Schueller reflects on four games in nine days

Hostplus Brisbane Bullets Head Coach Justin Schueller was rightfully proud of his team for getting so close to four victories in the space of nine days in NBL24, but now is grateful for a week's preparation heading into a clash with the Sydney Kings.

Things were precariously placed this NBL season for the Bullets coming into this four-game stretch all over the country in the space of nine days with a four-game losing streak coming into it on top of the absence of Aron Baynes and Shannon Scott.

However, the Bullets showed tremendous heart, fighting spirit and good game plan execution with wins in Perth, and then at home to Tasmania and South East Melbourne.

Brisbane then went ever so close to making it four straight wins on Saturday night in Launceston before the eventual two-point loss to the JackJumpers after a chaotic finish, but Schueller couldn’t be prouder of his Bullets playing group.

"I don’t want it to be an excuse for us but it's a reality and four in nine is tough. We've had a lot of travel in this little patch too and while it's a reality, to me that's where I have to use our bench depth more to our advantage," Schueller said.

"I didn't trust that enough in this game and that's something I'll go back and review and make sure that we do get that part right moving forward. Again, I can't ask more of the guys through this stretch and Mitch Norton and Sam McDaniel have had tough assignments every single night.

"Tyrell has been stepping up time and time again, and the productivity we get consistently has been pleasing through it. We'll definitely go back and be frustrated with this one over some of the errors we made, but Tasmania were exceptional at the same time."

Playing to your strengths is key to the success of any team and this Bullets team can clearly have a strong presence inside and make that a focus whereas most other clubs in the NBL might want to be predominately outside shooting teams.

That was again on show in the pair of matches in Indigenous Round with the Bullets making a combined 55/66 at the foul line. In contrast, they went 10/43 at the three-point line including just 13 attempts on Saturday in Launceston against the JackJumpers.

There's probably the right balance there that Schueller is trying to help the Bullets find, but ultimately to have that inside focus complemented with outside shooting is the goal.

"I think we've done a good job of identifying advantages we can find on the floor and continuing to attack them," he said.

"When you've got bigs like we do with three guys there's advantages in the post as well and it's been part of what we've been able to do in this short period.

"But really we do want a balance of threes and free-throws, and we haven’t found the ability to generate the three-point shot to the level that we'd like.

"The other night we had a good scoring rate with seven guys in double-figures, but we didn’t generate the same good looks in this game and that's a credit to Tassie and how they defended us."

While Schueller was proud of the fighting performance from his team to complete those four games in nine days in Launceston against Tasmania, he also will look at areas they could have improved to try and complete that fourth consecutive victory.

There was plenty to like including Brisbane winning the rebound count again 42 to 31 along with getting to the foul line 31 times to just 11 from the JackJumpers, but for Schueller some specific plays and conceding 18 points off turnovers stood out to him.

"I look at points off turnovers from them and I felt like that's how we played, we looked a bit tired and we made poor decisions that were a little uncharacteristic to where we've been of late," Schueller said.

"We got that reasonable lead going into half-time but we let it slip with poor decision-making at the offensive end and they go down and score. We give up an O-board that leads to a kickout three to Doyle and suddenly the margin's a lot closer.

"They shot the ball really well in that third quarter and often it was because of our breakdowns so I look at that, and think that this is our fourth game in nine days.

"That's kind of where my head goes in that we looked tired but I'm still really proud of the fight in the group. To hold Tassie to 12 in that last quarter and give ourselves three chances to win the game, there's still some satisfaction in that."

Looking at those frantic last couple of minutes of the game on Saturday in Launceston, neither team managed to score and there wasn’t a stoppage either without the chance to make a substitution.

In hindsight, Schueller would have liked to be able to get Chris Smith into the game to give the Bullets an extra shooting threat, but there was nothing he could have done about that.

In the end, to get the three good looks to either win or send the game into overtime was all they could have asked.

"I wish I could have got Chris Smith in there. I felt like we didn’t have that perimeter punch that we needed to help Tyrell in spacing the floor and keeping on getting that advantage," he said.

"I thought we had three really good chances to win the game and we had an offensive rebound and kickout to Sobes, we've seen him make that time to time again. Then you look at it and we're 2/13 on the night and they make 13 threes so that's a frustration.

"We missed two free-throws down the stretch too when we've been pretty good from the line so far this season. There's so many controllables for us and that's what we'll go away and focus on when we evaluate it."

After playing those four games in nine days, the Bullets will enjoy having a full week to now prepare for Sunday's game in Sydney against the defending champion Kings.

While the Kings did win a high-scoring shootout by 11 points with both teams combining for 215 for the game at Nissan Arena, and Sydney has won six straight over the Bullets as a result, Schueller is looking forward to the challenge ahead at Qudos Bank Arena.

"We need to get some bodies recovered and rested for a little bit, and Sydney came into our house and really taught us a lesson so we'll go back, do our work and just continue to strive on getting better every day," Schueller said.

"That's where this group sits where we definitely are not satisfied or happy, we know there's so much more growth to go in our group and we're looking forward to the challenge that Sydney will present."