The Saturday BBL Preview: 23rd November 2013
A mid-table clash and a lower down dogfight are on the cards in the BBL Championship this Saturday night.
Raiders @ Wildcats (7:00pm tip-off)
Plymouth Raiders will be hoping that their long journey from the South West will pay dividends and throw them into the mix at the top of the table if they can secure a second victory of the season over Durham Wildcats.
Head coach Jay Marriott knows how important it is for his side to pull themselves up the standings, but is aware Durham will want to avenge their 85-73 loss at the Pavilions just four weeks ago, as the North East side travelled with a shortened roster of only seven players.
Having won four of their last six Championship games, Marriott will be keen for his players to put on a dominant display ahead of two tough legs against Leicester Riders in the BBL Cup semi-final in the coming weeks.
The Wildcats will be smarting from their loss to Sheffield on Friday night in that same competition, which could have resulted in an all-North-East semi-final, but instead has seen them now lose two in a row. However, three home fixtures against increasingly harder opponents leaves Lee Davie’s side little time to lick their wounds and must come out fighting to prevent the gap widening between themselves and Plymouth in the league table.
Rocks @ Knights (7:30pm tip-off)
This could be the fixture to kick start either of these two teams as they face each other in Solihull tonight.
For Glasgow Rocks, it has been a miserable start to their campaign. With just two wins to their name, and in defeat losing by an average of 13 points per game; aside from taking the reigning champions, Leicester Riders into overtime on their home court, those tipping Rocks for great things this year have been mightily disappointed so far.
On the flip side to this game are the Birmingham Knights – who sit joint bottom with Surrey United with an 8-0 record and have struggled to restrict teams under 100 points, whilst unable to put their own points on the board.
Glasgow have the tools at hand, with Alex Marcotullio slowly finding his feet in Sterling Davis’ side, and are favourites to pick up their first away win of the season, in what is an away double-header this weekend travelling to Cheshire on Sunday. However, Paul Douglas’ Knights have one of their biggest chances to spring an upset and slay down the nay-sayers once and for all.
