Eleven points down. A new coach, a rebuilt roster and a Lithuanian point guard playing his first NBL game. The Brisbane Bullets could hardly have scripted a better test for opening night.
They passed it, overturning that second-half deficit to beat the New Zealand Breakers 88–85 at a sold-out Pat Rafter Arena on Tuesday and give Will Weaver a win in his first regular-season game as coach.
Arnas Velička was at the centre of the turnaround. The 26-year-old finished his NBL debut with 23 points and 14 assists, while his connection with Tyrell Harrison became increasingly difficult for New Zealand to contain as the game tightened.
It wasn’t polished. Brisbane committed 10 first-half turnovers and missed 13 free throws, leaving the Breakers with chances to steal it late. But after a six-win season and 13 consecutive losses to finish NBL26, the manner of the win was difficult to ignore.
The Game Turned In The Third
New Zealand led 26–19 after the opening quarter and 44–37 at half-time, with Harrison already carrying three fouls. When Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s three pushed the margin back to 11 early in the third, Brisbane finally found its response.
The Bullets scored the next 10 points. Velička supplied five of the first seven before Nate Hinton struck from outside, and by three-quarter-time Mitch Norton’s late three had Brisbane ahead 65–63.
Harrison then opened the fourth with three baskets, all created by Velička, as Brisbane pushed clear. Velička’s fifth three of the night stretched the lead to eight with seven minutes remaining, but New Zealand fought its way back and eventually drew level.
Hinton answered with a three before a Lat Mayen offensive rebound gave Harrison the chance to finish with a crucial dunk. Those extra possessions mattered: Brisbane collected 15 offensive rebounds after managing only two in the first half.
Even then, the game wasn’t safe. Max Mackinnon made two free throws with 16.1 seconds remaining to put Brisbane three ahead, Norton blocked Jackson-Cartwright’s three-point attempt with 12 seconds left, and Velička then missed two free throws that gave the Breakers one last opening. Jackson-Cartwright’s final attempt from deep missed at the buzzer.
Brisbane had its first win, 88–85.
Photo credit: DaHuzyBru/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Fourteen Assists, And Seven Went To Harrison
Velička played 35 minutes, hit five of nine attempts from three and committed only one turnover while directing Brisbane’s offence. His 14 assists were the most by a player on NBL debut and the most recorded by a Bullet in a 40-minute game.
Seven ended in baskets for Harrison.
Four of them came in the final quarter, with Harrison finishing on 22 points from 9-of-13 shooting alongside seven rebounds and four blocks. The sequence early in the fourth was particularly revealing: three straight Harrison baskets, each assisted by Velička.
It’s easy to see why the combination interests Brisbane. Velička’s shooting means defenders cannot simply wait for the pass, while the 214cm Harrison gives him a formidable target when the defence moves towards the ball.
Former Bullet and NBA champion Aron Baynes was impressed enough to suggest the pair could develop into the NBL’s best pick-and-roll combination. One September game cannot establish that, but New Zealand received the first look at the problem.
[INSIDE IMAGE 2 — ARNAS VELIČKA]
Photo credit: Augustas Didžgalvis/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Why Brisbane Handed Him The Keys
Velička may be a new name to many Australian basketball followers, but Brisbane didn’t recruit an untested point guard.
The Lithuanian came to the Bullets after an MVP-winning season with Neptūnas, averaging 14.4 points, seven assists, four rebounds and 1.5 steals while shooting 41 per cent from three. He has twice finished as a leading assist provider in European competition and has extensive international experience with Lithuania.
At EuroBasket 2025, Velička averaged 10.6 points and 5.4 assists. His tournament included 21 points, 11 assists and five rebounds against Latvia in the Round of 16, followed by 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds against Greece in the quarter-finals.
Weaver had already described him during the preseason as the “head of the snake”, a reference to the decisions he makes with the basketball. Opening night showed what that can mean once Brisbane’s offence is moving around him.
The 23 points will attract attention, particularly after five threes, but the 14 assists against one turnover may tell more about the role he has been brought here to play.
There was one obvious flaw. Velička went 4-of-10 at the free-throw line, including the two late misses that kept New Zealand alive, and made no attempt afterwards to hide his frustration with them.
For Brisbane, having its new point guard leave a record-breaking debut thinking about what he could have done better isn’t a bad place to begin.
14 assists
5 rebounds
5 three-pointers
1 turnover
7 assists to Tyrell Harrison
Six Wins, Then A Rebuild
The contrast with February is stark. Brisbane finished NBL26 at the bottom of the ladder with a 6–27 record, lost its final 13 games and was the lowest-scoring team in the competition at 82.1 points per game.
Weaver subsequently arrived as both head coach and President of Basketball Operations, with much of the roster reshaped around a returning core that included Harrison and captain Mitch Norton.
Forty minutes of a new season cannot tell Brisbane whether that rebuild has worked. It did, however, deliver something the Bullets went more than two months without at the end of the last one: a win.
This time they had to come from 11 down to get it.
The First Boondall Test
Friday night brings the Bullets back to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall, where Illawarra awaits at 7:30pm AEST.
The Hawks have already faced the other half of Brisbane’s opening-week equation, losing 95–81 to New Zealand on Sunday. Comparative scores offer little certainty this early in a season, but Illawarra will arrive looking for its first win and with some early roster uncertainty after reports the club is preparing to part ways with championship-winning import Darius Days.
Brisbane has its own work to do. Thirteen missed free throws and 10 first-half turnovers made Tuesday much harder than it needed to be, while Illawarra now has something the Breakers didn’t: a full regular-season game showing exactly what Velička and Harrison can do together.
That makes Friday a different examination of the partnership. New Zealand had to work Velička out while he was playing; the Hawks have had time to prepare for him.
After a 6–27 season, Brisbane won’t find any answers about its future in the opening week of September. What it has found is a point guard who looked immediately at home, a partnership with Harrison that demanded attention from the first game, and a win to start again.
On Tuesday night, Brisbane met its new Bullets. On Friday night, Boondall does.
Published 24-Sept-2026
