Paul James: ‘Every game is a must win’

Wolves head coach, Paul James, believes that his side must continue their winning run if they are to have any chance of catching the Newcastle Eagles in the hunt for the BBL league title.

Wolves host the Bristol Flyers on Friday before travelling to face the Cheshire Phoenix on Sunday as they look to build on their seven game unbeaten run in the league.

“Every game we play now is a game we must win”, said James.

He added: “If we drop a game now, we can probably kiss the league title goodbye. Whist we’re winning and we’re there or there about, we’ve got a chance. Newcastle have still got to play Leicester three times and have got to play Cheshire twice and play us one more time, so you’d like to think they’re going to drop a game or two there.

“We’ve got the head-to-head on Newcastle so that’s very important for us. We’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do, lick our wounds and try and take it out on somebody this weekend.”

Wolves’ head-to-head against Newcastle means that, should the two sides finish level at the end of the season, Wolves would clinch the BBL title.

Wolves face the 9^th placed Bristol Flyers, who have won just three times in their last fifteen outings, before travelling to the Northgate Arena to face a Cheshire Phoenix side that need a win to go just four points behind Wolves in the table.

“Last time we played Bristol, they had a shot to win it and they missed it. Again it was another game where we had a chance to blow them away when we were 15 points up but we managed to let them back in the game”, James added.

“We’ve been living on that knife-edge of winning and losing and we’ve been fortunate to be winning those close games. Sooner or later, that’s going to come back and haunt us if we don’t turn that around quickly.”

Kalil Irving is expected to miss Friday’s game, but James is optimistic that he will return to face Cheshire on Sunday as he looks to recover from a dislocated shoulder.