Competing is there, now Bullets have to win

Hunter Maldonado made an immediate impact, Terry Taylor took on board being more aggressive and the Brisbane Bullets took it right up to the NBL's top team as Darryl McDonald now looks for a more complete performance in Cairns.

The Bullets might not have beaten the league-leading Adelaide 36ers at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Sunday, but there was a lot to like in the performance even while losing Sam McDaniel, and with Tyrell Harrison, Taine Murray and Javon Freeman-Liberty sidelined.

The Bullets were leading by seven points at half-time and even with the 36ers coming out hot to start the second half, the home team kept on fighting with McDonald seeing a lot to like but also not being content to celebrate a competitive showing.

"We competed, man, and that's been the main thing for me that every time we step on the floor we just give it our best but it's tough when you're losing players and with guys going down," McDonald said.

"But the guys that are out there is fighting and that's all I can ask for even with some of them getting tired and getting cooked.

"Then when your brain goes, pretty much everything goes and you might miss a box out or get lost on a play, and all that kind of stuff that hurts us, but competing I can't ask for nothing more."

The Bullets were also leading at half-time against the Perth Wildcats back on New Year's Day before conceding the first 21 points of the second half.

Again on Sunday, Adelaide came out to start the second half scoring the first 10 points and going on a 22-8 run with Bryce Cotton scoring 13 of those, but this time the Bullets did fight the game out better and stayed within striking distance.

"The difference was that Adelaide don't come up the floor and press like Perth did and us adding Maldonado helped us because we had another guy that could carry the ball," McDonald said.

"But we definitely didn’t let it get out and my only problem was that we get up seven and we might get a little complacent, and it's the second game in-a-row that we can't come out like that.

"Basketball's about scoreboard pressure and we're up seven and you add a couple of points to that, and you might go up 10 and come down and get a stop, that can also help but the problem is we're not getting good shots when we come out.

"That's on me and I've gotta fix that and find a way to get us some good shots and we've just gotta put the ball in the hole. It's the losing I'm struggling with but as long as we come out and give ourselves a chance, that's the thing for me."

The Bullets might have been without Harrison, Murray, Freeman-Liberty and then McDaniel, but did pick up the services of injury replacement import point guard Hunter Maldonado.

He had started the season with the South East Melbourne Phoenix playing his last game against the Bullets back on December 14, but joined his new team on Sunday and was a difference-maker starting with eight points and five assists in the first half.

He finished the game with 16 points, nine assists and two steals, and even if he didn’t shoot that great at 4/13 from the field, he was aggressive to get to the foul line and go 8/9 with McDonald liking what he brought.

"I think he's going to help us and he's another guy that can carry the ball and his ability to get downhill in pick-and-rolls, and finish and find people is definitely going to help us," McDonald said.

"Before this game we still hadn’t had a proper training session with him and we'll get at least one this week so we can get him in some of the stuff we run, and his ability to do that and defend will be important.

"We can put him on different guys and give Norto a break, give Smack a break and we can throw him at some of those guys and he can have an impact."

Fellow import Terry Taylor had a couple of quiet games a well before Sunday's match up with Adelaide but McDonald challenged him to be more aggressive and he took heed of that.

He ended up with 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals on 9/19 shooting with McDonald now wanting that from him every night for the rest of the season.

"I had a chat to him leading into this game and it's that, dude, you're an import man and you took six shots in our last game and I told him you gotta get up 15 to 20 shots," McDonald said.

"That's not in a forcing it way and we ran a couple of things for me, but you got to figure out how you score, and you also have to help yourself by going to the offensive glass and getting extra possessions like that.

"We need him to be aggressive with no Javon and no Ty, we don't have a lot of guys who can put the ball in the hole and we brought you out here to do that so you have to step up and give us some points."

While the Bullets have a bit more time in between games this week ahead of a trip to Cairns to face the Taipans on Saturday in a Sunshine Stoush, it doesn’t necessarily mean there's much relief on the personnel front.

McDaniel, Harrison and Freeman-Liberty look like they will be out even if Murray is on track to return from his ankle injury, and McDonald wants to at least get one full practice session in.

"That's it, making sure we've got enough bodies to actually train and some guys are going to be off, and we won't have Tyrell, we won't have Javon and definitely won't have Smack," McDonald said.

"It's really just looking at who we have and for me it's the competitive side. We might have a day where we just do a lot of relationship work and individuals, but we need at least one session where we get after it.

"That's probably going to be our Thursday session and we leave Friday to go play Saturday. It's about going over what we're doing defensively, some of the offensive we run and getting a better feel for it, and things like that."