Perfect litmus test for the Bullets.

Bummer Batemon is gone. Hope management signs a legit import replacement that fills a team need, and it's a budget placeholder.

Expecting a Wollongong W, but any margin less 10 is a moral victory to Brisbane.

Bateman no cotton, not end of world out. But every soldier helps and going bee tough at coalface for the bullets.

Bullets at home playing well, hawks played two days ago in a tough one. Should be a good contest but hawks very good right across the list. Just don't see hawks letting this go. Hawks by three.

Bogut fantastic behind the mike.

Mic, auto correct

Neither side defending well, bullets certainly not walking away from the contest.

Not certain why White was interviewed at the half, he was horrible. Bullets by two, should've led by more, bad finish half. Hawks in second gear, ready to put foot down.

Bullets are +13 when Isaac White is off the court.

Bullets are +11 when Bannon is on the court.

Bullets rotations all over the place for no reason.

Hawks such a deep team.

Is the BEC the worst Australian venue in the NBL?

Hawks to many gears, agree on White, fools gold imo.

Hooping, I'd argue the Silverdome is worse. BEC is pretty bad though

Agree re Bogut Dunkman - he's been excellent with his analysis and observational comments

Even though bullets were in it up to half time, the hawks were always going to win it. Hickey, plus 25, clearly the best sixth man of the year. Prather did his best for bullets. Great commentary by Bogut and Casey with Rucker being good as well as.

Other than kings v hawks these 12 days of Christmas have all been a bit average.

Terrible (probably being kind) 3rd Quarter coaching effort from Brisbane, sucked the confidence and flow out the better players. Runs the 2 points guards at the same time for 5 minutes, the after time out when they all sucking for air and Hawks on a run, takes them both off and puts Naar in, and also takes Prather off for no reason - the game in the balance and takes best player off. You dont take both guards off and put in a cold back up PG who probably shouldnt get any minutes. The last 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter then team was completely unsettled and their was sub after sub just trying to bail out the water from the sinking ship, which was so poorly steered by the the Coach.

Also ripping Harrison from the game over and over again for Smith-Milner who basically gave nothing -19 in 14 minutes.

Running the two point guards, we could call them combo guards, basically took away all the shots for Cook and Prather. Cook then completely frustrated. Prather sitting on the bench when the game was lost. The Bullets were -21 in the less than 6 minutes Prather was off the court.
REPEAT - The Bullets were -21 in the less than 6 minutes Prather was off the court.

He didnt need to be off, when he comes back on he is out of the flow of the game.

The top 5 players need to be playing 30+ minutes a game. Dont have 3 bench players on the court at the same time. Lose the game in the last 4 minutes because your best players are exhausted rather than just trash your team in the 3rd quarter with brainless subs and rotations and destroy the confidence of your better players. This is also the sports entertainment business and if they want more people to attend the poor venue then they need to play the best players.

The guy has more assistants than an NBA team and has little feel for the game and is quite often reacting to poor situations that he created or allowed to be created. He wouldnt even be a top shelf junior coach. Each State would have a State level coach who can game coach better than this guy. Obviously having to manage a small fleet of assistant coaches and other support staff and the egos of a team of professional players and the media etc is a completely different level. But you have to have better game coaching abilities (or an assistant in the ear you will trust) because that is where the game is won or lost especially when you are coming up against deeper or more talented teams.

The interview with the GM didnt really give much confidence of improvements moving forward. Still waiting for that Sponsors spot on the front of the Bullets uniforms to be filled - perhaps the GM should focus on that.

Hopefully the Bullets coaching staff can sit down over quite a few pizzas tonight and work out how they can stuff up a subbing rotation when they have such few available nbl standard players.

Mayberry must be the most frustrating ref in the NBL, it typically becomes obvious that he is one of the refs, which normally results in the other less experienced refs starting to follow the tickytack fouls. Love to see some statistical analysis of the refs and fouls and violations per each quarter for each of the refs. I would be stunned if there wasnt a Mayberry effect.

Commentary great.

Mayberry and Allen...are NBL mega ref's. Just ask the 2 clowns..they are the central acts and live in a circus ring.. whistle to their tune..court jesters

Hooping, rather brutal on Schueller but have to agree with most of what you posted. Overall, I think that he has done an excellent job so far, this game, not so.

This had to be the test the Bullets needed. Other recent wins have been good but not unthinkable given the topsy-turvey nature of this season. This test was v the comps true leader.

I was encouraged by the effort in spite of the loss. Most of your crits are very fixable, especially the subbing, which, I too found questionable. Then there's the evergreen injured player excuse. Batemon would definitely have made a difference to the margin even if not the result. That, and fix the subbing and may have been a Bullets' W.

Right now, that will do me. A Batemon replacement, a quick lesson in subbing, and by season's end, the Bullets should be ready to take on the world.