'We're good when he's on the court'

Nobody illustrated the identity the Brisbane Bullets want to create more than Josh Bannan in Thursday night's win against New Zealand. 

Bannan had a horror shooting night and finished up going 3/15 from the field, but not once did he let that impact his effort.

What was most impressive - despite that shooting performance, he still had 15 points, while going 8/8 at the foul line. He still had 8 rebounds and 3 assists, and he scored 9 of his points in the fourth quarter with the game on the line.

"What Josh does is let me coach him and I took him out a couple of times to talk about the crowd he was seeing," Schueller said.

"I didn’t think he put up a bad shot, but there might have been a couple of others better and he took that on and then found that.

"What we know is that we are a really good group when Josh is on the floor. We missed him in the first few rounds, there's no hiding it, but the reason that is is because of the consistency he gives us at the defensive end, his effort on the glass and he will always play tough and compete.

"That's why when I came on board he was the target that he was and we'll continue to build around him for a long time to come."

The Bullets claimed their second straight victory, with an 84-73 win over Brisbane, and Bannan played a massive role in just his third game back from a hand victory.

"You don't have to beat around the bush too much, I was allergic to putting the orange thing (the ball) in the orange thing (the ring) tonight, but it was awesome to see the team's togetherness," Bannan said.

"That was a grind it out game and it was sloppy, and you need to find ways to win those games and there wasn’t a point in the fourth quarter where I didn’t feel confident in us, and our ability to get it done.

"There's something with this group ... in close games I just feel very good about us down the stretch, and it was great to see guys contributing and it was awesome to get another win."

Schueller is fully aware that his roster might not have the big-game star power of a lot of the teams they come up against, but he'll back his players in against anyone.

"We want to be a grind it out group and we might not be the most talented group in people's eyes, but we are going to be the one that's together and trying to play the hardest," Schueller said.

"We're building in that way and in a game where we gave up too many offensive rebounds, Keandre (Cook) was able to come and swoop in, and get some big rebounds for us as an example of that.

"I can talk about a number of guys, I thought even in small minutes Tohi (Smith-Milner) and 'Bear' (Jarred Bairstow) had an impact, and 'Whitey' (Isaac White) as well ... we need everyone contributing to their role."

Brisbane now sits seventh on the NBL ladder, with two wins and three losses.

The Bullets will enjoy a nine-day break before their next game against Tasmania on Saturday, October 26 at home.