BBL Championship leaders Leicester Riders are the visitors to the Copper Box on Friday as London Lions look to kick-start their BBL Championship title charge.
Tip-off is 7.30pm, with tickets available here.
Lions go into the game sitting seventh in the table with five wins from seven games but have plenty of games in hand over all the sides above them, and only Riders - who are top of the table with a perfect 10-0 record - have less losses than them.
It's the first of consecutive meetings between the teams at the Copper Box with Riders also in London on Sunday February 13, with the sides not scheduled to meet in Leicester until mid-April.
Coach James Vear knows the importance of the game to his team:
“We’re looking to bounce back after Wednesday, and we’re playing a team who haven’t lost in the league all year. So we need to ready to play” he said.
“We’ve lost two [games] in the league and we can’t afford to lose any more. We have to play Riders three times this season and if we can win all three it’ll certainly make things interesting. It’s going to be a busy end to the season, we have a pretty extreme schedule, so we have to make sure we start strongly on Friday and play our best basketball.”
Riders have been a thorn in Lions' side this season, inflicting three of their five domestic defeats on them. The sides split their pair of BBL Cup group stage games, both of which were played in Leicester, while in the semi-finals of the same competition Riders recorded a pair of tight victories and went on to win the competition by beating Manchester Giants last week.
Vear’s team go into the game with a number of injury worries, as the London coach explains:
“We think Justin [Robinson] had aggravated the ankle injury he suffered in the play-offs last season” he said. “We’re waiting on a diagnosis, but he’s doubtful for Friday.
“We’re also without Jordan [Williams] for at least a month, but Josh Ward-Hibbert is back in training and we’re hopeful he’ll be playing against soon.”
Marc Loving leads a balanced Riders' offence with 14.8 points per game, adding 5.3 boards. Although the opening weeks of his season were blighted by injury, Darien Nelson-Henry leads Riders with 6.8 rebounds and has brought 12.6 points per game since returning to the side. Jubril Adekoya pulls down 6.3 boards per game, adding seven points, while Greg Crandell leads Leicester with 7.5 assists and 2.4 steals to go with his 14.7 points.
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