Holt provides a shining light for Bullets

Even though the second half saw things come apart on New Year's Day, the first half showed encouraging signs for the Brisbane Bullets and it was rookie big man Jacob Holt with his infectious energy at the forefront.

Despite losing imposing centre Tyrell Harrison after he had a heavy collision in the second quarter against the Perth Wildcats on New Year's Day, the Bullets went into half-time feeling good about themselves at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

The Bullets had just scored 28 points to 15 in the second term and went into the break leading 44-40 with Holt having been hugely influential in building that lead for the home team.

Already by half-time saw him have a new career-high with 13 points on 5/7 field goal shooting including knocking down 2/3 from downtown as he stepped up both before and after Harrison went off hurt to not return.

While the second half didn’t go to plan for the Bullets as they conceded the first 21 points on the way to the 25-point loss, interim coach Darryl McDonald is excited by the signs for the future from Holt.

"The more he plays the more he gets better you know what I mean and his energy is infectious," McDonald said.

"For me, you just have to give me that and just give me that energy every time you step on the floor, but it's hard because we're running out of bodies here.

"I don't know what we've done to be honest but we're running out of bodies and you can only push yourself so hard to a point but what he (Holt) does and gives us is definitely a positive, and his opportunities are going to come more now most likely with Tyrell out."

Even though the Bullets had produced a tremendous second quarter on New Year's Day with the 28 points to be up four at the break, McDonald knew that the Wildcats would be ramping up the pressure to start the second half.

The blue print had been set by the Sydney Kings and South East Melbourne Phoenix who forced the Bullets into a combined 45 turnovers in their wins by a total of 54 points, and the Wildcats put that into gear in the second.

The 'Cats kept the Bullets scoreless for more than five minutes to start the third quarter while scoring 21 points themselves and after half-time, they outscored Brisbane 55 points to 31 while forcing them into 12 turnovers.

There's no quick fixes for McDonald and the Bullets, but having new import guard Hunter Maldonado hopefully to face the Adelaide 36ers on Sunday back at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre will be a start.

"It's turnovers, man, and at the start of the third we just couldn’t get the ball in or over and they feasted on that," McDonald said.

"If you watch our last game, that was probably the thing to do to get after us and we have to find a way to fix that and take care of the ball.

"It would help and he's (Maldonado) another guy who can carry the ball but still, it's about getting it over and getting into our offence.

"We did have some good possessions where we moved the ball from one side to the next and got some good looks, but we've got to knock down shots too.

"Once Hunter's in and we add him, I think he definitely helps us."

As tough as things are for the Bullets right now, one thing that gives McDonald a degree of comfort is the captain that the Bullets have.

There are few more inspirational figures in the NBL than Mitch Norton who is 383 games into his two-time championship winning career, and McDonald wouldn’t want anyone else as skipper while he's coach.

"I wouldn’t take nobody else as captain and he's a foxhole guy, if I'm going into a foxhole he's the first person I'm going to grab," McDonald said.

"I love what he does for the club and I love everything he's about and it shows so I wouldn’t want nobody else right now."

While McDonald has only been at the Bullets on the coaching staff for the past two seasons, it was a city that he always enjoyed coming to play in even as an opposition player during his three-time championship winning 486-game NBL career.

That was always because of how the Brisbane supporters always wanted their Bullets team to be a reflection of their city and by going out there and working hard and leaving it all on the floor.

That's all that McDonald is asking of his players now as they tackle this current challenging period.

"We just want to put everything out there for the city of Brisbane and I used to come up here to play here, and it's a city where they just want their team to compete and they want you to play hard," McDonald said.

"That's the thing right now, I'm hoping we can come up with some wins and right now we're probably in a position where we can spoil some teams and maybe we do that.

"But it's about leaving everything out on the floor and whatever happens, happens, but just play your heart and do that for your team, do that for the club, do that for the fans and do that for everybody whether it's members, sponsors. Just play hard all the time."