but it proved an unavoidable truth as the game wore on.

"Tonight the impact of what happened to us last week showed. Our strength and conditioning team talked to us about this, and the fact is this time last week we were stuck in our hotel room unable to do anything and had five days of quarantine," Lemanis said. 

"We had one hastily put together practice at the last minute when we were able to do get an exemption so that was always going to catch up with us. The advice we got was that this was the game it would present itself rather than the first game back. 

"The guys were feeling more sore than they normally are and then looking at us play as it unfolded, I started to notice that we looked exhausted. 

"We had some obviously early scout breakdowns so that suggested we weren’t mentally where we needed to be, and then as the game went on physically we lacked a bit of grunt. 

"I can't question their effort and I thought the guys gave everything they had, but it obviously didn’t turn out how we wanted it to."

Adelaide remains at home to host the Cairns Taipans on Tuesday while the Bullets also face the Snakes next, at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena next Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 16

ADELAIDE 36ERS 101 (Johnson 26, Pinder 19, Giddey 15)

BRISBANE BULLETS 79 (Sobey 20, Hodgson 19, Drmic 9, Froling 9) 

BOX SCORE