“Give me a reason to play you”: McDonald lays it out to Bullets

More injury concerns were the last thing Darryl McDonald wanted in his first game coaching the Brisbane Bullets. But after another heavy defeat, his focus is firmly on effort and making the most of every opportunity.

After Stu Lash stepped down on Thursday, McDonald was appointed interim head coach, with his first game in charge coming back in the city where he made his name, against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday night.

It’s fair to say little went to plan. Sam McDaniel (foot) and Taine Murray (ankle) both picked up injuries early, setting the tone for a difficult night.

By the final buzzer, the Bullets had conceded 107 points, slumping to a seventh straight loss by an average margin of 22 points and falling to the bottom of the ladder.

Brisbane turned the ball over a season-high 28 times, shot just 36 per cent from the field, and sent the Phoenix to the free-throw line on 42 occasions. Foul trouble only compounded the issues in what became a 29-point defeat.

Afterwards, McDonald’s message to his playing group moving forward was simple.

"It's about just putting it all out there, man, just putting it all out there on the floor," McDonald said.

"You have to play every possession like it's your last and it's easy for me to say that, but we need bodies to play the way we want to play and it's hard to play now going into this next game where we might have seven or eight guys, because guys are getting injured.

"But the main thing is play every possession like it's your last and put yourself in a position that when the opportunity comes, take advantage of it.

"Jack (Purchase) is a good example and he hasn’t played a lot, but got an opportunity to play and gave me everything he's got, and Holty (Jacob Holt) has to play more, and Tohi (Smith-Milner) is another one who hasn’t been playing much and gave us good minutes.

"We have to stay together and when the opportunity comes, just take full advantage of it and give me a reason to play you. That's going to be the main thing."

While McDonald knows the Bullets must do a better job taking care of the ball, keeping opponents off the glass and out of the foul line, the bottom line is they need to score more.

Getting stops is one clear way to help fix the offence, but Brisbane has plenty of work to do creating points. The Bullets have averaged just 77.6 points during their current seven-game losing streak.

"It just comes back to effort and doing all the little things like taking care of the ball, keeping teams off the glass and we just need to find a way to score," McDonald said.

"We've got Javon (Freeman-Liberty) and Terry (Taylor) as our imports ... we have to find a way to get Tyrell (Harrison) better looks with things around the rim and we just have to put the ball in the hole.

"We did a good job of keeping them off the three ball and they shoot the most three of the league and went 6/27, but it comes down to fouling, man.

"We have to find a way to stop fouling and we don't have enough bodies to foul and we're just trying to keep bodies on the floor, and it's those things that we have to take care of better."