Bullets leave no stone unturned but the Taipans rock the NBL’s ‘Sunshine Stoush’
Things don’t always go to plan in sport. Just ask the Brisbane Bullets after their detailed preparation for the NBL’s ‘Sunshine Stoush’ was rocked by the Cairns Taipans
Basketball
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IT takes a village to raise a child.
And it also takes more than 40 minutes to try to win a game of basketball in the NBL.
Meticulous preparation and planning are almost as important as perspiration and field goal percentages under the bright lights. But they are never a guarantee of a winning performance.
Just ask the Brisbane Bullets who were on the road for the Sunshine Stoush in Cairns on Saturday night.
The Bullets gave The Courier-Mail behind-the-scenes access to the team’s lead-in to Saturday night’s Queensland derby when the Taipans claimed a 94-85 victory over Brisbane who failed to fire despite a build-up that left no stone unturned.
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FRIDAY
After training in the morning, a change of planes and a change of gates at the airport delays the start of Brisbane’s journey north but the switch to a smaller aircraft created a higher premium on the already coveted exit row seats.
Big units Matt Hodgson (211cm-tall) and Will Magnay (208cm) score the extra leg room but Lamar Patterson and Mika Vukona miss out.
Patterson attends a photo shoot alongside Cairns import and former college rival DJ Newbill soon after the plane lands and Brisbane players do a quick recovery after the two-hour flight.
The team dinner is a relaxed affair. Everybody is laid-back and low-key as some players get treatment from physio Andy McGough.
Some members of the touring party take in the Barry Hall-Paul Gallen fight before some of the support staff go on their traditional game-eve “Snack Run” led by team manager Junior Albert.
SATURDAY
After they are spotted walking or running along the Esplanade for some early morning exercise, the coaching staff have their meeting in the room of assistant coach and NBL great Sam Mackinnon at 9.15am.
Mackinnon is in charge of scouting the Taipans and the running joke is that he goes easy on great mate and Cairns head coach Mike Kelly.
They discuss a wide range of issues including the importance of guard Scott Machado and centre Nate Jawai to the Cairns offence. While after an impressive week at practice – they look at Bullets guard Nathan Sobey as a key to some easy scores via the pace he can generate when he pushes the ball. Go-to plays if Brisbane’s scoring slows are also discussed.
The minutes rotations are talked about and key stats such as the Taipans leading the league in points in the paint are raised by Video and Analytics Co-ordinator Steve Catlin.
At 10am, the players join the coaching staff for the video session in a function room at the team hotel. The session is delayed slightly when the Bullets realise they will be charged $400 to use the hotel projector so they fetch their own.
Mackinnon runs the session with video clips backing up the detailed and thorough stat breakdown on each Taipans player such as Newbill who shoots at a ridiculous clip from the right-hand side of the floor.
At 11.40am, the team departs the hotel for the Cairns Convention Centre for the pre-match shoot-around with three 12-seater vans rolling out in a convoy.
The shoot-around is a chance to blow out some cobwebs, put up a few shots and walk through a lot of the plays that were discussed at the video session. It’s a lot of information to digest, so the major points are hammered home. The scout was also discussed after training on Thursday.
The Bullets go through pet plays of Cairns, run through some plays for certain times in the game and the competitive juices start to flow in a shooting game. Assistant coach and six-time NBL champion CJ Bruton keeps it light and bright while draining three-pointers with his eyes shut.
Lemanis gathers his players and address them in a huddle.
“We need to bring the right mental intent. In the end, we want to give a performance we can be proud of. Make sure you are ready to go.’’
Junior Albert makes a dash to a near-by Bunnings to buy glue and a clamps to fix a blown-out shoe belonging to Vukona.
At 5.20pm, the team heads for the Convention Centre again. It’s game time and the intensity has cranked up.
Some players – like Sobey – are quiet. Some are chatty – like Jason Cadee and EJ Singler discussing UFC- and some are pumped up and dancing to the music – like Magnay.
An hour before tip-off, Lemanis addresses his troops in the visitors dressing sheds – a small, L-shaped room.
Lemanis says the clash is all about “toughness”.
“We need to wear them down over 40 minutes … take some pride in our individual defence. Stay engaged, stay connected, communicate,” he says.
But it does not go to plan.
Brisbane get off to a terrible start as the Snakes get out to a 16-3 lead. The Bullets get to within four points by quarter-time but Cairns kick away to lead by 10 at halftime and 19 at three quarter time.
Cairns jump Brisbane in each of the first three quarters as Machado and Jawai are highly influential. Brisbane’s offence – to quote Lemanis – was “stagnant”, “muddied”, “bogged down” and needs “more zip”.
The team heads back to the hotel to have dinner together.
SUNDAY
Brisbane players and coaches have always preached the importance of not getting too high on wins or too low on losses.
Nobody is kicking cans before the flight home but they aren’t pretending like the loss did not happen either.
Lemanis does not like to speak to his players until after he has watched the game again and after all the emotion has dropped away. He knows there will be significant lessons from the review. The offence, the starts to quarters and defensive intent will be high on the agenda.
The Bullets play Adelaide at “The Armoury” at Nissan Arena this Friday night before heading south to take on Melbourne United on Sunday.
So there is no time to sulk.
On to the next one.
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