First Bullets focus is building competitive spirit

The Brisbane Bullets have already taken on three opponents in their home openers to start NBL26 and suffered three injuries to key players, but Stu Lash can't fault the fighting spirit his team has been showing ahead of returning home.

The Bullets will now play their first home game of NBL26 this Saturday night when they play host to the Tasmania JackJumpers at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

Brisbane opened the new season with a win in New Zealand against the Breakers before last Friday night lost by a solitary point in Cairns to the Taipans and then on Sunday were beaten largely thanks to Bryce Cotton's 39 points for the Adelaide 36ers.

Injuries along the way to Mitch Norton (knee), Sam McDaniel (ankle) and Javon Freeman-Liberty (ankle) haven't been ideal, but at the same time coach Lash is proud of the fighting spirit his team has shown and knows that really, they aren't too far from being 3-0.

"I know it's early and most coaches will probably say it takes about a good five to seven games to really get an understanding of who your team is, and you don't want to focus on the record so much," Lash said.

"The whole preparation is a little different to what I'm used to in the NBA and there's some challenges to get everyone together and building that chemistry.

"I'm more focused on if we're playing hard, if we're playing the right way and if we're coming together as a group. And if you're in our building, you know we're pulling in the right direction.

"We're a layup from being 2-1 and we're Bryce Cotton going nuclear from being 3-0 so overall I feel good and we came out of this game healthy, and I'm excited to get home in front of our fans."

What Lash knows is key to building a team that ends up being a successful one is to have that competitive edge and fighting spirit from the start to keep giving themselves a chance to win.

That's what he's liked about the first three games and that's what he's looking forward to putting on display for the home fans to get behind starting this Saturday night.

"The foundation of who we're trying to be is to have a competitive spirit and we don't complain, we don’t make excuses and play anyone, anytime," Lash said.

"These guys buy into that and they're giving us everything they can in practice and in prep. After every loss we ask ourselves did we compete and were we prepared, and we competed in this game and our prep was good.

"There's a few adjustments in the game we could have been a little better about when we look back and I own that, and there's just a trust amongst the group from the staff down to the players that we're putting ourselves in a position to win games.

"You have to stay in it, that's the biggest thing and you can't let these games get away from you and have large deficit losses. The biggest takeaway is that we've been in all our games and I couldn’t be happier with the effort."

Lash knows that it's still early enough in the season where the Bullets are figuring some things out and that includes getting the best out of new import point guard, and former league MVP Jaylen Adams.

He had another 14 points and three assists in 31 minutes on Sunday against the 36ers, but Lash does admit that giving him more structure to play with and less of a free rein might prove beneficial for everyone.

"Jaylen's been great and whenever you bring a new player in it just takes some time to build that team chemistry," Lash said.

"Jaylen's not new to the league, but he's new to us and we have a core returning and he's balancing that fine line of trying to fit in while knowing we didn’t bring him to fit in.

"He's a former MVP and I'm giving him freedom to make plays and figure it out, but I also have to do a better job of giving him a bit more structure offensively. When they don’t know what they're in, then they know what they're in and that's the next step for us to get to offensively."

There's no good time to lose two of your best leaders and perimeter defenders but that was the position that the Bullets found themselves in last week after Norton hurt a knee back in the first game, and McDaniel hurt his ankle last Friday night.

That was especially problematic when McDaniel was set for a huge weekend firstly guarding Jack McVeigh against the Taipans on Friday, and then Bryce Cotton on Sunday, but Lash threw the challenge to some young players instead.

That included rookie Taine Murray and development player Tristan Devers splitting the duties on Cotton most of the way on Sunday, and then for Alex Ducas to also be matched up with 36ers captain DJ Vasiljevic.

Murray and Devers did their best with Cotton, and Ducas was tremendous sticking to his task to limit Vasiljevic to five points on 2/9 shooting with Lash proud of the way his young players stepped up.

"Those are our two primary perimeter defenders so to take them off the roster, then we're having Taine Murray as a rookie and Tristan Devers as a DP guarding one of the best players to ever play in this league on the road," Lash said.

"Welcome to the NBL young fellas, but I thought they were great just with their physicality, their connection and their will to compete. Shout out also to Ducas, I thought he did a great job on DJ and just making it really tough on him.

"He was getting up and being physical so all in all there's a lot of positive to take from this and we're learning, and coming together as a group. Now we get to go home for our home opener and I know our guys are really excited about that."