The Capitals have less than three days to pick up the pieces following their humbling defeat at the hands of the Adelaide Lightning over the weekend.

Canberra were trounced by 26 points but have little time to lick their wounds as the attention turns to the Bendigo Spirit at the National Convention Centre on Wednesday night.

Smart says the chance to back up so soon is an exciting challenge for the Capitals, adamant they know exactly what they must do to make amends.

"Turning on quicker, just being awake and aware. Instead of following people, maybe being proactive and stopping something, being one step ahead," Smart said.

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"I thought we were just one step behind on a lot of things, whether that was hustle, loose balls, things on defence. When we went on that run and kept going, it was because we were one step ahead on the defensive end. We can be gritty when we want to be.

"That was just waking up from the stuff that had happened in the last week and being proactive instead of reactive. That was just something we lacked.

"That's in our control. Refs, other things, tough shots they make, that's out of our control. This is up to us. That's really exciting for us.

"The fact we can do it three days later, and show that win or lose at least it's on our terms, on the game plan we made, that's the brand of basketball we want to play."

The Capitals held an optional shootaround on Monday before a compulsory recovery session in the afternoon, with normal service to resume on Tuesday - if only for a day.

Then comes game day again, with the Capitals looking to bounce back after spending a week in isolation following a positive COVID-19 case at the club. It gave them only a handful of days to practice before meeting Adelaide.

"From a cohesion and chemistry standpoint, and consistency of practice, when you're off court for that long, even though we got a couple of practices in, there's nothing like actually training on the court," coach Paul Goriss said.

"We just lost a little bit of that with a week off in training. That's no excuse, the missed lay-ups and missed defensive assignments, those things aren't excuses."

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