Sixers' Twin Towers Dominate Bullets

It was about as far from champagne basketball as you could get but the Adelaide 36ers crushed the Brisbane Bullets 85-70 at Nissan Arena on Saturday on the back of dominant showings from big men Isaac Humphries and Daniel Johnson.

Brisbane came into the match scoring more points per game than any other NBL side and boasting two of the top three scorers in their ranks in Nathan Sobey and Vic Law. This match made a mockery of those stats.

Sobey and Law have been sublime but they needed someone else to come with them to be a real threat in #NBL21. Instead, Law (nine points, 10 rebounds) had an off night and no one else could go with Sobey (25 points) who toiled all night.

The Bullets put in a performance to forget finishing with a shooting clip that of just 34 per cent including 6/33 from three-point land.

The final humiliation for Brisbane? They looked the best they did all night in the dying minutes when coach Andrej Lemanis threw young players Tamuri Wigness and Blake Jones onto the floor.

Where the absence of centre Matt Hodgson for Brisbane was evident, though, was with Adelaide's twin towers of Isaac Humphries (23 points 13 rebounds, six blocks) and Daniel Johnson (21 points, four rebounds, three assists) able to use their paint dominance to make simple plays at will. 

It was the back to basics approach that steered Adelaide to the win and coach Connor Henry said that was always the plan after last week's loss to Sydney.

"We really got back to some basic defensive elements and I thought we executed the game plan quite well," he said.

"Offensively we got back to getting it through hands, it's really no secret, screening hard, sharp cuts, knowing where we want to go with the basketball ... I thought we did a pretty great job of wrestling control of the game to us and then staying with it."

While the bigs dominated, Humphries credited his entire team for the win.

"We went back to basics and set the tone early and I think it was a team effort tonight, it wasn't just DJ and I."

When Brisbane finally put their cue in the rack the 36ers were able to go large and demoralise their opposition.

With Hodgson missing with a leg complaint, the 36ers were always going to run their offence through their big men and Humphries scored all eight of his side's first points. 

Sobey also had an early impact with an assist for Orlando Johnson to score a triple, a three-pointer of his own and another three points earned at the foul line.

The game got scrappy as both sides struggled to score which led to a low scoring quarter with the Bullets finishing with their noses in front at 19-16. 

It was three minutes into the second quarter before Law managed to score his first points in a match where commentator and Australian legend Andrew Gaze said neither team could "toss anything in the ocean". 

Adelaide worked on top, though, through their bigs while the Bullets were making the game of basketball look like advanced astrophysics as scoring a bucket seemed as likely as snow in the Sahara for the home side.

Adelaide seized their opportunity on a 10-0 run to take a five-point lead and were up 39-32 at half-time.

The Sixers had their own drought in the third quarter allowing Brisbane to graft their way back into the match, closing to within a point.

In that stretch, the Bullets spread the load to chip away but Adelaide surged again and led by five at the final change. When that bloated to 59-49, not even an actual astrophysicist in a Bullets singlet could save Brisbane.

The Sixers continued to pound it inside and Humphries and Johnson proved unstoppable while Josh Giddey had his moments with nine points and seven assists. 

Tony Crocker was handy too with 11 points and six rebounds while Sunday Dech continued to be a solid contributor with eight points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.

The Bullets just didn’t have anyone else stepping up outside of Sobey with the shooting of 34 per cent from the field and a total of 45 points from everyone not named Sobey highlighting their plight.

Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis admitted that you won't win many games only shooting 26/76 from the field.

"That's certainly true, that's what it felt like," he said.

"Particularly early we had a lot of good looks that obviously we didn't knock down, over time that kind of wears on you ... it just felt like if we had just made a couple we could have given ourselves a bit more of a buffer but needless to say we didn't do that.

In a boost for the Bullets, it is hoped that Hodgson will be fit for the return clash on Monday.

"In terms of key outs, depending on the opponent, Hodgy was a big one," Lemanis said.

"44 per cent of their points come through their bigs and that was a larger percentage tonight that came through Johnson and Humphries so we missed Hodgy's size, strength and experience against this team in particular.

"Hopefully he will be all right, we're taking him to Adelaide with every intention of playing him on Monday."

The two teams do it all again in Adelaide on Monday with the 36ers expected to be with injury replacement import Jeremy Kendle who comes in after the departure of Donald Sloan.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 5

BRISBANE BULLETS 70 (Sobey 25, Law 9, Krebs 9)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 85 (Humphries 24, Johnson 21, Crocker 11) 

BOX SCORE