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Post by ko25 on Jan 15, 2020 9:27:16 GMT
Fri 17th Jan - Riders v Wolves 7:30pm
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 15, 2020 10:48:58 GMT
The big question to be answered on Friday is can Riders stop the losing streak and begin to gel as a team that can defend AND score as well? Wolves will be confident of beating us again but we have two new recruits and they may be able to turn the tide - certainly hope so.
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Hearsay247
Rookie
Posts: 39 
Favourite Team: Worcester Wolves
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Post by Hearsay247 on Jan 15, 2020 10:54:51 GMT
I doubt Amir Williams will figure for Wolves, he has a BBL Cup Final to concentrate on being fit for.
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 15, 2020 11:00:20 GMT
I doubt Amir Williams will figure for Wolves, he has a BBL Cup Final to concentrate on being fit for. Given how good he is then I'll be delighted if you are right! |
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Post by saintpat on Jan 15, 2020 13:35:38 GMT
If Amir Williams plays, I think Riders may find the game difficult but far from impossible to win, without him I can't see anything other than a Riders win.
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 15, 2020 14:29:38 GMT
If Amir Williams plays, I think Riders may find the game difficult but far from impossible to win, without him I can't see anything other than a Riders win. You might well be overestimating us, saintpat! |
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 16, 2020 13:15:30 GMT
Looks as if Lascelles is back playing judging from pix posted on FB of Riders training this week.
Good news. Now, if only Mr Walker could regain his fitness...
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Post by boshspice on Jan 16, 2020 19:09:02 GMT
Hearing that an ex-Riders British big man arrived in Leicester around a week ago and is training with the team after recovering from an ankle injury abroad. Will be interesting to see if anything materialises from it. If it doesn’t now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened in the not too distant future.
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 16, 2020 20:35:37 GMT
Hearing that an ex-Riders British big man arrived in Leicester around a week ago and is training with the team after recovering from an ankle injury abroad. Will be interesting to see if anything materialises from it. If it doesn’t now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened in the not too distant future. Do you have a name? |
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 17, 2020 11:00:58 GMT
If we have signed another player who can defend the post and rebound that'll definitely help us - last time out against Wolves we totally struggled to keep their bigs off our board. My fingers are crossed for tonight. Spencer has had more time to bed in and we may just have a tall fella too.
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Post by MansfieldMike on Jan 17, 2020 11:27:11 GMT
We already have at least two tall fellas, in Andy Thomson and Darien Nelson-Henry, why can't they do a decent job of defending the rim and rebounding, instead of just providing offence?
When Mo Walker played at Wolves, he definitely did all three of those tasks very effectively.
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 17, 2020 11:56:56 GMT
We already have at least two tall fellas, in Andy Thomson and Darien Nelson-Henry, why can't they do a decent job of defending the rim and rebounding, instead of just providing offence? When Mo Walker played at Wolves, he definitely did all three of those tasks very effectively. I agree with you that that ought to be okay but it didn't prove to be the case against Wolves and in some other games too. Think with Walker in the mix we'd be pretty powerful and back near the top of the table pretty quickly BUT not proving to be so atm. Spencer is the most important addition to the jigsaw though. Feel much happier and more optimistic that we aren't relying solely on Cartwright at PG. I'd love those two to re-sign for next season but I imagine Cartwright will be heading over the Channel like so many other rookie Americans. Couldn't blame him because players' careers are short even if they stay fit but as we know too well injuries can be career ending at any moment. Got to make hay while the sun shines. Eagles must be paying Fletcher a fair amount to retain him and attract him back, unless he just feels happier in the cultural landscape of Newcastle? |
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Post by isthaturinal on Jan 17, 2020 22:04:41 GMT
Well that’s the rot stopped.....
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 17, 2020 22:17:45 GMT
That was the Cartwright show as far as Riders were concerned. A tour de force of point scoring. Nice play by Johnson too.
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 17, 2020 22:35:45 GMT
Looks as if Lascelles is back playing judging from pix posted on FB of Riders training this week. Good news. Now, if only Mr Walker could regain his fitness... Lascelles still not playing in a game despite clearly doing so in training. Ward-Hibbert injured too, sadly. |
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 17, 2020 22:39:35 GMT
Full credit to Wolves who were 21 down but came back to within 2 points I think. Plus, they had 3 key players unable to play through injury. Gave us a scare alright. Great atmosphere at the arena tonight with both sets of fans getting behind their teams.
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Post by Steven McTowelie on Jan 17, 2020 23:30:56 GMT
We really need to do a better job of putting teams away. Must have led for the vast majority of both our league losses and it looked for a moment like we were going to blow this one in similar fashion. Up 21 at one stage and Worcester still end up getting a shot to take the lead in the final minute. The way things have been for us lately I was amazed it didn't go in. Pleased we've stopped the rot anyway. Hopefully we'll have got a bit of confidence back now and can string a few wins together. As awful as results have been recently, I still think this is a pretty talented team that's capable of contending for the league, if we can get our act together fast enough.
Johnson certainly improved quickly. Debut was a bit of a stinker in all honesty. A pretty good Joe Scott impersonation in fact. Much better tonight. Shot the ball well, blocked a few shots. Camera was lagging behind the play but seemed like he also drew a charge to prevent an easy transition score at one point. Encouraging stuff. Back to back DNP-CD's for Scott since the newcomers came in. And that's despite Johnson bricking just about every shot he took against Bristol and Ward-Hibbert not even suiting up tonight. There's really no role for him on this team anymore. Binning him for a half decent forward/big would seem to me like the logical thing to do. I'm not expecting much of anything from Walker this season personally and we're not brilliantly deep in this area.
Not at all uncommon for guys to train with us then sign elsewhere. Hesson seems to pop up in our training photos every season. But if this mystery big man is Chris Tawiah, I'd be in favour of making that switch. Wasn't a resounding success first time around but he seems to have done relatively well for himself since then. I'd be more confident of him (or any other half decent player of that sort) helping the team than Scott moving forward.
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Post by interestedridersfan on Jan 18, 2020 6:57:18 GMT
I think we looked back to being full of energy and were really hustling on defence
Wolves played well to get back close IMO. Some great 3 point shooting for them near the end
Worrying for Riders that they had key players out and it still ended up so close
I realise we had a couple of players out as well
I think we are still one quality player short. Walker would be that player but he's going to be out for a good while yet.
If Scott is not going to play can we afford to replace him?
If there is budget to do so then I think it's needed. The recent lions signing may push us to bring another quality player ourselves I think
One thing I noticed was at the end of the game there was zero interaction between Rob and Matt Newby when players and team shook hands at the end. It was a real cursory hand shake and no eye contact between them at all
No love lost between them (last night at least)
I thought Johnson looked really promising last night. 6ft5 shooting guard. He's high IQ on and off the court. He went to Harvard!!
He seemed to be showing a bit of leadership last night as well which was good to see so early on with us.
Maybe he can bring a bit of what Tyler brought to the team
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Post by interestedridersfan on Jan 18, 2020 7:30:44 GMT
I wonder if both or either of Spencer and Johnson will be doing Masters degrees whilst with us?
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 18, 2020 8:26:49 GMT
What is so puzzling about Riders this season is why we are unable to maintain our form throughout 40 minutes. Opposition will always put runs together at some points but to let Wolves almost snatch victory when we were 21 up seems criminal. We used to be the team that improved our defence as games progressed so we could be pretty confident of beating teams. Now, we appear to regularly struggle with shooting in the second half of games. Almost as if we run out of ideas. Cartwright had to individually take the game by the scruff of the neck and go it alone to seal the win in Q3 & 4. Contrast that with Worcester's excellent team passing to secure open looks for their players. Spencer and Johnson may be able to rectify that weakness in the coming weeks as they bed in. Certainly hope so.
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Post by saintpat on Jan 18, 2020 11:14:48 GMT
What is so puzzling about Riders this season is why we are unable to maintain our form throughout 40 minutes. Opposition will always put runs together at some points but to let Wolves almost snatch victory when we were 21 up seems criminal. We used to be the team that improved our defence as games progressed so we could be pretty confident of beating teams. Now, we appear to regularly struggle with shooting in the second half of games. Almost as if we run out of ideas. Cartwright had to individually take the game by the scruff of the neck and go it alone to seal the win in Q3 & 4. Contrast that with Worcester's excellent team passing to secure open looks for their players. Spencer and Johnson may be able to rectify that weakness in the coming weeks as they bed in. Certainly hope so. I'm sure that will all change by the time you play us on the 31st!! |
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Post by boshspice on Jan 18, 2020 12:39:25 GMT
We really need to do a better job of putting teams away. Must have led for the vast majority of both our league losses and it looked for a moment like we were going to blow this one in similar fashion. Up 21 at one stage and Worcester still end up getting a shot to take the lead in the final minute. The way things have been for us lately I was amazed it didn't go in. Pleased we've stopped the rot anyway. Hopefully we'll have got a bit of confidence back now and can string a few wins together. As awful as results have been recently, I still think this is a pretty talented team that's capable of contending for the league, if we can get our act together fast enough. Johnson certainly improved quickly. Debut was a bit of a stinker in all honesty. A pretty good Joe Scott impersonation in fact. Much better tonight. Shot the ball well, blocked a few shots. Camera was lagging behind the play but seemed like he also drew a charge to prevent an easy transition score at one point. Encouraging stuff. Back to back DNP-CD's for Scott since the newcomers came in. And that's despite Johnson bricking just about every shot he took against Bristol and Ward-Hibbert not even suiting up tonight. There's really no role for him on this team anymore. Binning him for a half decent forward/big would seem to me like the logical thing to do. I'm not expecting much of anything from Walker this season personally and we're not brilliantly deep in this area. Not at all uncommon for guys to train with us then sign elsewhere. Hesson seems to pop up in our training photos every season. But if this mystery big man is Chris Tawiah, I'd be in favour of making that switch. Wasn't a resounding success first time around but he seems to have done relatively well for himself since then. I'd be more confident of him (or any other half decent player of that sort) helping the team than Scott moving forward. You’ll be happy with your ‘mystery big man’ then if it comes to fruition. Also has some solid offers from overseas so it will be interesting to see how that plays out from now until the end of the season. Certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see him start next season with you at the very least. |
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Post by leamrider2 on Jan 18, 2020 14:10:25 GMT
Q1 was possibly the best passage of Riders play this season. Much more balanced; effective rotation; efficient. Thank goodness the FT percentage was much better than it has been of late. Very promising. Good to see them snuffing out Jordan Williams, who had a terrific game last time the sides met. Riders did let it go a bit particularly in Q3 (and a string of very silly turnovers on offence) but full credit to Wolves shooters who had a really good game. I never felt for a second that they were going to actually snatch the win, but it did make it more uncomfortable than necessary.
I don't normally worry about the standard of referring in BBL games any more, but I thought the refs managed to do their their best to spoil the game last night. 38 fouls called in all, and all started by setting the bar very low when calling the gentlest of contacts within the first seconds. After that you just knew it was going to be like that all night.
I still think Riders need another option of a big man.
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Post by massiveridersfan on Jan 18, 2020 14:36:30 GMT
Q1 was possibly the best passage of Riders play this season. Much more balanced; effective rotation; efficient. Thank goodness the FT percentage was much better than it has been of late. Very promising. Good to see them snuffing out Jordan Williams, who had a terrific game last time the sides met. Riders did let it go a bit particularly in Q3 (and a string of very silly turnovers on offence) but full credit to Wolves shooters who had a really good game. I never felt for a second that they were going to actually snatch the win, but it did make it more uncomfortable than necessary. I don't normally worry about the standard of referring in BBL games any more, but I thought the refs managed to do their their best to spoil the game last night. 38 fouls called in all, and all started by setting the bar very low when calling the gentlest of contacts within the first seconds. After that you just knew it was going to be like that all night. I still think Riders need another option of a big man. Agree about our offence in Q1 but it's been impressive in other games where we have gone on to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Definitely require another inside player to help out because Thomson and Chuku aren't as effective as I'd hoped this season. We need a rebounder who can dominate the paint, defend and also score a bit too. |
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