The second round of the British Basketball League sees the London Lions matchup against the Plymouth Raiders.
History to repeat itself?
The Lions seemed to have had the upper hand over the Raiders in recent years, with Lions winning the last eight of their 10 games against the latter.
The Lions’ most impressive performance over the Raiders in recent years was a 101 – 86 win in the BBL Cup back in 2019. This game however could be very different this time around.
The Raiders are very much the team in form in the league, after a great start they’re currently sitting second in the BBL after wins against Worcester Wolves and Newcastle Eagles.
Slow start to the season
An 88 – 79 loss to Newcastle Eagles was not how the Lions imagined kick-starting the defence of their league title, unable to contain Rahmon Fletcher in the fourth quarter as the Eagles put up 33 points to take the victory has people raising questions of the Lions defense.
Coming up against former MVP Ashley Hamilton, the Raiders might give us the answers to those questions. Justin Robinson led the team in points and assists (17 points and eight assists) against the Eagles and will look to rally the boys in a game with one of the title contenders this year.
Call for more desire
Lions coach Vince Macaulay was disappointed with the team’s performance and hopes that they can have a stronger game on Friday night as he said on the Lions Twitter account shortly after the game.
“That was a very tough game to go into. I thought the Newcastle Eagles played extremely hard. I have to be frank and be very upset with our performance. I just didn’t think we showed the desire to want to play.
“I try to remind my guys that we’ve all been sitting at home since March, April, May, June, July, August, desperate to play the game and when we get out there, we have such a tepid performance so disappointing across the board. But the good news is that we have a lot of games coming up and we’ll be right back at it on the 11th.”
Where to watch?
You can tune into London Lions vs Plymouth Raiders on Friday 11th December at 7:30 PM. Watch the action unfold on Sky Sports Arena, Channel 408
