Jackies aim for Sydney sting
This is another game for us to see where we are at and measure ourselves one more time
THE JackJumpers say they’ll be looking to do what they do best in the Harbour City on Friday, and that’s drain the energy out of the Sydney Kings and their vocal home crowd as they hope to celebrate the New Year in style with back-to-back wins over the defending champions.
Following an impressive win over New Zealand in Hobart on Boxing Day, the JackJumpers can now make it three wins in a row and stay in touch with the top two with another victory over the topof-the-table Kings who they beat just three weeks ago.
Ahead of the grand final rematch, forward Fabijan Krslovic said the Jackies would stick to their tried and
tested ways as they attempted to take down the Kings once more in their own castle.
“We go into every game doing what we do best and we pride ourselves on our defence and slowing teams up and making life difficult for them and that’s not going to change,” Krslovic said.
“There’ll be some small adjustments
based on how the Kings play but at the end of the day it’s how we play and how we bring our brand of basketball to the court.”
The backup centre – who played a crucial role in the recent win over the Breakers with 14 first-half points – said taking the pace out of the game and giving the crowd at Qudos Bank Arena nothing to cheer about would be vital.
“In transition they’re the most dangerous team in the league and they get up and down the court and play at a very fast pace and have a lot of weapons that can hurt you,” he said.
“So slowing them down is going be a big key and I think we did a really good job of that in patches last time we played them.
“Doing that and slowing their transition game and making it a gruelling halfcourt contest which is more our style (is key).”
“(Also) not giving them those energy plays and fast breaks and dunks and things like that and draining the energy out of the crowd slowly and making it a type of grinding slow basketball game that we enjoy playing and it’s how we get wins.”
Jackies coach Scott Roth said his side feared no one and continued to focus on improving every day in order to be at their best come the pointy end the season.
“I don’t really care where we play and who we play,” Roth said.
“We have every building now won in in the league and our guys are quite confident that if they’re playing well that we can do well.
“This is another game for us to see where we are at and measure ourselves one more time.
“There’s some positives out there (with how the team is playing) but we still have a long way to go if we are going to try and do anything and this is obviously a big month coming up.”
Roth said injured defensive guards Matt Kenyon and Sam McDaniel were both progressing well from their calf injuries and that he expected at least one of them to return “within a week to 10 days”.
The Jackies and the Kings tip off at 7.30pm Friday.