Brisbane Bullets to chase a hat-trick of NBL wins when they host Cairns

The unbeaten Brisbane Bullets are aiming to “get better” when they host Cairns at Nissan Arena.

Bullets star Nathan Sobey isn’t “satisfied” with his side’s positive start to the NBL season despite the unbeaten Brisbane aiming for a hat-trick of wins on Saturday night against the Cairns Taipans at Nissan Arena.

Confidence is high in the Brisbane camp after an upset 89-84 victory on Thursday night over the New Zealand Breakers in Auckland.

Sobey was superb in the win, with the 33-year-old guard’s performance including a game-high 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists,

However, Sobey wants more from himself and his teammates.

“We’ll definitely take the wins and keep building from it, but with the group we have, we’re not going to be satisfied,” he said.

“We know how good we can be. To be 2-0 to start the season feels great for now, but we’ve got to continue to build from where we’re at.”

Nathan Sobey is in good form ahead of Saturday night’s Queensland derby. Picture: Dave Rowland/Getty Images

Sobey said the “biggest difference” at the Bullets this season under new coach Justin Schueller compared with the club’s disappointing 2022-2 campaign was having players that “want to get better day in, day out”.

“We’re hungry,” he said.

“We’ll go back and look at what we did right (against the Breakers), and things we can use going into Saturday, but the page will be fully flipped and we’ll be ready for that one (against Cairns) for sure.”

Schueller promised the Bullets would not underestimate the Taipans, who also had a win on Thursday night when they beat South-East Melbourne Phoenix 87-80 at the Cairns Convention Centre to bounce back from a first-up 98-87 loss to the Breakers.

“There’s no easy games in this league,” Schueller said.

“We want to learn from the stuff we can get better at and then just keep growing as a group.

“We’re playing against these great sides, but it is really about us and our steps forward. That’s constantly what we’re talking about.”

The Taipans’ NBL Next Star Bobi Klintman, whose performance against the Phoenix was highlighted by a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds, also said that he wasn’t “satisfied”.

“We’re going to keep going,” Klintman said.

Taipans coach Adam Forde said: “Right now, we’re like a lion cub that’s got the prey in our mouth, but we don’t know how to kill it yet. We’ll keep nurturing that and get better.

“We don’t get away with just getting the win (against the Phoenix). It’s important that we keep addressing the things we need to improve on.

Originally published as Brisbane Bullets to chase a hat-trick of NBL wins when they host Cairns