Johnson Hits Sunshine Stoush Winner

It hasn’t taken long for 376-game NBA scorer Tyler Johnson to turn game winner for the Brisbane Bullets as he hit the last shot in the 77-76 win over the Cairns Taipans at the NBL Blitz on Tuesday night.

Johnson was playing just his second game for the Bullets this week at the Blitz in Darwin a week and-a-half out from the opening of NBL23. 

He might have thought his night was over too before coach James Duncan pulled him off the bench for the last couple of minutes of what turned out to be an exciting and thrilling affair between the Queensland rivals.

New Taipan DJ Hogg made a remarkable start hitting four three-pointers in his first appearance in less than four minutes to open the game, but it was fresh NBL1 championship winners Harry Froling, Tanner Krebs, DJ Mitchell and Devondrick Walker who helped Brisbane work on top.

However, Bul Kuol was spectacular for Cairns and gave his team the lead late before it was time for Johnson to step up. He hit the game winner with just 15 seconds remaining on the back of rookie Kody Stattmann saving the ball from going out of bounds and getting it back to him. Johnson showed glimpses as to why he averaged 9.6 points in the NBA including 13.7 in the 2016/17 season for the Miami Heat.

Johnson finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists on 4/8 shooting for the Bullets while it was NBL1 West MVP and Grand Final MVP Walker who top-scored with 16 points on 4/7 shooting from downtown.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A simple lay-up for Tyler Johnson (<a href="https://twitter.com/Pusha650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Pusha650</a>) for the win, but how&#39;s the awareness from <a href="https://twitter.com/kodystatt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kodystatt</a> to keep the play alive?! ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> <a href="https://t.co/BrKoR3ZjAz">pic.twitter.com/BrKoR3ZjAz</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1572192595471900675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Mitchell is fresh off winning the NBL1 North title and he put up 12 points while Froling contributed 11 points and eight rebounds and Nathan Sobey 10 points in just nine minutes. Aron Baynes got another run under his belt with nine rebounds in 21 minutes.

Hogg started the game on fire for Cairns as he stepped into play for the first time at the Blitz while fellow big Keanu Pinder didn’t suit up. The Texas A&M alum couldn’t quite keep his hot shooting going ended up with 15 points on 5/13 shooting while not attempting a field goal inside the arc.

Kuol was tremendous for Cairns with 21 points while just as exciting was what development player Josh Davey provided. 

He finished with 10 points and eight rebounds, but his energy and hustle was infectious and showed exactly why coach Adam Forde wanted him on board. Forde coached against him out west where Davey honed his rebounding craft at the Lakeside Lightning from WA basketball great Jarrad Prue. 

After sitting out Saturday's game with the Perth Wildcats, Taipans import big DJ Hogg made the most remarkable of early impacts in his first time in orange by connecting on four three-pointers in the opening three and-a-half minutes.

By the time he hit his fourth, Cairns was up 20-4 with fellow import Shannon Scott hitting two buckets and the hustle on the boards of Josh Davey influential.

Brisbane was able to steady from there having weathered the storm and eight quick points from Nathan Sobey helped cut the Cairns lead to 29-21 after one.

Devondrick Walker then helped spark Brisbane to score the opening nine points of the second period to grab the lead before NBL1 North championship winner DJ Mitchell dropped consecutive three balls on the back of Hogg hitting his fifth of the evening.

It became a three-point party with Mirko Djeric and Bul Kuol (two) hitting going into half-time, but on the back of some good work inside from Harry Froling and a nice driving layup from Sobey, the Bullets were up 46-43 at the main break.

Brisbane then opened up the second half with three balls from Tanner Krebs and Walker as they continued their form from winning NBL1 championships. Kuol wasn’t going to let the Snakes go away, though, and he hit the game's next eight points.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bul Kuol with another AND-ONE to tie things up in the fourth! ?<a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CairnsTaipans</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OrangeArmy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OrangeArmy</a> <a href="https://t.co/0yGvB3qGzc">pic.twitter.com/0yGvB3qGzc</a></p>&mdash; Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1572189233510776832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Froling was doing good work down low, though, and helped the Bullets to the 58-54 three quarter-time lead and then Aron Baynes scored his only points of the night early in the fourth term to keep Brisbane on top.

Walker then nailed a couple of more three-pointers to keep the Bullets in front, but the Taipans weren’t giving up and Kuol took it to the hole and converted a three-point play. Ben Ayre then nailed a three-pointer before Krebs regained the lead for the Bullets.

Mitchell and Kuol traded buckets, but the last say of the night came from former NBA star Tyler Johnson who hit the game-winner and Brisbane won by a point.

Day 6 at the NBL Blitz in Darwin on Wednesday will start with the Sydney Kings playing South East Melbourne Phoenix while Melbourne United will then be facing the Perth Wildcats.

The Taipans will wrap up their time at the Blitz on Thursday night against the Tasmania JackJumpers while the Bullets will take part in the last game of the tournament on Friday night against Melbourne United.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL BLITZ – DAY 5

BRISBANE BULLETS 77 (Walker 16, Mitchell 12, Froling 11) 
CAIRNS TAIPANS 76 (Kuol 21, Hogg 15, Davey 10)

BOX SCORE