The Nuggets had a very tough night against the Canterbury Rams in their last outing.
The 93-58 loss was easily their worst performance during the campaign.
They have now lost their last four games and find themselves in a logjam in the middle of the pack.
But they are still firmly in the hunt for a National Basketball League playoff spot and have an opportunity to strengthen their claim with a win against the Taranaki Airs in Dunedin tonight.
That is what Rusbatch is focused on.
‘‘I like to kind of focus on the positives out of it,’’ Rusbatch replied when asked about the mood in the camp following the form slump.
‘‘We’ve played three of the top four teams in the league and we’ve competed with two of them.
‘‘We had a bad one against the Rams and then dropped one against the Bulls that we shouldn’t have dropped.
‘‘You can have an average game every now and then, but if you have an average game along with playing three of the four top sides, you can string together a few losses in a row.
‘‘And that, unfortunately, is what happened for us. But we’ve shown that we can play with the top teams.
‘‘We’ve been in control of the majority of the games against those top teams.
‘‘It’s just about finishing games out 100% of the way.’’
They can look to their opponent for some inspiration about finishing strongly.
The Airs snapped the Southland Sharks’ 10-game winning streak with a 93-84 win in Invercargill on Thursday night.
The Sharks were missing key guard Rylan Jones and forward Max Darling.
But it was a good win for the visitors, who joined the Nuggets on five wins for the season.
They poured in 29 points in the final quarter to seal the win.
Marcel Jones added 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds from the bench, and Brandon Stroud top-scored for the Airs with 21 points.
The Nuggets got together to watch the game, so they will be familiar with the challenge ahead.
Defensively, the Nuggets are tight. But it is at the other end of the court where things are not clicking.
Rusbatch has picked up more of the scoring load. He has moved ahead of import Buay Tuach as the Nuggets’ leading scorer.
He is averaging 17.5 points a game and is happy enough with his own form. But he is always looking for ways to improve.
‘‘Obviously, I’d like my shooting percentages to be up and I’d like to be able to contribute a little bit more.
‘‘I know that I can do this. I’ve done it in the league many times before.’’
Coach Jeff Sparrow has tinkered with his starting five. Forward Isaac Miller-Jose drops to the bench and guard Tyson Thata-Paese takes his place.
The Nuggets import trio of Craig Moller, Alain Louis and Buay Tuach managed just 11 points between them during the painful loss to the Rams.
Tuach and Louis spent a lot of time on the bench and it was not because of foul trouble. It is not where you want your imports to be.
The Nuggets will need to wring a lot more out of their overseas players.
NBL
Dunedin, 7.30pm
Otago Nuggets: Alain Louis, Tyson Thata-Paese, Buay Tuach, Ethan Rusbatch, Craig Moller, Zach McKenzie, Matthew Bardsley, Isaac Miller-Jose, Caleb Smiler, Oak Chisholm, Patrick Journee-Tipene,
Toby Hunt.
Taranaki Airs: Aaron Cook Jun, Brandon Stroud, Taane Samuel, Xavier Green, James Moors, Marcel Jones, Luka Vea, Lyric Tuhaka, Jordan Cooper, Zavier Adam, Quintin Bailey, Nico Hill.
