Sixers Go Back to Back Against Bullets

The Adelaide 36ers have made a perfect start to their Hungry Jack’s NBL preseason by defeating the Brisbane Bullets for the second time in three days.

Adelaide got off to a strong start on its way to a 87-62 win at Titanium Security Arena on Sunday afternoon, to follow a 93-75 victory on Friday night.

Daniel Johnson led the 36ers in scoring with 19 points while NBL Next Star Josh Giddey again impressed with nine points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals.

36ers coach Conner Henry was pleased with the two preseason games, believing his club took positive steps forward towards the regular season.

“We are just looking to gauge where we are at. We are focused on trying to get better every day and I think we improved this weekend which is good,” Henry said.

“For both games over the weekend, even when we got sideways a couple of times during each game, we were able to settle down and get back to what we are trying to run.”

The Bullets were missing a number of players in both games. Nathan Sobey finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Despite the two losses this weekend, Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis says the Bullets can take a number of lessons from the results. He also added it was good to see a host of Brisbane youngsters receive extended playing time.

“There is lots to take away from this weekend. That’s what the preseason is about. It gave us the opportunity to go and find out a little bit about ourself and the areas where you need to work on. It was good from that perspective to get those learnings,” Lemanis said.

“We were down on numbers in terms of contracted players who were playing for us, so it was a fantastic opportunity to see some of the younger guys play significant minutes and understand where they’re at in their development.”

The 2020/21 Hungry Jack’s NBL season is due to commence in mid-January.