Adelaide 36ers coach Joey Wright believes this Sunday's clash with the unconquered Brisbane Bullets will be less about the scoreboard and more about the process of rediscovering the right brand for ongoing NBL success.
The Sixers almost pulled off a shock win on Friday night at home to previously winless Melbourne United but a combination of careless turnovers and inadequate defensive rebounding, particularly during the visitors' dominant 32-17 second quarter, meant they went down 98-87.
It convinced Wright there is still plenty of work to do.
"I'm definitely not thinking about winning and losing (in Brisbane)," said Wright, the Bullets' most recent championship coach in 2007.
"I'm thinking about trying to get these guys playing a brand of basketball that we need to play. That's where my focus is.
"Two things that are not a great cocktail for success are a large amount of offensive rebounds (conceded) and 19 turnovers.
"Continually we let them get shots and find their rhythm. Our boards killed us.
"Our turnovers were extremely poor ... you give a team like this (Melbourne) the opportunity to shoot the ball 12 more times than us, they're going be successful, (and) we're not."
Jerome Randle top-scored with 20 points before fouling out late as Adelaide, minus skipper Mitch Creek who did not play after quarter-time after straining ligaments on the top of his foot, slashed the margin to five points in the last minute having earlier trailed by 24 points shortly before three-quarter-time.
Steering the fierce comeback was reserve guard Nathan Sobey, whose 15 points all came after half-time.
"He did a great job getting deflections, getting into passing lanes, rebounding," Wright said.
"He was just fantastic, all over the place in the second half."
