Patterson completes remarkable Bullets fightback

Lamar Patterson is back and so are the Brisbane Bullets. Finals intensity basketball arrived early to Nissan Arena on Wednesday night as the Bullets surged from 18 points down to secure a last-gasp 91-88 win over the Perth Wildcats.

The Bullets are locked in a dogfight with Sydney, South East Melbourne and Illawarra for a place in the finals. If they manage to get there, this result would have delivered them.

Patterson scored the triple against New Zealand in 2019 that returned the Bullets to NBL finals for the first time since their re-admission to the league in 2016. He did it again, this time a silky half-spin and slash to the rack ultimately proving the difference.

Brisbane had to find something in the tank time and time again as the Wildcats kept surging ahead, largely off the back of the freakish shooting of Clint Steindl (25 points including 6/7 from the three-point line) in the absence of Todd Blanchfield.

Even in the final quarter the valiant Bullets, with their season on the line, had to find an 11-0 run to stay with the Wildcats. It all came down to the final two minutes. 

Mitch Norton fouled out for the 'Cats, Matt Hodgson followed soon after for the Bullets. The home side trailed by a single point with 16 seconds on the clock. Lamar worked his magic before Kevin White missed what could have been the match-winner.

It was a win driven by determination and desire and it may just propel the Bullets into the NBL finals once more.

Andrej Lemanis had nothing but praise for his side's never-say-die attitude to keep their season alive.

"It was a gutsy win. This group ... the connectedness, the culture, the doing what is best for this team is the best it has been for a while," Lemanis said.

"These Bullets always give you hope in tough situations, we never got to the point where we felt like that was going to fracture. Tonight, if that was ever going to happen, after a tough loss and things going against us ... we just hung in there and kept the belief."

Patterson was back to his best in this match with 23 points and five rebounds while Matt Hodgson was enormous facing up against old teammate Will Magnay and 'Mr Double-Double' John Mooney with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Jason Cadee had 16 points and five assists while new import BJ Johnson had his best night in Bullets colours with 13 points and five rebounds.

Interestingly, the talisman players for both sides were effectively shut down. The Bullets nullified the impact of Bryce Cotton to just 10 points while their own offensive weapon Nathan Sobey could only muster 12.

Mooney had 18 points and seven boards while Magnay had 11 points, four assists and over 2000 screaming Bullets fans letting him know what they thought about his defection to Perth.

It was a game of two halves for Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson who said they lost their way a bit in the second half.

"I thought we came out with the right intent, but as the game got too easy we took the soft options which was disappointing," he said.

"We were playing the right way (in the first half), running through our system and passing the ball to the open man. The second half we didn't do that quite as frequently."

It was the third match in five days on the road for the Wildcats and Todd Blanchfield was rested, but Gleeson said that wasn't the reason they lost.

"There is no excuse at all, we had the opportunity to put the game away, the game was there to be won and we didn't step up to the plate," he said.

"Congrats to Brisbane who wanted it more, they kept fighting all the way to the end and they got the cherries."

Hodgson made an early statement with a two-handed dunk right in the faces of Magnay and Mooney as both sides wrestled for early ascendency. It all started to go pear-shaped for the Bullets from there as their shots wouldn't drop and the rebounds routinely fell into Wildcats hands.

Clint Steindl came off the bench and made them pay with a perfect 4/4 including three triples that quickly opened up a 13-point lead. The Wildcats were looking slick and were picking off the Bullets at will, only some late triples giving Brisbane some respectability on the scoreboard as they went into the first break trailing 33-19.

The Bullets needed a fast start to the second quarter and they delivered with an 11-3 run to slash the margin to six and hoist the home side back into the match. 

There was plenty of feeling in the match and Magnay was at the centre of several fiery moments and standoffs with former teammates. It served to elevate the NBA-hopeful's game as he rocked the rim twice to show the Bullets what they were missing.

It also helped Perth weather the storm and it wasn't long before the lead was back out to 12. The telling number was 19, the number of points Steindl piled on and also the volume of turnovers the Bullets committed.

It meant the Wildcats were in complete control, leading 53-39 at the main break.

The third quarter was Groundhog Day as the Bullets again surged with an 8-0 run to get back into the match, Gleeson reading his charges the riot act in the ensuing time out.

It didn't halt the Brisbane charge as Sobey drained a trademark triple and Hodgson completed a three-point play to cut the margin to just four points. 

There was a scare for the Wildcats in the final quarter when Cotton slipped and stretched out his left leg. He was initially writhing in pain but got to his feet to play out the match. 

There was no love lost between Sobey and Magnay as the latter left the court, the two exchanging pleasantries. Steindl continued his rampage but Cadee launched one from the car park to keep his side hanging on.

The Bullets rampage extended to an 11-0 run which slashed the margin to just two points and set up a thrilling finish. With less than two minutes to play the margin was the same before Patterson’s eventual heroics.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

BRISBANE BULLETS 91 (Patterson 23, Cadee 16, Hodgson 16)

PERTH WILDCATS 88 (Steindl 25, Mooney 18, Magnay 11) 

BOX SCORE