Brisbane deserves a team that fights

Brisbane Bullets captain Mitch Norton has made a career out of being one of the NBL's great warriors and he wants his team to represent the city how they deserve by becoming known for their fight.

As a two-time championship winner and one of the league's great competitors throughout his 384-game career, Norton is never going to celebrate a strong showing from a team he's part of unless it ends up in a win.

At the same time, he couldn’t fault the fighting spirit the Bullets showed against the odds at home on Sunday against the league-leading Adelaide 36ers in the absence of Tyrell Harrison, Taine Murray and Javon Freeman-Liberty, and then Sam McDaniel.

The Bullets were leading at half-time and then still kept on fighting to the end despite the eventual 11-point defeat in what was a strong showing against the odds with 18 points each from Alex Ducas and Terry Taylor, and another 15 and seven rebounds from rookie centre Jacob Holt.

New arrival Hunter Maldonado also had 16 points and nine assists on debut with Norton proud of the effort but not necessarily the result in front of a crowd of 5406 people including a Brisbane Broncos NRL and Queensland State of Origin star.

"I really don't like losing and it's hard to take moral victories out of a loss, but I think the city deserves a team that fights," Norton said.

"Queenslanders are known to fight to the end it was cool to see Justin Hodges sitting on the sidelines, a State of Origin great, and someone that did a lot for this city in the rugby league world.

"He epitomises what a Queenslander is so it's really cool to see him in the stadium supporting us and the fight was amazing, and it's a good starting point.

"Obviously third quarters are still something that we need to address and we're fully aware of it."

Speaking of that crowd at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Sunday, it likely was as loud as it's been all season going into half-time after a huge three on the buzzer from Ducas gave the Bullets the seven-point lead.

Norton couldn’t be more thankful for their support and wants to give them more to cheer about to close out NBL26.

"It's a great feeling having their support and exiting at the half Ducas hit a big three to really swing the momentum in our favour, and in our advantage, and we have to capitalise on that better coming out of half-time," Norton said.

"But the crowd's been amazing all year and there was over five and-a-half thousand here on a Sunday afternoon when everyone had so many other things they could be doing, but it's a great crowd and we're very thankful."

Ever since the departure of Jaylen Adams and with Taine Murray out with an ankle injury, Norton has had to carry quite the burden as point guard for the Bullets in recent weeks.

That's why he was as happy and relieved as anybody when Maldonado was able to step out there to help him on Sunday, and he can't wait to play alongside him now for the rest of the season.

"It's really nice to see someone else put their head down and get in the paint, and to get nine free throws is elite," Norton said.

"That's really good someone on our team getting nine free throws so it's good to have that extra guard and ball handler out there, and extra guy we can throw at people on the defensive end.

"I can't wait to get him in training and to get him up to speed with some stuff as well because he's only going to get better from there."