Thursday 10 October 2013 – London Lions vs Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves play the first of two games on consecutive nights when they travel to London Lions this Thursday (tip off 7.30pm). Like Wolves, the Lions have moved into a new home for 2013, the Copper Box Arena, a former Olympics venue.

Lions lost to Durham Wildcats last Saturday after enjoying a perfect opening weekend with wins over Manchester Giants and Plymouth University Raiders. Their coach Vince Macaulay wants to see an improved level of focus from his team, saying: “I just expect my team to come out and work harder for longer, we were not 100 per cent focused and we need to address that. Defensively we want to continue to get better and of course as a coach you are never satisfied, there’s always something we can tweak. We respect all teams in the league but we know what we want to achieve and Worcester are one of 11 teams standing in our way.”

Lions’ centre Adrien Sturt concurs with Macaulay’s thoughts, saying: “I’m expecting Worcester to be a good solid team and Paul James always recruits well. I think the best way to combat Worcester is for us to play solid team defence and make them play a Lions style of game. As a team, we need to rebound better than what we did last week and get back to how we play basketball as a team and not let them dictate how we play.”

Despite Wolves coming into the game fresh from defeating reigning champions Leicester Riders, coach Paul James is still careful not to get carried away, commenting: We are still finding out about each other so will continue to work hard to improve our execution on offence and improve defensively. I have not had a chance to scout either team as yet (London and Cheshire, who Wolves play on Friday), but by time the games come round I hope I will have gathered enough info on both teams to make a positive difference in the games.”

A boost to Lions’ chances has been announced this week with the signing, on a short-term deal, of Matthew Bryan-Amaning, a player Macaulay describes as the ‘premier British baller of his generation’.