Sobey shoots Bullets over gritty 36ers

Nathan Sobey has shot the Bullets to the top of the NBL Cup ladder as he continued to surge into MVP contention in Brisbane's 109-104 win over the Adelaide 36ers on Thursday night.

The Bullets came into the game as the form team of the NBL Cup coming off wins against the Perth Wildcats and Melbourne United, but the 36ers weren’t in the mood to hand them anything despite new import Brandon Paul still in street clothes and imposing centre Isaac Humphries out injured.

With Daniel Johnson and Sunday Dech on fire, and Josh Giddey running the show, the Sixers led by double-figures in the second quarter but ultimately Sobey just would not be denied and nor would he let the Bullets lose.

While Sobey piled on 30 points, four rebounds and four assists in the high-scoring shootout, he was simply clutch in the closing seconds of the match. 

With the ball careening out of bounds, Sobey leapt horizontal to rescue the rock to deny the 36ers retaining possession. Then at the other end of the court, he remained calm and composed to wind down the clock and swish home the match-winning triple.

And who needs a partner in crime when you can have the Law instead? Sobey was ably assisted by an equally clutch Vic Law (22 points, five assists, four rebounds) in the final quarter while Jason Cadee continued his hot run of form with 16 points and three assists.

Despite likely missing two of their three most important players in Paul and Humphries, the 36ers should be proud of their fight as they opened up an 11-point lead on the way to an #NBL21 record 62 points in the first half. 

Brisbane maintained pace, though, and worked their way on top. Import Orlando Johnson was a deciding factor in turning that deficit around with an all-round game including 13 points, four rebounds and four assists. 

Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis said the grind of hub life had led to a dip in energy to begin the match and there were plenty of learnings from the match.

"The intent in which we played defence in the first half was unacceptable," he said.

"That was not going to get us anyway to a win or to be successful, so that is where our focus was.

"We shot the ball at 75 per cent and 43 per cent from outside of the arc and we will still only won by five points. They had 19 offensive rebounds ... there were a lot of things tonight that (showed) that if you're not going to give the efforts then good things are not going to happen for you.

"The most pleasing thing was we were able to make that change in a game that can be described as relatively ugly. We found a way to grind out the win and that is progress from where we were at the start of the year."

Cadee said it was a great thing to be on the same side as players like Sobey and Law but pointed to the fact that the Bullets no longer had to rely on them.

"We have a good little thing going on where we factor them in, but not all the time," he said.

"We are not throwing it to them and saying make it happen, we are finding them in the flow of things."

Teen prodigy Josh Giddey flirted with a triple-double with 19 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds for Adelaide while Daniel Johnson (29 points, nine rebounds) was enormous in the paint in the continued absence of the injured Isaac Humphries. 

Sunday Dech had an enormous first half with 20 points while Jack McVeigh was influential late on his way to 18 points and eight rebounds.

Giddey said it was disappointing to have a chance to win the match while undermanned.

"We scored, they scored - we kept trading buckets," he said.

"We could have broken the game, we had many chances to do it but we didn't execute what we needed to do down the stretch.

"Credit to Sobey and Vic, they hit some big shots down the stretch and we've got to be better than that."

Sixers coach Conner Henry said there were still positive signs from the close loss especially with the knowledge Paul should make his debut Sunday against Perth and Humphries' return is closing in.

"You are seeing what we are going through, this is a great group of guys," he said.

"We have changed imports, we have our second import (Brandon Paul) training with us right now ... we have lost arguably one of the top 10 players in the league in Ice (Humphries).

"So we have taken a couple of blows and yet we are still fighting and playing hard. We just didn't execute things down the stretch."

Adelaide controlled the tempo early and reaped the rewards with Dech draining a pair of triples and Johnson filling up the bucket with seven quick points as the 36ers took a 15-11 early advantage.

The 36ers were full of tricks as Dech and Tony Crocker slammed home dunks and Giddey splashed another triple as Adelaide pushed their advantage out to seven points. 

Brisbane found tough baskets to graft their way back but it was a former Bullet in Jeremy Kendle who splashed the final points of the quarter to give Adelaide a 29-25 quarter-time lead.

A slice of individual brilliance from Sobey who went coast to coast levelled the scores once again as the Bullets pushed the tempo but the 36ers were happy to slow it right back down, compose their plays and before too long they led by 10 points.

A late Sobey flurry brought Brisbane back into the match again, but it was the 36ers with the 62-56 half-time lead.

Johnson was handing out dimes left, right and centre after the break with a clever pass to Law in the key and a behind the back flick to Sobey which helped the Bullets come back to within a single point. Then the import hit a shot-clock beating triple to help his team steal back the lead. He wasn't finished there.

Johnson posterised Keanu Pinder before up the other end a scare went into the Adelaide camp when Giddey stepped on the foot of a defender and fell in Matt Hodgson. Still Hodgson picked up his fifth foul.

It was a tight tussle from there until the finish line but it was Sobey who was the deciding factor as the Bullets solidified their hold on a top-four spot.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 9
NBL CUP WEEK 4

BRISBANE BULLETS 109 (Sobey 30, Law 22, Cadee 16)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 104 (Johnson 29, Dech 20, Giddey 19) 

POINTS AWARDED – Brisbane Bullets 5, Adelaide 36ers 2

BOX SCORE