Forget and fire: Bullets embrace "goldfish" approach

Brisbane Bullets coach Justin Schueller didn’t like things he saw in the second half on Friday night against the Illawarra Hawks, but it will simply help spur his team's motivation to take on the Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday.

The Bullets were back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday night, having won five of their past six matches and trying to topple the league-leading Hawks, and for 25 minutes they were on track to do that.

Brisbane led by as much as 10 points in the second quarter and were still up six midway through the third, but only managed another 23 points the rest of the game, while Illawarra piled on 47. In the end, the Bullets fell 102-84. 

What stood out to Schueller was the 22 turnovers the Bullets coughed up, but they don't dwell on it for too long. 

"That goldfish mentality is exactly what we're talking about," Schueller said.

"We'll allow ourselves to be miserable and grumpy right now, but we get two hours on that and then we reset our mindset and get ready to understanding what it takes to be successful as a group.

"That's the belief I've got in this team, is that some guys did have some down nights and other guys continued to have a successful night, but collectively we'll continue to get around each other and find a way."

While the Bullets have been wanting to play at a higher pace in recent weeks and in their last five wins have been averaging 111 points, Schueller felt their best recipe for success was to try and slow the game down against the Hawks.

Given Illawarra arrived having won four straight and averaging over 111 points themselves in their past six games, that did appear a good strategy early on.

However, once the Hawks were able to force the pace in their favour and also disrupt the Bullets at the offensive end by forcing turnovers and rushed shots, that's where Schueller saw the game get out of Brisbane's grasp.

"I felt like as the game got to a higher pace which we knew we had to make it a little bit in mud, they kind of got the ascendancy in that part," he said.

"We took a lot of one pass, one shot type offence which isn’t us and I think when we do review it and look at that part there'll be absolute positives that we want to carry over into this next one.

"There'll also be stuff that we know is not us and we'll just check that at the door and move forward."

Schueller is now glad that the Bullets get a chance to hit back on Sunday in Tasmania, albeit with another huge challenge against a team with seven straight wins.

"We've got a group that when opportunity comes, guys step up," Schueller said.

"Tristan Devers played some big minutes tonight and meaningful minutes having to guard two of the hottest guys in the league, and he did an outstanding job in that time.

"There's going to be opportunity there and we're hopeful Deng (Adel) will be back for that one too, but we'll wait and see what that really looks like tomorrow.

"The opportunity for these guys to compete again so quickly is definitely an advantage for us ... there's not a guy in that room right now that doesn’t just want to get back out there."