Friday 10 January 2014 – Worcester Wolves vs Durham Wildcats

Zaire Taylor knows Worcester Wolves will have to watch out for the dead-eye shooting of Durham Wildcats when the teams meet on Friday at the University of Worcester Arena (tip off 7.30pm).
Taylor was this week named December’s Molten BBL Player of the Month after he helped Wolves top the table once more with his creative attacking play and diligent defensive work.
But while looking down on the rest, Taylor keeps a close eye on what is going on elsewhere, something that informs his knowledge of opposing teams and players.
He said: “I can’t speak for my team or other players, but I definitely (pay attention to rivals’ results). I like to keep up on what’s going on around the league, keep my ear to the street, and follow scores. I think it’s mostly because I’m a fan of basketball and the BBL since playing here.
“The Durham Wildcats’ biggest threat is a combination of having the consistent all-round play of Ralph Bucci, and having a lot of shooters all over the floor. When you play a team like that you can never count them out, because at any moment they can shoot their way back into the game.”
The same is true of the BBL title race. But Taylor believes guarding against complacency can only come from within, adding:
“I don’t think there is anything you can do prevent complacency externally. You have to be motivated and have that drive inside of you, and the more players like that a team is made up of, the better their chances.”
Wolves coach Paul James summarised Friday’s opposition: “Durham have done a good job this season and have improved as a team. They are a very unselfish team and have a bunch of players who can all score. They move the ball really well and run the floor well. We will need to slow them down and have our transition to defence working very well.”
Meanwhile James’ opposite number at the Wildcats, Lee Davie, commented: “Worcester are a well-balanced team as they have the inside threats of Andreas Schreiber and Will Creekmore with the outside threats of Zaire Taylor, Alex Owumi, and the new addition of Kai Williams. We need to make their offensive looks as difficult as possible and fight and scrap for everything we can.”