R18 Preview: Brisbane Bullets v Perth Wildcats

When: 5.30pm (AEST), Saturday 15 May

Where: Nissan Arena, Brisbane

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Perth 92 (Cotton 21, Mooney 16, Wagstaff 12) d Brisbane 74 (Froling 20, Patterson 19, Sobey 14) – Round 15, RAC Arena, Perth

It was just three weeks ago when the two teams did battle out west and it was a comfortable 18-point win for the Wildcats over the Bullets.

Virtually from go to woe, Perth was on track for the bounce back victory and while they will feel they never really reached top gear along the way, they still recorded a strong 18-point victory.

Bryce Cotton again top-scored with 21 points, six assists and four rebounds but he did shoot 5/15 from the field and 3/8 from three-point range. He was aggressive attacking the rim, though, drawing six fouls to go 8/9 at the foul line.

John Mooney was another dominant force on the inside for the 'Cats as clearly the best big man in the game with 16 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and two blocks while shooting 7/12. Jesse Wagstaff added 12 points and six rebounds for the Wildcats, Mitch Norton 11 points, six rebounds and five assists, and development player Luke Travers eight points and two boards.

Similar to Cotton, Lamar Patterson ended up putting up decent looking numbers for Brisbane with 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals. But he did shoot an inefficient 6/18 from the floor to get there despite drawing four fouls and going 6/7 at the charity stripe.

Harry Froling was perhaps Brisbane's best offensive threat on the evening with the Wildcats not having a good match up for him. He ended up with 20 points and three rebounds on 8/14 shooting. Nathan Sobey added 14 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Bullets, and Anthony Drmic 11 points, three rebounds and three assists.

The now

With both teams having just played on Thursday night and Brisbane needing to keep winning to help the finals prospects and Perth to stay in the hunt for top spot, there's plenty on the line for the Bullets and Wildcats.

The Bullets finally returned home for their first game at Nissan Arena on Thursday night since March 27. They had played nine road games in between and they enjoyed the homecoming delivering quite the dominant performance to beat the Sydney Kings 93-70.

The Wildcats also played at home at RAC Arena on Thursday night in a top-of-the-table clash with Melbourne United, and Perth suffered a rare defeat in front of 10,000 Red Army fans as United ended up beating them 99-91.

Now just two days later and the Bullets get to remain at home and prepare to host a Wildcats team who is now going to play three games in Queensland over the next five days.

So coming into Saturday's battle in Brisbane, the Bullets are knocking on the door of the top four with a 13-14 record to be just behind the fourth placed Sydney Kings who are 14-14. The Bullets still have three more home games to come after this game too before four consecutive road matches, and then ending the regular season at home to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The Wildcats began a stretch of six games in 11 days with Thursday's home loss to Melbourne which saw them slip to a 20-8 record. They are still well clear in second position but it does have them needing some luck if they are to chase down the now 23-6 United in the home stretch of the season if they are to end up in top spot.

Add in the intrigue of Will Magnay returning to Brisbane in a Wildcats singlet and with the Bullets out to strengthen their playoff push and the 'Cats having to win to stay in the top spot race, and there's plenty to look forward to in this one.

The stats

- The Bullets are fresh off their biggest win ever at Nissan Arena on Thursday night when beating the Sydney Kings by 23 points which including a run of scoring 19 straight points in the second quarter which is their biggest streak of #NBL21.

- The Wildcats have never won at Nissan Arena in two attempts last season and this is their first of two games at the Brisbane venue against the Bullets this week with the two teams again meeting on Wednesday. The Bullets have won four of their last five home games over the 'Cats.

- Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis will be coaching his 400th NBL game as he embarks on his final season in charge at Brisbane after five seasons since the club was resurrected. Prior to that he had a remarkable run at the New Zealand Breakers taking them from almost non-competitive to a powerhouse coaching them to championships in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

The key men

Lamar Patterson – Now sure he isn't putting up the numbers he did the last two seasons when he was an All-First NBL Team member, but he's having a significant impact on what the Bullets are doing. He's playing the four spot instead of the three this season, and that's making him an especially tough match ups for the power forwards in the league with his skill set. The added bonus is that by him doing that, it's allowing Anthony Drmic to thrive as the three man and BJ Johnson is only going to get better the more he gets adjusted to life in the NBL.

Bryce Cotton – He has certainly been quite the thorn in the side of the Brisbane Bullets during his NBL career with the Wildcats, and he's always a key for anything Perth does when he's on the court. He might currently be struggling shooting and over the past 10 games has only been going at 71/202 from the field at 35 per cent, and 15/79 from three-point range at 19 per cent. But he has still averaged an impressive 20.9 points and 5.8 assists over that stretch to strengthen his case for a third MVP trophy.

The quotes

Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis saw a lot to like in his team's 23-point win over the Sydney Kings on Thursday night in their return to their home floor to keep them right in the hunt for a top four spot coming into Saturday's clash with Perth.

"There were plenty of good signs but we are in a stretch here and we play again on Saturday. We take the positives from this, learn from it and get straight onto Perth. We are going to need to come out and play again on Saturday, and play well but it's nice to be home again that's for sure," Lemanis said.

"It's in our hands in terms of us being able to control the way we come out and play, we can control the effort and energy we give it. That's an enjoyable place to be and that's where we need to retain our focus. The wins and losses will take care of themselves when you are coming out and playing the right way. That enables you to play well and then the ball falls where it does."

Lemanis enjoyed getting to play in front of the Brisbane fans once again and is calling on more of them to come out on Saturday.

"It's just nice to be home. I'd like to thank the fans that did come out and they were loud. It's unfortunate that we didn’t have a very big crowd and I just hope that the rest of the basketball loving public can come out on Saturday and get behind us, and put a few more bums in seats," Lemanis said. 

"But for the fans that were here, I really appreciate the passion and energy. When you've been away from it for so long it definitely makes a positive difference when they get behind you like they did in this game."

Anthony Drmic had a big night on Thursday against the Kings with 28 points on 7/10 shooting from three-point land, but his eyes are focused on what lies ahead for the Bullets.

"This league's tough and we have nine games left and they are all going to be tough. But we're looking forward to it and we've got a few home games now after it felt like we were on the road forever, it was like two months since we played here," Drmic said.

"But we are looking forward to the challenge and I feel as though if we can continue to play good defence, rebound the basketball and push then we can challenge some of those top teams."

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson is looking forward to seeing how his team bounces back from Thursday's loss at home to Melbourne United now on the road to Brisbane.

"It's that time of year isn’t it where teams are fighting for playoff spots and they are right in the hunt, and we're trying to get a top two positions locked in. It's going to be good to see how we respond," Gleeson said.

"We just control what we can control. We can't control what Melbourne do so we'll just control what we can control. Hopefully we'll learn our lesson and continue to grow and develop as a team. That's just what we've got to do."

Perth captain Jesse Wagstaff also knows that it's a significant challenge ahead of the Wildcats up against another playoff contender.

We are playing teams that are playing for their lives and there's a lot of teams bunched up, but we are playing for our lives too trying to secure our spot. Every game from here on in, we've got eight left and five pretty quickly so every game it's on. That's the way it should be and that's what you want heading into the playoffs.

Plenty of attention is going to be on Will Magnay as he plays his second game for the Wildcats, and makes his return home to Brisbane in an opposition singlet. 

But he is happy that he made the difficult decision to sign with Perth after his stint in the NBA, and is looking forward to the homecoming.

"It was a difficult decision and it's hard to fight your instincts of wanting to go home, and pick the easy route and being comfortable of living back home with your parents and all that. It was a hard decision but I fully believe I've made the right one and hopefully can push on from there," Magnay said.

"Perth have that winning culture and ever since I've been in the league they've always been in the finals or one of the top teams the whole season. It's exciting to be around this sort of culture now and Bryce sort of broke my heart a few times when I was playing for Brisbane so it'll be nice to be on his team for a while now, and hopefully break a few other hearts together.

"For sure it's going to be a bit different playing the Bullets. It will be weird for sure having grown up in Brisbane my whole life and I never really planned to play basketball anywhere else. But it will be good and fun at the same time, and I'll have a lot of family and friends in the stands when we play in Brisbane. I'm excited to play in front of all of them again."