The bar has been raised: Bullets learn from Sydney lesson

For a club that has finished 10th, 8th, 7th and 8th across its past four campaigns, a 2-1 start would once have been cause for celebration in Brisbane. Will Weaver and the Bullets aren't celebrating.

The bar has been raised, and Wednesday night's trip to Sydney showed just how high.

The Bullets piled on 34 points in the first quarter at Afterpay Arena and took a 44-43 lead into half-time against the champions on their own floor. But when a journalist described that first half as "fabulous", Weaver was quick to correct him.

"I think I would disagree with the premise that the first half was fabulous," Weaver said.

"Like, it was fine and had some good moments. You know, that's obviously an exceptionally good side over there for the champions at home."

In truth, the tide had already started to turn before the break. Sydney held Brisbane to just 10 points in the second quarter, and the Kings' class shone through from there, with the Bullets managing just 44 points on 17/56 shooting across the final three quarters, as the champions ran out 93-78 winners.

For Weaver, the result was a lesson rather than a setback.

"There are moments that a team that's playing the youngest roster and building together and a lot of new faces coming together for the first time playing on the road against the champions, like, there's tonnes of stuff to learn from the second half. And that's what we'll get stuck into."

He pointed to the defensive end as where it started to slip, but was just as keen to acknowledge what the Kings did to force it.

"We struggled to get into transition in part because our defence let up a little bit. You got to give credit too [to Sydney]," Weaver said.

"It isn't just that we … got made a couple shots and then we sucked. It's like, no, those dudes had a lot to do with us making it harder on us to get stops and run and also score once we get into the half court."

Having not played Finals since 2019, and with a new-look roster featuring the likes of Arnas Velička, Nate Hinton and young gun Max Mackinnon, hopes are high in Brisbane.

Weaver has been credited with already driving big changes to the club's culture, but he was quick to hand that praise back to his players.

"I appreciate the compliment. I just have to again disagree with the premise. Like, these guys are the ones lifting and sacrificing," he said.

"We are forever going to, like I did in Sydney and like I did in Paris and other places … we're going to fill the building up with really high-quality people, people that are serious-minded and competitive and hungry and want to prove something.

"And when you do that, you end up getting this kind of flywheel that pushes you to heights that nobody dreamed was possible, right? And this place is living proof of that."

That pursuit, Weaver explained, runs through every corner of the program.

"There's no detail that we haven't talked about or worked on, because it all adds up. And I have a particular kind of crazy that I love trying to improve everything, and that starts with me and our staff and the way we lift and organise and travel and communicate," he added.

"I'm really grateful to the group of humans that have signed up to be in my crazy orbit, because I'm pretty relentless about pushing, and the people that I've asked to join us are people that have convinced me that they are chasing really hard, big dreams, and that is the wind at our back as we try to obsess over the details before the game starts, during the game, after the game."

The Bullets return to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Saturday to host the Tasmania JackJumpers from 5:30pm AEST, and Weaver expects the home crowd to match the standard his group is setting.

"My guess is that thing is going to be jumping here in a couple of days."