Preview: NBL24 Round 5 v Perth Wildcats at RAC Arena

The Brisbane Bullets are heading west, looking to turn the heat further on the Perth Wildcats and aiming to return home on Sunday with a win under their belts.

The 2023/24 NBL season got off to a perfect start for the Bullets with first up wins at home to the Adelaide 36ers and away to the New Zealand Breakers, but things haven’t quite gone to plan since.

The Bullets have now lost their past four matches to the Cairns Taipans, Sydney Kings, Melbourne United and South East Melbourne Phoenix coming into a Round 5 double-header beginning against the Wildcats at RAC Arena on Friday night.

Brisbane will be without centre Aron Baynes and point guard Shannon Scott (hamstring injury) both against Perth and then at home to the Tasmania JackJumpers on Sunday, but the Bullets aren't looking for excuses.

Despite a four-game losing streak and being without Baynes and Scott for what has historically been a tough venue for the Bullets who have won just three of 12 visits at RAC Arena, Brisbane and Hostplus Head Coach Justin Schueller is expecting to come back with nothing but a win.

The Wildcats themselves are on a three-game losing streak and both Perth and Brisbane come into Friday night's game on identical 2-4 records so there is pressure on for a victory within both groups.

Schueller has been impressed with what he's seen at practice this week from the Bullets in preparation for the trip to Perth. While he knows the challenge that awaits, he's looking forward to seeing what his group can deliver.

"We've had a lot of challenges recently and part of our process right now is to just keep pounding away, and keeping on forging forward," Schueller said.

"What I've liked about the group this week is that the details have been there, our habits have been there and I think that puts us in a good position going over to Perth.

"We know they're under the pump with the same win-loss record so for us it's about us just being us, controlling what we can control on the floor and putting ourselves in a position to win it."

A major focus since Schueller took on the job as Bullets coach was to make this a defensively minded group who builds their identity at that end of the floor.

For the most part, he has been happy with the way Brisbane has defended so far this season giving up 85.7 points a game which is significantly boosted with the 113 points the Kings scored against them.

Schueller will back in his team's defence to again do the job against the Wildcats on Friday night, but he does want to see a bit more fluidity at the offensive end. It will be interesting to see how that flows in the absence of Scott and with Mitch Norton stepping up in his absence.

"We always start with our defence and there's been positions in every game that we've played right now where our defence has either got us back in the game or kept us in a position where we can get it," Schueller said.

"I'm really happy when we're at our home base defensively. Having Josh come back in has been a good addition for our bigs but still staying out of foul trouble has to be a key this weekend. That's something we're focusing on and then offensively we just have to keep sharing the ball.

"We have to keep trusting that the ball will do the work and then we know our scoring rates will go up. That's something we've focused on this weekend to continue to improve on, and hopefully we'll see it be much better this weekend."

While Sunday is also going to be a big day for the Bullets on their return to Nissan Arena to host the JackJumpers for a first home game since October 5, for Schueller, his coaching staff and playing group, all the focus is on putting everything into getting the win in Perth first.

"To be honest with this one we're just looking at this first game," Schueller said.

"We've got this double quite a lot throughout the season and it's something we have to be great at, but our focus has purely been on Perth and taking care of what we can in this one.

"Then once we've done that we'll move ahead and look at Sunday's game and get ready for that."

GAME INFO

Who: Brisbane Bullets vs Perth Wildcats

Tip off: 8:30pm (AEST), Friday 27 October, 2023

Where: RAC Arena, Perth

Watch: ESPN via Foxtel and Kayo