Sixers Light Up Bullets for 31-point Home Win

With the intensity and energy up led by imports Robert Franks and Antonius Cleveland, the Adelaide 36ers sent a reminder of their potential hammering the hapless Brisbane Bullets 108-77 on Saturday night.

The Sixers were back home at Adelaide Entertainment Centre having lost their past three matches and needing to start making a charge to stay in the playoff hunt.

Not having 401-game great Daniel Johnson didn’t help, but they were coming up against a Bullets team who showed the toll of a difficult few weeks topped off with the continued absence of Tyler Johnson, Tanner Krebs and Tyrell Harrison.

Adelaide had to bring it and did so from the outset. The 36ers blew the game wide open with 15 straight points early doors to lead 17-3 and never looked back.

Sunday Dech set the tone with a pair of three balls, Antonius Cleveland was dynamic all night long and threw down some mighty impressive dunks, Robert Franks was superb, Anthony Drmic fired against his old team and Kai Sotto responded to Johnson's absence.

Adelaide would lead by as much as 33 points in the fourth quarter and won by 31 on the back of shooting 53 per cent from the floor, 12/27 from deep and pulling down 47 rebounds to 36, and delivering 18 second chance points, 24 from turnovers and 50 in the paint to 38.

It improves the 36ers to 7-8 on the season to remain in touch of sixth spot while the Bullets are struggling at 4-11 having lost the past four.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anything Cleveland can do Franks can do better? ?<br><br>Robo gets in on the dunkathon ?<br><br>Catch the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/OTgX1Pa1QW">pic.twitter.com/OTgX1Pa1QW</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604060329964511232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Adelaide's imports were dynamic with Franks finishing with 25 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals on 11/17 shooting. Cleveland also had 20 points, nine boards, three assists and three steals on 8/12 from the field.

Drmic enjoyed it against his former team with 16 points while Sotto contributed 13 points and eight rebounds, Dech 10 points, four rebounds and four assists, and Nick Marshall 10 points.

Sixers coach CJ Bruton was proud of the way his group came out to start their second half of the season on the right foot.

"I'm definitely proud of how we battled this week at practice and then coming into the game last minute knowing we were undermanned," Bruton said. 

"The way it was next man standing to be able to step up and play, and I thought that the way this man next to me (Franks) with his mindset and how he came out and played, and got after it on the offensive end and defensive end was really good to see."

Jason Cadee did what he could for Brisbane with 18 points while DJ Mitchell and Andrew White III added 12 points, and Gorjok Gak and Rasmus Bach 10.

Bullets caretaker coach Greg Vanderjagt just felt his team wasn’t as switched on as they needed to be.

"It was a really tough 40 minutes of basketball. We were down 20 in the first quarter and I think we lacked some intent defensively in terms of the physicality and willingness to do the things that are hard tonight," Vanderjagt said.

"The communication, concentration, attention to detail are areas that as a collective, and it's everybody that's involved in it, is where we need to get better. 

"Sometimes there's great effort and intent, and other times I'll use the end of the third as an example. This guy (Gak) next to me gets a dunk and we feel good about ourselves, then Drmic runs the floor and gets a layup in two seconds.

"Our attention to detail on defensive transition was incredibly poor."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">10 points in eight minutes? DJ Mitchell is a walking bucket ?<br><br>Catch the final quarter live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/jcX3FoMsRF">pic.twitter.com/jcX3FoMsRF</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604062576844820480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Kai Sotto got the start for Adelaide in the absence of Daniel Johnson and opened the game's scoring before a Nathan Sobey three for Brisbane.

The Bullets didn’t score again for more than four minutes when Aron Baynes broke the drought. In between, Adelaide piled on 15 consecutive points that included two triples from Sunday Dech and buckets to Antonius Cleveland, Mitch McCarron and Robert Franks.

Cleveland's dunk party for the night then got started and Anthony Drmic nailed another triple against his old team and the Sixers went into quarter-time leading 28-12 after their best opening period of NBL23.

A massive one-handed slam from Cleveland opened the second term for Adelaide. He threw it down with such ferocity he opened up a cut on his hand. It didn’t stop him though. He threw down three more slams the rest of the half with the Sixers retaining their control.

Jason Cadee was trying to keep Brisbane in the contest with 11 points for the half, but his team shot 1/10 from deep and the 36ers had brought the intensity.

Cleveland and Franks combined for 25 points and 10 rebounds for the half and the 36ers went into the main break leading 54-35 while shooting at 55 per cent as a team.

There was a brief sign of a Bullets fightback to start the second half with the first five points, but it wouldn’t last. Franks responded with a three-point play for Adelaide and then Sotto added his own quick five points including hitting a three.

Another dunk from Cleveland after he picked Nathan Sobey's pocket then set the tone for the Sixers to really put their foot down. 

Franks hit a three and another basket, Cleveland got to the rim again and then Drmic closed the quarter on fire including a shot on the buzzer for Adelaide's lead to have ballooned to 29 by three quarter-time.

That lead got out beyond 30 to start the fourth but to the Bullets' credit they kept fighting it out. A couple of threes to DJ Mitchell and a 7-0 run helped bring the margin back to 21.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Antonius Cleveland is running is own dunk contest tonight - and we&#39;re here for it ?<br><br>Follow the action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/5JNJexJJ7E">pic.twitter.com/5JNJexJJ7E</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1604058320339628032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Adelaide wasn’t going to end on that flat note, though, and got rolling again to put up their highest score of the season and record their biggest win to the tune of 31 points.

The Sixers remain at home to play the Tasmania JackJumpers now on Monday night while the Bullets finally can take stock after three games in a week before playing the New Zealand Breakers at home on Wednesday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 11

ADELAIDE 36ERS 108 (Franks 25, Cleveland 20, Drmic 16)

BRISBANE BULLETS 77 (Cadee 18, Mitchell 12, White III 12) 

BOX SCORE