Vanderjagt Calls for Action in Losing Run

The Brisbane Bullets' struggles in NBL23 continued last night. The 27-point loss suffered at the hands of an in-form South East Melbourne Phoenix condemned the side to its fifth consecutive loss - the second time Brisbane has lost five games in a row this season.

Since James Duncan departed as head coach the Bullets have won just one of their last seven games. The margin in those six losses has exploded out to a massive 22.5 points per game, and the last two defeats make for grim reading in the box score.

With his side now out of action until December 27, interim coach Greg Vanderjagt says the time for talking is over.

“Right now it’s all about actions,” Vanderjagt lamented post-game. “We can sit there and talk about it and sing kumbaya or whatever, but at the end of the day it’s actions on the floor that speak volumes right now.

“I’m tired of talking. The group is tired of talking. We need people to lead … it’s our response to adversity that lets us down. There’s going to be adversity, there’s going to be the crowd, there’s going to be bad calls, there’s going to be the opposition. It’s how we respond to that that’s the concern.

“We get three games in the space of five games coming out of Christmas to correct some of the struggles we have right now.”

The Bullets led the Phoenix by two points at quarter-time, but South East Melbourne put on an offensive clinic in the second quarter and dropped a massive 36 points in the term. From there they also outscored Brisbane in the remaining two quarters to canter to victory.

Vanderjagt says South East Melbourne’s offensive explosion in the second half signifies a recurring theme for his side.

“I thought in the first half we gave ourselves a lot of chances to take control of the game … I thought our intent offensively in the first half, at times, was good,” he said.

“Defensively that second quarter we give up 36 points. It’s the defensive transition which is a product of shot selection and turnovers. It’s a product of communication, and we talked about this in the locker room at the end of the game.

“We have control or we have momentum in games and then it’s three or four possessions that break our back.

“It’s disappointing because we give ourselves chances but then it’s a lack of communication, a lack of concentration, a lack of discipline defensively and we just break down.

“Maybe guys are tired, maybe they’re not locked into the game, maybe they’re thinking about what happened at the other end of the floor – but we need to figure it out really quickly.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The undermanned Phoenix rolled over the Bullets in a midweek clash ?<br><br>In true MVP form, the Foot Locker Player of the game was Mitch Creek ? <a href="https://t.co/pPfto3IGf0">pic.twitter.com/pPfto3IGf0</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1605510567019483136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Nathan Sobey led the way for Brisbane in the scoring column and, at times, played a lone hand on offence for the side.

The Olympic bronze medallist finished with a game high 31 points on 11-18 field goal attempts. He also shot a strong 66 per cent from three.

Even more remarkable than Sobey’s on-court performance though is how he prepared for the game.

“’Sobes’ was terrific,” Vanderjagt said. “Coming off gastro, he’s been in bed for two days and then he walks into the venue at 5:30 this afternoon and says he’s playing.

“’Sobes’ led tonight. He gives us 31 points and he plays his backside off.”