Brisbane Bullets looking to overcome recent Cairns hoodoo and kickstart their NBL season

The Bullets have found it hard to win games up in Cairns in recent times and Lamar Patterson is determined to turn that trend on its head on Saturday night and kickstart Brisbane’s season.

Brisbane Bullets' Lamar Patterson and Cairns Taipans DJ Newbill are ready to shape up on court in Cairns for the `Sunshine StoushÕ. PICTURE: STEWART MCLEAN

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Bullets star Lamar Patterson does not know what it is like to win an NBL game in Cairns.

And he would like to change that on Saturday night when Brisbane take on the Taipans in the ‘Sunshine Stoush’ at the Cairns Convention Centre.

The Snakes won both of their home games against the Bullets in the regular season in 2018-19 and towelled up Brisbane in some pre-season clashes in the Far North before the 2019-20 campaign got underway.

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Lamar Patterson and DJ Newbill will renew old rivalries on Saturday night.

Patterson wants to turn that trend on its head but knows the Bullets will not have it all their own way.

“It would be nice to get a win up here. It’s a tough place to get that ‘W’ but that’s just the NBL, every game is hard to win,’’ he said.

“It doesn’t matter where you are on the standings in this league, it’s always difficult on the road so you’ve got to be well-prepared and come to play every night. That’s what professional basketball is all about.

“That loss to Sydney last week was a little funky but it didn’t break our spirit at all.

“It’s still early in the season and how you bounce back from a loss is important and we want to take care of business against Cairns.’’

Standing in Patterson’s way is import DJ Newbill and the rest of the Taipans who were hurting after a disappointing loss to Illawarra last weekend.

Patterson and Newbill played against each other in college – when Patterson’s Pitt beat Newbill’s Penn State with a buzzer-beater - and they stay in touch when they head home to the US in the NBL off-season.

Brisbane will be looking to boucne back after losing to Sydney.

Patterson was quick to remind Newbill of the college result when they met at a photoshoot on the Cairns Esplanade on Friday.

Newbill said last year’s results, when Cairns won three of the four Sunshine Stoush match-ups, counted for nothing as the Taipans were a new group and Brisbane had tweaked their line-up.

“We’ve just got to play our game. After our last loss, we looked at ourselves in the mirror and we had a good week at practice,’’ he said.

“Right now we have to figure out how to be more consistent.

“You want to win every game you play but with this game and the extra hype and extra media attention, it means that little bit more. Especially playing against a guy like Lamar, it’s always good to match-up with a guy you played against in college.’’