Backs to wall Bullets fingers crossed for Prather

With backs against the wall, Brisbane Bullets coach Stu Lash is confident his team will respond to Wednesday's Ignite Cup performance while everyone is hoping for the best after Casey Prather appeared to injure his knee to top things off.

Even as a three-time championship winner who has been named to an All-First Team previously, Prather could well have been playing the best basketball he ever has in the NBL so far this season.

That continued on Wednesday night despite his team falling 37 points behind the New Zealand Breakers and trailing by 32 at half-time. He already had 16 points by then and had 26 for the game with eight four assists and two steals.

However, when he scored the last of those two points three minutes into the fourth quarter, he landed awkwardly on his knee and immediately knew something was wrong.

Given it was knee problems that kept him off the court for two and-a-half years before arriving in Brisbane midway through NBL24, he had an idea of how bad what he had done was, but it was too early post-match for any prognosis.

"Not at this time (have an update), we talk about brotherhood and obviously we get around him," said coach Lash.

"We love him and will support him, and we'll see what the next 24/48 hours bring on that.

"Sometimes you just need a day or two to really evaluate it, get it looked at and obviously it was his knee so we hope for the best, and we will pray for him."

It was difficult for Lash to front the media so soon after the game while trying to process a potential injury to Prather, but he wasn’t about to give his team an out for their dismal performance.

The Bullets gave up 68 points in the first half to a Breakers team who scored 72 for an entire game in Sydney three days earlier and while Lash had Prather at the front of his thoughts, he wasn’t letting the team performance off the hook.

"It's hard, it's hard because he's a great person and a great ambassador for the club, and he's a leader for us," Lash said.

"We all know what he's been through and what he does for us on the day-to-day, but the one thing this group has proven time and time again this year is that when our backs are up against the wall, we find a way.

"We've faced a lot of adversity this year and have been able to respond and this will only continue to pull our group together, but make no mistake, tonight was an embarrassment for our fans.

"It's just not good enough, not tough enough, not physical enough and if we're going to play like this, we're going to be in for a long season."

Things really came off the rails on Wednesday night for the Bullets in the second quarter where the Breakers put up 41 points while only missing three of their 18 shot attempts, just one of their seven three-point efforts and played some scintillating basketball.

The problem for Brisbane was them fuelling the New Zealand offence by shooting just 6/13 themselves, not having an offensive rebound and having six turnovers, and Lash wasn’t sugar coating that in reflection afterwards.

"You give up 41 points in a quarter and the defence is just not acceptable, it's not at the level it needs to be at," Lash said.

"Coming off a game against Tasmania where we were really proud of our defensive effort and to come in with this, it's a step backwards for us. We'll get better from it quickly.

"We talked quickly after the game and there's a few key areas we need to improve in and it's not an overhaul by any means. You have two or three games a season like this that you flush.

"You don't want to have them in the first third of the year because you only get so many, and our backs are against the wall right now with this and we have to be better."

Even a night that went as badly as Wednesday did for the Bullets isn't without some positive glimmers, and the two players who returned on Saturday from long layoffs Mitch Norton and Jacob Holt competed hard.

Norton's job of trying to contain Parker Jackson-Cartwright was curtailed with the foul calls that went against him, but the captain fought hard in his 14 minutes for six points and two assists with the Bullets -2 with him out there on a night they trailed by as much as 37.

Then there was Holt in his second NBL game and he showed encouraging signs again with five points and two rebounds on 2/2 shooting in his 15 minutes.

"Norto's a pro and an experienced player, and I thought he got a really tough whistle this game for a guy that should have a certain level of respect for what he's done," Lash said.

"The physicality component that certain players and teams are allowed to play with, I just didn’t think that was very consistent for him."

"The positive for Jacob is that in games like this, he can get a little bit of extended minutes and just continue to get experience. He's going to be an important player for us."