Bullets Gun Down Adelaide

The Brisbane Bullets have sent out a warning to the rest of the sides in the NBL’s Philips Championship after demolishing the second placed Adelaide 36ers 130-109 tonight at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

After all of the hype surrounding Brisbane in the preseason the Bullets finally lived up to their lofty expectations this evening, dominating Adelaide in every facet of the game to show all and sundry that they are definitely a title threat this season.

The Bullets scored 30 plus points in every quarter and by the end of the game had matched the season high in points scored in a match, a feat set by the table topping Sydney Kings earlier this year against the New Zealand Breakers.

Brisbane’s backcourt duo of Stephan Black and Derek Rucker were the stars for the home side combining for 50 points and 21 assists.

Black did most of his damage in the first half scoring 22 of his game high 28 points in the opening two quarters. He also flirted with a triple double picking up seven rebounds and seven assists.

Rucker saved his best work for the back end of the game nailing six three pointers in the second half to see him end the game with 22 points, but his contribution did not end there as he dished out an amazing 14 assists for the game.

“I just tried to make an impact on the game any way I could and I realised I was able to get into the gaps early in the game and you know often that does so much for the other guys confidence if you are able to set them up for easy shots,” Rucker told Fox Sports after the game.

“If we can play through these next three weeks and kind of work our way up the ladder then I think that will give us a lot of confidence going into the last rounds of the season.”

The Bullets big men also did a great job throughout the game with centre Mark Bradtke scoring 22 points and grabbing nine rebounds, while swingman Sam Mackinnon filled up the stat sheet with 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

Adelaide managed to get seven players into double figures in scoring. The best being youngster Oscar Forman who scored 18 points and he was closely followed by forward pairing Dusty Rychart and Jacob Holmes with 17 points a piece.

The fans at the Brisbane Convention Centre got to witness an offensive feast in the opening term as the Bullets exploded for a massive 39 point quarter that was keyed by point guard Stephen Black who caught fire scoring 13 points for the period.

Jacob Holmes did his best to keep the 36ers in the contest early on playing a lone hand with 10 points for the quarter, but his efforts weren’t nearly enough as the Bullets stormed into the first break with a handy 12 point lead (39-27).

Brisbane continued to punish Adelaide in the second quarter with their high octane fast break offence and no matter what the 36ers tried they had no answer for the Bullets stylish play.

The highlight of the second period was definitely Sam Mackinnon’s one handed slam dunk off a sensational lob pass from Rucker and that play seemed to break Adelaide’s heart as they capitulated over the remaining few minutes of the half to go into the main break trailing by 22 points (70-48).

A half time fire up from coach Phil Smyth seemed to get the 36ers minds back on the job in the third term as they opened the quarter with a 13-6 run to cut the deficit back to 17 points midway through the period.

After dishing out 10 assists in the first half Derek Rucker decided to turn his hand to scoring in the third term. The veteran guard landed four long bombs over the latter part of the quarter to help the Bullets hold Adelaide at bay and send the home side into the final break ahead by 15 points (100-85).

The 36ers managed to close to within 12 points of the Bullets after two minutes of play in the fourth quarter, but a big three pointer from Rucker steadied the ship for Brisbane and from that point on they were able to cruise home to record a comfortable 21 point win.

The Bullets (7-11) first win over a top six side this season sees them hang on to eighth place on the ladder and they will look to move further up the competition table on Sunday when they travel to the Pigpen to take on the slumping West Sydney Razorbacks.

Adelaide (14-5) will look to rebound quickly from this loss when they go back to comfortable confines of the Distinctive Homes Dome on Friday night to face their archrivals, the Perth Wildcats.

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