Doyle scores 28 as Melbourne see out Brisbane scare

Written by Lachlan Sherriff

(Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

It hasn't been an ideal week for the Brisbane Bullets.

A humiliating Wednesday night on the Gold Coast saw the Bullets lose 113-84 against New Zealand, who are one of only two teams with less wins then the Bullets. In that game, Casey Prather injured his knee, and it's now confirmed he'll miss the rest of the season.

As if that wasn't bad enough, superstar import Jaylen Adams left the club on Friday, after only thirteen games in a Brisbane uniform.

Of course, Adams' wasn't producing to anything near to the level we saw from him in Sydney. Not only was he averaging 12.3 points a game, a major drop off from the 20.1 points a night we saw from Adams in his MVP season at Sydney, but his defense was subpar and his effort was heavily criticized. But even still, a superstar import leaving halfway through a season is never ideal.

It looks like Brisbane will sign Ian Clark to replace Adams, but nothing's official yet.

So with no Adams and no Clark, Brisbane travelled down to Victoria to take on Melbourne United, which is ironically Clark's former team.

After two losses in a row to ruin their undefeated start to the season, United recovered with a 92-81 win over SEM Phoenix last weekend. With Melbourne back on the winners list, and the Bullets going through a week from hell, United were expected to win heavily.

But early on, it was clear the Bullets had other plans. The score was tied at 24-24 at quarter time, in large parts thanks to Dakota Mathias and Tyrell Harrison, who each had nine points at quarter time.

For Melbourne, Dash Daniels made his presence known off the bench with six points in only three minutes, while Milton Doyle also had six points at the end of the first quarter.

But Doyle wasn't done yet, exploding for nine points in the first four minutes of the second quarter. By the time Stu Lash called a timeout, Melbourne had taken a 40-28 lead, and Brisbane's chances of pulling off an upset had quickly lessened.

Brisbane would make up a bit of the deficit, but still found themselves down 47-38 at half time. At this point, Milton Doyle had seventeen points along with three rebounds and two assists.

(ESPN)

Brisbane were still getting a lot out of Tyrell Harrison, who had twelve points and seven rebounds, as well as Dakota Mathias, who had eleven points and four rebounds. Unfortunately for the Bullets, no one else had scored more then three points by the end of the first half.

By the end of the third quarter, Brisbane clearly needed additional help, as they found themselves down 72-54 at three quarter time. But incredibly, they would find that help in the final ten minutes.

Sixteen points from Mitch Norton in the final quarter, as well as eleven from Lamar Patterson, put Brisbane within three points of Melbourne with a minute to play. John Cain Arena was silenced, and Brisbane were on the cusp of pulling off both one of the best upsets and one of the greatest comebacks of the season.

Unfortunately, a layup from Tyson Walker extended the lead back to five points, before Shea Ili, in his first game back from injury, iced the game at the free throw line to give Melbourne a 99-93 win.

Milton Doyle was the hero of the night for Melbourne, ending with 28 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Kyle Bowen stood out on the glass with seven rebounds, all of them coming on offense.

Nonetheless, after a week of turmoil both on and off the court, a six point loss to the best team in the league in their own stadium is nothing to be ashamed of. And coach Stu Lash thinks there's more positive days ahead despite the bumps in the road earlier in the week.

"I think the effort tonight shows the character of the men in that locker room and that they are hard-working, highly competitive, go about things the right way. I think that really is like who we are and we've been preaching that since the day I came in. Our attitude and our effort, those are things that we can control every single day and I say this time and time again, you wake up with a great attitude and you put forth great effort, you're going to win more days than you lose, you're going to win more games than you lose and that's the foundation of who we are."

- Stu Lash on the direction the Bullets are heading

As for Melbourne's coach Dean Vickerman, he was full of praise for how Brisbane performed after such a tough week.

"I have a great amount of respect for Lamar Patterson as a player. They showed a lot of fight, that's a credit to their team. They lose Casey Prather, which is a massive loss to that group (with) what he's been doing. But to respond and play with the physicality they play with tonight and come out and make shots and never quit, they should be really proud of their team tonight."

- Dean Vickerman on Brisbane's performance

The Bullets will return home to play SEM Phoenix next Thursday, while Melbourne United hit the road to take on Illawarra the following night.