Schueller happy with execution, not breakdowns

You are never happy overall with a loss, but Brisbane Bullets coach Justin Schueller liked a lot of what his team did against the Tasmania JackJumpers on Saturday with some frustration at some defensive breakdowns and turnovers that crept in.

Even when the Bullets gave up 13 of the first 14 points, and 28 of the first 37 against the JackJumpers at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Schueller knew that the wheel would turn as long as his team kept on executing the way they were.

Sometimes the reality is that you can be creating, and taking, good shoots and sometimes they just won't fall and that's where Schueller's thoughts remained about the rough start against the reigning champions on Saturday night.

That's why he just wanted the Bullets to stick with it and that paid off in the end as they did cut the half-time deficit to 10 and then ended up opening up their own five-point lead by midway through the fourth quarter.

While the JackJumpers did end up scoring the eight-point win from there, reflecting on the game and Schueller liked a lot of what the Bullets were creating for themselves.

Sometimes you just have better luck with the ball falling than others but on that front, he was reasonably happy with the areas to fix up immediately came from some defensive breakdowns and some costly unforced turnovers.

"Down the stretch we got the looks we kind of wanted and we missed some opportunities right at the rim, and you need a little luck at times for that ball to drop," Schueller said.

"But what we generated I was pretty happy with and the frustration was probably with breakdowns at the defensive end at key times, and with a couple of unforced errors that we can't have.

"We're not that group that can afford that so it was a frustrating one, and one where we will go back and look at the key moments, and learn from it to keep getting better."

While it wasn’t the first half that the Bullets were hoping for, of their 32 points going into the half-time break 21 of those came from experienced leaders Mitch Norton, Tohi Smith-Milner and Jarred Bairstow.

By the end of the night, Norton finished with 20 points, five assists and three steals, Bairstow seven points and five rebounds against the team he won a championship with last season, and Smith-Milner eight points.

However, Schueller couldn’t go back to Smith-Milner in the fourth quarter because of a hip injury but he couldn’t fault the leadership those three showed in particular.

"Norto had an outstanding game and I could see it coming through the week. I thought he had a really solid week of practice and the same can be said and Tohi and Bair," he said.

"Their daily input at practice is the reason that they get that reward in those moments, and they were outstanding for us.

"Unfortunately Tohi gets injured and can't come in down the stretch which would have helped us in some areas there. I can't fault the mindset and application, it's just the execution piece in this one for us that's going to be the frustrating point."

With the Bullets having just one game a week throughout the opening eight rounds of the season, it has given Schueller plenty of time to work on their execution at practice in between games.

While he has been happy with the work they've been putting in, he knows they need to remain focused on continuing to get better to make sure they are functioning at the level they hope once the schedule begins to ramp up.

"Where I'm happy is with our consistency getting better and better, but we're not a finished product," Schueller said.

"I'm always going to ask more and more of our group, and we need to keep challenging ourselves every moment to keep pushing forward.

"We know there's potential in this group and we've said it before, but that's a dangerous thing until we find that level.

"That's our challenge right now to go back to work, to keep those habits as consistent as we want them and put ourselves in a position to go and get a road win in Cairns."