Giants to step up intensity
Before he was a Nelson Giants player, Ali Granger was a die-hard Nelson Giants fan.
So he, more than most, hates to see the team struggling in the National Basketball League, their 0-2 start the franchise’s worst in six years. But the 25-year-old point guard isn’t about to give up on the season after one bad weekend. Far from it in fact.
Granger said the players have been putting in big shifts at training this week ahead of Saturday night’s match against the Canterbury Rams, where they hope to right some of the wrongs from heavy losses against the Southland Sharks and the Taranaki Mountain Airs.
With a more substantial break in between games this week, they finally had a chance to watch some footage from the two defeats, and Granger said it didn’t take long to work out that a lack of effort was their major undoing on both occasions.
‘‘Contesting every possession, whether it’s on offence or defence, you have to contest it and you have to be competitive. I don’t think we did that enough. We did it on some, but not on every single possession and teams in this league will kill you if let up on that sort of thing,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s only two games so we’ll come back, it’ll be sweet. I’m not worried. We’ll definitely bounce back and we’re going to be strong on Saturday night, believe me.’’
The 38 point loss to the Sharks was one of the worst in Giants’ history and Granger said it was an extremely tough introduction to the new season.
‘‘Going down to Southland is usually one of the most awesome road trips, it’s really good to get down there and they always have a good crowd. It’s almost like a Nelson, they have really good fans and it’s good to play in front of them.
‘‘So to put in a performance like we did just kills you. You come from the court and realise what the score was and just think ‘oh my god’.’’
But this week the focus has been on making positive adjustments. It’s not that they will forget about that near-record loss any time soon, but with another strong opponent to prepare for, it’s just about making sure they don’t put on another display like that again.
Granger said any team in the NBL is good enough to punish poor performances, and high on the list of individuals that are capable of doing that too is Rams import Jeremy Kendle.
The 29-year-old American has scored 70 points across his first two games and was the difference maker when the two sides met in preseason. Granger said they will have to be wary of Kendle at the Trafalgar Centre tomorrow night, but they have been working on a plan to minimise his impact.
‘‘He’s a tough player but we’ll definitely have something for him. The coach has worked tirelessly on strategy and watching film, trying to breakdown people’s weaknesses, and that’s what we’ll try force him towards. We want to utilise what he can’t do so we can limit his opportunities.’’
Tomorrow’s game starts at 7pm.