The Brisbane Bullets showed touches of their championship winning form in blowing the Gold Coast out of Saturday's NBL local derby.

The only victory easier than Brisbane's 121-93 win was Labor's stunning election landslide.

With Dillon Boucher starting in the absence of skipper Sam Mackinnon (knee) and fellow big Craig Bradshaw (ankle) also out injured, Brisbane reverted to small ball and were too hot for the Blaze to handle.

Boucher failed to score a point in 27 minutes.

But he repaid his coach with an energetic performance, disrupting the Gold Coast's offensive rhythm and doing the intangibles that don't always show up on the stats sheet.

American import Dusty Rychart headed the score sheet with a game high 32 points and 12 rebounds but it was a team win with Ebe Ere piling on 29 points and Mick Hill 22.

Prior to the tip off the Bullets paid tribute to their assistant coach Ron Radliff - a crowd favourite for his amazing three-point shooting exploits during the 1980s - retiring his No.22 singlet in which he played the majority of his 263 NBL games.

Radliff's singlet was unfurled before the game alongside the No.30 singlet worn by Bullets legend Leroy Loggins in the presence of former two-time championship winning coach Brian Kerle.

The presentation fired up the fans and the Bullets players with the opening minutes of the clash extremely physical.

Blaze imports Jason Crowe and Jauquin (Jauquin) Hawkins both hit the pine hard as Brisbane conceded five team fouls in the first three-and-a-half minutes of action.

Bullets coach Joey Wright was forced to bench guard CJ Bruton after he gave up three fouls in the space of one minute as the Blaze attacked the basket aggressively.

The contest ebbed and flowed with Brisbane ahead 25-24 at quarter-time after Brad Williamson lit up off the bench with eight rapid fire points.

The Blaze put their nose in front 29-28 when Crowe nailed one of his two three-pointers on the way to 12 first half points but Brisbane upped the tempo to get out to a 13-point lead on the back of two bombs from Mick Hill to go into halftime 58-50 ahead.

The Gold Coast just didn't have enough contributors, Harvey and Hawkins sharing the scoring honours with 16 each.

Crowe tried hard while Hawkins drifted in and out the game.

Despite their height advantage the Gold Coast were smashed 50 to 34 on the boards.

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP