Pounding the rock paying off for Bullets

Hostplus Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller continues to preach pounding the rock and it's paying off with his team now on a three-game winning streak with the chance to further consolidate an NBL top six spot back home on Sunday.

What Schueller means when he says keep pounding the rock isn’t to literally keep bouncing the basketball, what he's referring to is sticking to the daily habits that the Bullets are trying to live by as a team, and doing everything they are preaching on and off the court.

That's the way to build a winning culture because at the end of the day, talent can only get you so far but what builds you up for sustained success is doing all the right things and eventually the rewards will come.

It hasn’t been immediate gratification for the Bullets but when Schueller arrived for his first head coaching role at the NBL, there was a lot of work to do not only in building a new playing roster, but also starting from scratch to virtually establish a new culture that would eventually lead to winning.

It has been a rollercoaster ride for the Bullets this season starting with winning the first two games before losing the next four, winning the next three, losing three straight and then winning a couple to start December.

There was a four-game losing streak after that but now the Bullets have won the last three games against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, Sydney Kings and Tasmania JackJumpers to improve to a 10-11 record to be sitting in fifth spot.

The Bullets can further consolidate their hold on a position inside the top six and close in on a top four spot with another win at home to the Illawarra Hawks on Sunday, but for Schueller it's all about continuing to do the right things.

By doing the right things, the Bullets have dealt with adversity and that's meant having to deal with playing without Shannon Scott, Aron Baynes and Josh Bannan for stretches, and even Nathan Sobey and Chris Smith in recent games.

However, they have been able to keep winning even without Smith in Sydney and minus Sobey on Wednesday against the JackJumpers because of the buy in from the playing group not only to follow the game plan, but to keep on doing all the right things.

While Schueller would have preferred to not have to find out if Brisbane could win without Sobey, seeing them able to pull out the win on Wednesday over the third placed JackJumpers is another sign to him of how far his group has come from the start of the season.

"Sobes pulled up sore and at some point we need to learn what it looks like to win without him. He wanted to be out there but it was one of those where if he played this game with Sunday still sitting there, chances are he's out longer than he needs to be," Sobey said.

"It was a good opportunity for us to really show the progression that we've had and I'm just so proud of the boys. That was a tough game, Tassie were outstanding and that thing was a wrestle.

"To stay the course and find a way, it was awesome of Chris to come in off injury, jump in that starting role and be someone that we knew we could depend on to give us that scoring rate we were missing. But again, we had contribution from everyone across the board and that's the pleasing thing for us."

Of the 11 games that the Bullets have lost this season, nine of them have been by 11 points or less and in the majority of those they have been in winning positions at one point or another.

That's where some frustration creeps in for Schueller just thinking about how much better potentially the 10-11 record could be, but at the same time going through those hard times and learning what it takes to win has only helped them grow.

"We've had a huge frustration with the games we've let slip this year and some of that's on me, some of it has been just us not performing at the level we need to be but there's nine games there that are single digit losses," Schueller said.

"We've always felt that we're right there and what I feel in these last three, four games is a genuine understanding of what winning needs to look like possession by possession.

"The advantage that we had was that this game plan was similar to the one against Sydney so with a quick turnaround that became our advantage. Just the guys really believing in what we're doing has been great."

What having to play most games this season with at least one key part of the rotation missing, and often more, has meant that the Bullets have had to learn to rely more heavily on other players at different times.

Baynes missing five games meant that Tyrell Harrison had to further step up starting as centre, Scott being out meant that Mitch Norton thrived as point guard, Bannan being out meant that DJ Mitchell and Sam McDaniel stepped up.

Now even the season-ending injury to Mitchell has opened the door for the Bullets to bring in three-time champion Casey Prather so there is a silver lining to everything. Schueller feels what they have gone through has only helped them be a better team now.

"We've rarely had everyone healthy this season so there's been a lot of times where guys have had to play minutes that maybe we weren’t ready for," Schueller said.

"Baynesy had a stretch out, Bannan had a stretch out, Shannon had a stretch out, Chris has missed so there's been different things that we've had to rely on throughout.

"I think that's helped us now with those experiences and being in the fire, and figuring things out on the run has been good for us. We've always believed in our depth and we've got a next man up mentality.

"There was no lack of confidence for this game without Sobes and we know how great an offensive team Tasmania are, and to hold them under 80 that's what we want to hang our hat on. That's such a proud moment of me that that's where we go to first."

As for Prather, he might have only played eight minutes in Wednesday's win against Tasmania in his second game with the Bullets, but the signs of what the explosive three-time champion can produce were again encouraging.

He scored his lone basket of the game on an isolation play at a crucial point of the fourth quarter showing the faith Schueller already has in him as the coach will now hope to get permission to build his minutes further starting Sunday at home to the Hawks.

"It's a meeting we'll have to have before Sunday but for me his minutes are definitely going up, but it is a little bit of a slow burn for him," Schueller said.

"The idea is to make sure that come playoff time, and that's our expectation that we'll be one of those teams, that he's able to give us the 20-plus minutes we need. We're being smart but absolutely I expect more from him in that one on Sunday."