Brisbane survived some anxious moments and a stinging verbal blast from coach Joey Wright to open their NBL account with a 98-85 win over defending title holders Melbourne.

The Tigers hit the Brisbane Convention Centre court without their gun 213cm centre Chris Anstey who took ill on Monday and was still in hospital on a drip recovering from severe dehydration.

Tigers coach Al Westover expressed concerns about Anstey's health after the game.

"He's in hospital, I don't know what's going on," said Westover, hoping to have him back for the match against Townsville next Wednesday.

"He had some x-rays and they gave him some morphine last night.

"Whatever he has is pretty bad."

Westover said Anstey hadn't played a lot in the pre-season so the Tigers didn't need to make too many adjustments.

"We didn't shoot the ball very well and we didn't take care of the ball," said.

Brisbane's marquee players CJ Bruton (15 points and eight assists) and skipper Sam Mackinnon (23 points, six rebounds and six assists) stepped up each time the visitors made a comeback run and the final 13-point margin flattered the Bullets.

Had Anstey been a target inside, the Tigers may have gone home with the points.

Still, Brisbane has champion centre Mark Bradtke and crack shooting guard Stephen Black to return to their line-up next week and their presence will add more strike power to the Bullets roster.

Bullets forward Dusty Rychart was on song with 10 first quarter points as Brisbane opened the game with a flurry of points.

New Zealand recruit Dillon Boucher scored their opening points of the clash, then grabbed a steal at the opposite end before dishing off an assist to Mackinnon.

The points kept flowing for Brisbane's up tempo offence and when guard Mick Hill drained a sweet three-pointer the Bullets had opened up a sizeable 25-8 lead.

The Tigers eventually found some form with Axel Dench, Dave Thomas, Stephen Hoare chipping for an unanswered 8-0 run which cut Brisbane's lead to 30-20 at quarter time.

Brisbane again got out to a 16-point lead midway through the second quarter but again the Tigers came back at them and again the visitors went to the long break trailing by 10.

Melbourne got it back to 64-62 late in the third quarter before Brisbane cut loose with three big plays including an Alley-Oop play from Hill to Mackinnon.

Brisbane coach Joey Wright made the point that the Bullets were without Bradtke and Black and that the effort to win was good.

"Anstey is head and shoulders above any other player in this league but we were missing a couple of our big guns too.

"We didn't have Mark Bradtke either, it was a good effort for us to get out there and win."

Wright gave all the new players CJ Bruton, Boucher, Rychart and Ebi Ere pass marks.

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