Nuggets can bounce back: Matehaere
HERE is a wee pickmeup for fans struggling to come to terms with the Otago Nuggets’ first loss this season — they are still on top of the table.
The 9384 loss to the Auckland Tuatara at the Edgar Centre on Thursday night has not changed that.
And last year 10 wins was enough to secure a playoff spot, so the Nuggets are firmly on track to reach that mark.
Coach Brent Matehaere was, however, disappointed his side was not able to bring the same ‘‘energy and intensity’’ to the game as it had in other fixtures this season.
‘‘The effort and desire to win was certainly there,’’ he said.
‘‘It is just things started not to work and that spiralled. Then we got a little frustrated with ourselves. That is something we’ve already reflected on.
‘‘But it is how you respond to a loss like this, and that is more important than the loss itself.
‘‘I’m confident, with the men we’ve got in the team, that they will respond positively and come out with a newfound fervour for training and we’ll sharpen things up.
‘‘But Auckland is a good basketball team and they played well.
‘‘We nearly got ourselves back in the game in that fourth quarter, so we felt it was right there.’’
Key players Sam Timmins and Todd Withers both got into foul trouble early in the second quarter and had a long sitdown.
The Tuatara pounced while they were off and took an 11point lead into halftime.
‘‘On reflection I probably could have ridden our luck a bit more with that foul trouble. It seemed like we were doing OK. We were within six going into the last minute [of the half] but they put on a 50 run.’’
The other costly area for the Nuggets was around execution. The shooting from deep was not as sound as it needed to be.
Some of that was down to good defence, though.
And the Nuggets’ bench was only able to contribute three points, whereas the Tuatara got 17 points from its bench.
JaQuori McLaughlin put in an enormous shift to help keep the Nuggets in touch. The classy American pointguard posted a careerhigh 39 points.
‘‘He put on two backpacks to try and carry the team and was working hard at both ends of the floor. It is to be commended the effort that he put in.
‘‘He is a real talent and we are starting to see what he can do.
‘‘What we need to do is make sure, when he’s going like that, that we’ve got people around him also going well and knocking down shots, which will create even more space for him.’’
The Nuggets’ next assignment is against the Hawke’s Bay Hawks at the Edgar Centre on Friday night.
❛ I’m confident, with the men we’ve got in the team, that they will respond positively and come out with a newfound fervour for training and we’ll sharpen things up