DMac calls on Bullets to leave it all out there

More injury concerns was the last thing Darryl McDonald wanted in his first game coaching the Brisbane Bullets but after another heavy defeat, he just wants the group to focus on giving complete effort and grabbing any and all opportunities.

After Stu Lash stepped down on Thursday, McDonald was appointed interim head coach with the Bullets with his first game in charge back in the city he made his name in against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday night.

It's fair to say everything McDonald might have hoped didn't go wrong ended up transpiring with Sam McDaniel (foot) and Taine Murray (ankle) picking up injuries to start things off.

Then by the end of the game, the Bullets had given up 107 points to have slumped to a seven straight loss by an average of 22 points while falling to bottom spot.

They had a season worst 28 turnovers while only shooting 36 per cent from the field and sending the Phoenix to the line 42 times with the foul trouble just compounding matters further on the way to the eventual 29-point defeat.

Afterwards, McDonald's message was simple to his playing group moving forward.

"It's about just putting it all out there, man, just putting it all out there on the floor," McDaniel.

"You have to play every possession like it's your last and it's easy for me to say that, but we need bodies to play the way we want to play and it's hard to play now going into this next game where we might have seven or eight guys because guys are getting injured.

"But the main thing is play every possession like it's your last and put yourself in a position that when the opportunity comes, take advantage of it.

"Jack (Purchase) is a good example and he hasn’t played a lot, but got an opportunity to play and gave me everything he's got, and Holty (Jacob Holt) has to play more, and Tohi (Smith-Milner) is another one who hasn’t been playing much and gave us good minutes.

"We have to stay together and when the opportunity comes, just take full advantage of it and give me a reason to play you. That's going to be the main thing."

While McDonald knows the Bullets need to do a better job taking care of the ball, keeping the opposition off the glass and the foul line, ultimately what they need to do is score better.

Getting stops is one clear way to fix up any offence but the Bullets have a lot of work to do to create more points having now averaged just 77.6 points across this current seven-game losing streak.

"It just comes back to effort and doing all the little things like taking care of the ball, keeping teams off the glass and we just need to find a way to score," McDonald said.

"We've got Javon (Freeman-Liberty) and Terry (Taylor) as our imports, we have to find a way to get Tyrell better looks with things around the rim and we just have to put the ball in the hole.

"We did a good job of keeping them off the three ball and they shoot the most three of the league and went 6/27, but it comes down to fouling, man.

"We have to find a way to stop fouling and we don't have enough bodies to foul and we're just trying to keep bodies on the floor, and it's those things that we have to take care of better."

As for the injuries to McDaniel and Murray, it's an on-going management issue with the former but McDonald isn’t sure of the prognosis of Murray with his ankle just yet.

"It was his (McDaniel) plantar fasciitis and when he's cruising it's good, but Sammy Mac isn't' a guy who cruises, he goes and he went a little bit too hard and the last thing we wanted to happen was for it to tear," McDonald said.

"It got to that point where he had to come out and then Taine did his ankle, but at least we will get TD (Tristan Devers) back on Monday which will be good when we go back to play at home."

When McDonald was appointed interim coach, he did have to think about if we would accept it or not, but once he said yes he saw some obvious areas that the Bullets need to get a lot better in even though there's no quick fixes.

"When I got the call, it wasn’t just like that for me, I kinda had to think about it and the first thing I thought was what could I do to try and change this," McDonald said.

"I wanted to do that for the players, for the fans, for the members, sponsors and it's actually all about them, and I just want us to come out every game and put your best foot forward.

"I hate losing and it's one thing I don't like, I do not like losing, so it's just about coming into every game and try to give ourselves a chance which will be the main thing.

"It's a tough league, man, and my man 'Homicide' God rest his soul said it all the time that it's not a cupcake league and you can't just show up and think it's going to happen.

"We have to get in the gym and put in the work and slowly but surely things can happen for us, but it has to start on the practice floor where as much as I don't want to talk about, we didn’t do enough of early on," he added.

"It's hard now with all the games coming up so there's not going to be a lot of trainings, but it's something that's got to start pre-season so you're able to deal with physical.

"Yes, we're fit enough to do suicides but it's different when you're getting grabbed, you're being held and there elbows here, that takes a toll on you and for next season that has to be something we concentrate on from day one.

"It has to start on the practice floor, you can't just walk in and hope it works."

As for the open air game, it brought back fond memories for McDonald from his own playing days but he quickly shifted back into the job at hand with the Bullets.

"I played in the first open air game and that was my little cry to these guys in shootaround," McDonald said.

"I had a pretty good game with 23, eight and seven with five steals but more important, we've got another game coming up and we've just got to get ready for Monday with the short turnaround."