How to watch & talking points: Brisbane v SE Melbourne

Thursday, November 20, 2025

brisbane bullets

south east melbourne phoenix

In-form South East Melbourne head North to face a Brisbane in an exciting Round 10 fixture.

Brisbane Bullets v South East Melbourne Phoenix
Thursday, November 20, 7.30pm AEDT
Brisbane Entertainment Centre

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Talking points

Full 40-minutes from the Phoenix
As head coach Josh King discussed following last round win over Cairns, the Phoenix are still working towards producing a full 40-minute performance.

If they are going to contend with the likes of Melbourne, who they faded against in the second half in their recent Throwdown, and Adelaide, the Heartland club needs to play for all four quarters on both sides of the ball.

Having won six of their past seven games, South East Melbourne has shown its in the championship mix, but it's up to the playing group to continue to build that momentum, especially as the competition heads towards the FIBA Break.

Next man up mentality
The Brisbane Bullets will go into Thursday's fixture with South East Melbourne undermanned, with Casey Prather, Sam McDaniels and Tohi Smith-Milner all out injured, while returning recruit Javon Freeman-Liberty and reported signing Terry Taylor aren't with the team yet.

This means the likes of Tyrell Harrison, who is already having a career-best season, Mitch Norton and Dakota Mathias will need to step up for Stu Lash's side.

If they can secure a win in their last game before the FIBA Break, it will give the Bullets, who are expected to get reinforcements back in time for Round 11, momentum in the next phase of the NBL26 campaign.

What they're saying

Brisbane coach Stu Lash on playing in front of the home fans:
"We are itching to have a big time performance at home, we know we have not put the level of play that we're capable of at home.

"It's not from an excuse standpoint by any means, but we've had a ton of home games on the back end of back-to-backs which for the body, it doesn’t feel like a home game.

"Yes, you are playing at home but when you're travelling back from Perth or New Zealand, you don't recover the same way so to be able to have a home game this week with a week at home leading into it, we're really looking forward to that at our home arena, and we'll put forward a great effort."

Phoenix coach Josh King on his team's offensive production:
"I hear we don't have enough firepower on offence, and that we are a defensive-minded team.

"There's two sides to the ball and we want just as much to be good on defence as we want to be good on offence.

"We have a lot of weapons especially when the ball is moving and we are sharing it like we were in the first half [against Cairns].

"Again, I didn't think we did a bad job in the second half, it just got a little sticky.

"[But] we want to be a tough, physical team that again focuses on the defensive side of the ball first and then kind of lets the offence get going from there.

"There's been no coincidence that when we have our best defensive performances, we also have our best offensive performance. The game is all connected and we want to strive for perfection on both sides of the ball."