Big men pair provide bright Bullets future

What Friday in Perth showed is that the Brisbane Bullets have two local centres to build a team around moving forward with Tyrell Harrison and Jacob Holt as coach Darryl McDonald turns his attention to a strong finish at home.

The Bullets might have suffered a 12th straight defeat back on Friday in Perth against the Wildcats but there were some encouraging signs ahead of the season-ending contest this Friday at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre against the Sydney Kings.

The start was disastrous with the 'Cats leading 18-2 in the opening minutes, but for the rest of the night the Bullets maintained pace with them and that included a better three-point shooting night going 42 per cent on making 10/24.

Harrison had missed the previous eight games as well with concussion but was determined to return before the end of the season, and made an immediate impact.

While his time on the court was limited to 14 minutes, he showed how important he is every second he was out there to finish with nine points, four assists and three rebounds with McDonald delighted to have him back.

"It's good to have him back and he was a minutes restriction as you can tell and he was only allowed to play 13 or 14 minutes which is why he was coming in of the middle of quarters every time," McDonald said.

"But it was good to have him back and he's another guy who makes our offence run, we can go through him and for a guy that size he's a good passer and he can find guys so it was good to have him back.

"Even though it's just for the last two games, we know we've got the FIBA window coming back and I think he wanted to get a couple of games in before that so it was good to have him on the floor."

One great positive the Bullets can take from this season and looking ahead to NBL27 is that their five position stocks are well and truly sorted.

Not only is Harrison locked away as potentially the best centre in the NBL, but Jacob Holt has emerged too particularly in his absence as a more than capable big man in the league moving forward as well.

"It's a pretty good two big guys to have locked away and Holty has kinda solidified himself in this league now with how he competes and he plays hard," McDonald said.

"And you know what Tyrell gives us and you just have to put guys around them now and we gotta support those guys, and get some good imports around them and have some good local talent and you could do some things.

"But I think we definitely have to build around those two."

Bullets point guard Hunter Maldonado also continued to impress in Perth to end the game with 18 points, seven assists, six rebounds and three steals on the back of shooting 5/8 from the field, 2/3 from downtown and 6/8 at the foul line.

That was all the while hurting his ankle along the way too, but McDonald likes what he continues to bring having arrived for the last 10 games and has no question he'll be right to take on the Kings this Friday.

"He did his ankle I think it was on the Doolittle up fake where he went to close him out and slipped so he had to come out but he was solid before that and he should be OK for our last game," McDonald said.

"He easily could have sat it out, but actually wanted to come back out to play and I'm glad he did because as much as the score says 20, we did it cut it to 10 and then shot ourselves in the foot so all those little things are what cost us that you can't afford if you want to win games like this.

"But as for Hunter, I think he'll be fine, and he wants to play and it's not going to be that bad. We've got until playing on Friday so he can get rehab done and he's going to want to play that last game so he's going to be fine."

Coming into last Friday's game in Perth and three-point shooting had been a concern for the Bullets with them going 28/138 at 20 per cent over the previous five matches, but they turned it around on that front.

Against the Wildcats, the Bullets did go 10/24 from three-point territory which McDonald was happy to see, but he didn’t so much like seeing them go 16/39 at 41 per cent inside the arc.

"I speak about it every week and you have to be able to put the ball in the hole and if you're going to be any chance to win in this league, you have to put scoreboard pressure on teams," McDonald said.

"We just haven't been able to do that and we actually shot the ball well from three in this game whereas in the last five games we've been shooting it like 20 per cent.

"The only problem with that is we shot 40 per cent twos so some of it is getting two feet in the paint and kicking it out instead of forcing up a lot of shots when we get around the rim and aren’t able to finish.

"Sometimes when you play against teams that like to crowd, you've got to be able to get in there and kick out which is another thing that we haven’t done well.

"Then also when it comes out to you, you've got to be able to knock shots down."

The Bullets now have just one match in their season remaining this Friday night when they play host to the Kings at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

It's a big challenge against a Kings team sitting in top spot and needing to win that game to stay there, but McDonald wants his players to dig deep to put in a strong showing for their home fans one last time.

"It's our last game, it's our last game at home, and the least we can do is come out and play hard, and compete for our fans," McDonald said.

"I made that point last week and I thought we competed against Cairns, but now we're playing against the top seed and they're still fighting to stay where they are.

"With them coming to see us on Friday, it's not going to be no different to what they have been doing and they're probably right now the best team in it and they're playing well, but we just have to come in, get our work in during the week and then try to take a swing at them.

"We might try to junk it up and see what happens, and it's going to be tough, but the motivation is to come out and compete and play hard for your fans."