BBL Preview: Giants at Phoenix – 6 October 2013

The only North West derby on the BBL calendar sees Manchester Giants make the trip to Cheshire Phoenix at the Northgate Arena on Sunday, where both sides will be looking to claim their first victory.

After a disappointing opening weekend for Giants in which they struggled with their 3-point shooting and were outrebounded in both contests, they will be hoping to put things right this Sunday.

New recruit Rob Marsden has settled in nicely to the Giants line-up following up his team-high 19 points against the London Lions on Friday with his first double double of the season against the One Health Sheffield Sharks. Giants’ other new recruits Iker Amuchastegui, Keith Page and Yorrick Williams all saw court-time in the team’s first two games and will hope to make more telling contributions as the season progresses.

The challenge for the Giants will be to find a way to balance their attack with so many options on the floor as well as a way to get their 3-point shooters back into a rhythm offensively. One of the top 3-point shooting teams in the BBL last season the Giants were unable to get anything to drop in their game against the Sharks and finished with just 57 points.

With a week to reflect and work on further infiltrating their new players into the system the Giants will be raring to go this weekend and hoping to get a morale boosting victory before they face off against the Newcastle Eagles at Wright Robinson the following week.

Cheshire have already had a somewhat unfortunate pleasure of facing the Eagles, and will want to repay the Phoenix faithful after such a drubbing on their home court last weekend.

It has been vital for John Lavery to bring his side together this week which currently sees them propping up the table, but there have been plenty of moves this week; Calvin Clemmons was released from his contract whilst former Cheshire and Worcester forward Kai Williams, who was one of the catalysts of the “Mohawk” side Lavery almost took to the BBL Playoff Final in 2012, has returned.

Looking over last weekend veteran Phoenix forward, Shawn Myers, felt it was difficult to see any plus points after Sunday’s result: “It is hard when you play another team’s game and that’s what we did against Newcastle, we played Newcastle Eagles’ game. We didn’t get into our gameplan. We can shoot the ball fine, and when we did start, we showed signs.

“This Sunday, I won’t be taking it for granted, once you have five guys on court, it doesn’t matter who you have in front of you – it’s about competing,” said the 44-year-old Peter Pan of the BBL.

Lavery also echoed that sentiment but knows his side have to start working as a team: “There are positives even in defeat, but no-one likes to lose especially myself, overall we just need to be more collective as a unit – play together and compete for forty minutes.”

This weekend will see one side remain at the foot of the Championship, which adds spice to the local rivalry, but Lavery is unwilling to be drawn into the aura of a derby: “I played underneath Jeff when I was at Manchester Giants many years ago, so I know he’ll have his team ready to play, and play hard at both ends of the floor. He knows his stuff and will motivate his players to play. Derbies don’t really come into it; you have to take that focus away and leave that to the fans.”

Finally, Myers, who has experienced a number of local clashes during his time in the BBL, feels there must be a single mentality when approaching this weekend’s fixture.

“For me, derby spells out ‘Win’ for us. There is no exception; Sunday is a must-win game.”