Schueller wants big weekend to just be a stepping stone

Brisbane Bullets coach Justin Schueller loved what his team produced in NBL Heritage Round but he doesn’t want to be the high point for them of NBL25, he wants it to be just beginning of what they can deliver the rest of the way.

The Bullets faced two significant challenges in Round 11 of the NBL made all the more difficult in the continued absence of Josh Bannan, Deng Adel and Jarred Bairstow, but they came through impressively in both match ups in the space of less than 48 hours.

First up was the Friday night 102-83 win at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre against the Adelaide 36ers before the Bullets made a real statement on Sunday at John Cain Arena snapping a 12-game losing streak against Melbourne United with the 122-114 triumph.

The offensive display from the Bullets across the two wins was mighty impressive with a combined 226 points across the two games while shooting at the field and from 60.5 per cent and three-point territory at 47.8 per cent.

Across the two games Casey Prather had 60 points with 8/10 three-point shooting while Tyrell Harrison delivering 44 points and 24 rebounds, but Mitch Norton also had 28 points and nine assists.

Then there was James Batemon (25 points, four rebounds, four assists) and Keandre Cook (27 points, six boards, five assists) coming up huge in Brisbane's first win against Melbourne since 2021 on Sunday.

For coach Schueller, he hopes it's just the start of what the Bullets can produce for the rest of NBL25 now.

"What I loved is that when they made a challenge we came straight back to it and I have huge pride in the group, but I don’t want this to be the defining moment of the season," Schueller said.

"This is just another step forward for us and we have another big week ahead for us where we want to continue to grow.

"There are breakdowns there defensively that we will go back and talk about in review, and it's not our goal to shoot the lights out and blow teams out, but if that's how we have to win then we'll take it."

Schueller has always had a vision of how he wanted his team to play this season but the challenges have included having played just one game a week through the opening eight rounds, having players in and out through injury, and also waiting for the club's facility to be completed.

While the Bullets are still not at full strength, their schedule has now picked up and Schueller has no doubt that's helped, but so has the team now being in their own facility full-time to train, to recover, to socialise, to have team meeting, to do review and anything else required.

Having a training court, ice baths, saunas, treatment rooms, meeting rooms, a kitchen and social room set up all in one place is something Schueller has no doubt has helped with the team's work during the week without having to do all those things at separate venues.

"We've got belief in who we are and we have since day one, and what I've loved is that the little bit of adversity we've dealt with so far and no one has dropped their heads," Schueller said.

"We've kept doing our work and now we know it's our opportunity as guys come back in to really chase who's above us.

"We're now in our facility and it's a big difference for us. It sounds weird but just being able to get our work done in the same spot makes a difference.

"We've got to get healthy now and then we can get whole. For us as we can get whole and redefine what everyone's roles look like, it starts to get exciting about if we can keep red lining and keeping our consistency building quarter to quarter."

The issue with only having eight games in the first eight rounds for the Bullets was it meant that even when they played a good game, with another week before playing again it was difficult to build momentum.

It was also difficult to instantly fix mistakes when they were a week apart and replicate the intensity and pressure of a game is impossible in a practice environment.

So Schueller was glad to have those games last weekend against Adelaide and Melbourne, and is looking forward to Round 12 starting at home on Thursday to the South East Melbourne Phoenix, and then being on the road to the Sydney Kings on Sunday.

"The challenge that we had was in the practice environment we couldn’t always get to the level we wanted with the injuries and illnesses we were picking up," Schueller said.

"So being able to go against opposition back-to-back and finding our rhythm and consistency I think is going to be an important part for us. We've definitely seen some difference in us already in how we've gone about it the last couple of weeks."