Schueller: "It was pathetic"

Pathetic. That was the only word Justin Schueller could think of to explain the Brisbane Bullets being down 23 points with six minutes to go of their season-opener.

Not even almost snatching the win from the New Zealand Breakers curtailed the coach's frustrations.

The Bullets did all they could to ensure they hit the ground running to start NBL25, having played four pre-season matches against the Shanghai Sharks, Melbourne United, South East Melbourne Phoenix and Adelaide 36ers, before the Blitz on the Gold Coast.

Brisbane then beat the Tasmania JackJumpers, Melbourne and the Cairns Taipans to win the Loggins-Bruton Cup at the Blitz, before heading to Perth to be part of HoopsFest and play the Breakers at HBF Stadium on Saturday night.

Schueller then did well to not spontaneously combust as he watched his team perform worse than he could have imagined for most of the first 34 minutes and fall behind by as much as 26 points.

The Bullets want to be a team renowned for their defence, but the Breakers were able to do as they pleased and then Brisbane was able to get nothing going themselves up the offensive end.

That had them in a big hole 23 points down with six minutes to go, but with Keandre Cook leading the charge on his way to 13 last quarter points and 25 for the game, Brisbane almost claimed the unlikeliest of victories.

The Bullets started playing how Schueller wants them to play and they closed the game scoring 31 points to 12 and got within two, before falling just four points short of what would have been a miracle comeback.

Schueller isn't content with commendable comebacks though.

"It was a pathetic performance by us, that's the best word I can use to describe it," he said.

"We were not at the level for that entire first half and we did make a couple of little runs where we brought the bench in, who played to the standard that we expect, but it's super disappointing.

"We went through a year of this last year where we left things too late. It's a commendable effort by us to put some fight in and make a game of it, but that's not who we want to be and not the standard we expect."

To get back within two points after being 23 down six minutes earlier does show to Schueller that he has a group that doesn't give up, but he can't overlook what they did to get in that hole to start with.

Giving up so many good looks to the Breakers was one thing, but ending the game with only four offensive rebounds, getting out-rebounded by 10 overall, and having 14 turnovers are all areas of concern.

"There's a lot to draw on in positives in that second half and once we kick our tails, I think this is the kick in the arse we needed to be honest," Schueller said.

"People that have come into the league needed to understand the level that this league is at and I think collectively we were feeling very good about how we were going, and so we should.

"But there's another level we've got to go now and this is the reminder that we need early on because we do need to hit the ground running."

Schueller saw that when his team's shots weren’t falling up one end that it led to breakdowns at the defensive end, and them dropping their heads on their defensive assignments, which is what he won't stand for.

"I thought we let missed shots dictate our effort defensively and that's what we want our identity to be is at that end of the floor," he said.

"This league is too good to let made shots dictate what your effort is and how hard you play. That's what we'll go back and look at, identify and be better for it.

"It was breakdown after breakdown, that's the reality of it. that's where the frustration is. We had more than enough reps on game plan, we had a clear understanding of what we needed to do and we just didn’t get it done often enough.

"Then we didn’t take our opportunities up the other end with our shots, but it's disappointing that we just didn’t get our job done."

One thing Schueller wasn’t expecting to be an issue coming into NBL25 with this group was a lack of effort, but he can't pretend that's not what he felt he saw especially in his starting unit.

While leaders Mitch Norton and Sam McDaniel gave him the fight he expected off the bench, along with Casey Prather especially, Schueller needs and expects more from his starters and at least started to see that in the final six minutes.

"We just had a lack of effort. We've been talking about our standard and everything is going to lift now, and I did think that bench really showed it to the level we need to play in this league," Schueller said.

"Our starters didn’t set the table for us, it's as real as that and they'll own it, and they did come better with the effort in the second half. But if they're going to start, it's got to be different for us."

What Cook produced for the Bullets in his NBL debut is something that was greatly encouraging, especially the way his confidence grew down the stretch.

He started the game hitting a three-pointer and by the end of the evening he had 25 points with 5/9 three-point shooting but it's nothing Schueller didn't know he was capable of.

"We know he's a bucket getter, we see it in practice every single day, but his defensive effort wasn’t at the level that it has been consistently," Schueller said.

"He did definitely shoot us back into that thing and at different moment everyone had a great patch, and we'll make sure we identify that as well and not just focus on what went wrong. Where it starts, though, is that this the area that let us down right off the bat."