London Lions v Neptunas Klaipeda - Tues 22 Sept - 14:30

Spent a bit of time with a couple of my guys in the Lions camp or bubble in last fortnight.
I think they genuinely -as do I- will do really well in Europe this campaign.
Been a feeble issues as you’d expect but all seems to be ticking over.
Don’t think it’s a secret that the new owners want their own coaches in -NBA experience or at least NCAA decent level but Vince managed to get them to agree he in charge until the Europe run is over - guess he has deserved that!
After Ovie left under a big cloud with a lot of jibes from him about school yard coaching things a bit more on it. Vince not actually coaching rather his assistant Dan Greenway who the guys like a lot.

JRob has had to show his maturity with the re signing of Kevin Bristol who caused problems before feigning injury before the BBL Trophy final as a was of getting paid and costing them the game which obviously went down like a **** in a spacesuit.
MBA obviously tight with a few of the guys but not with others. Him and J have a love -hate ting. Off court all sweet-whether on it can work will be down to the coach.

OJ got shafted when about to sign which may bite them in the ass when the big guns leave after Europe.

One major issue they have which is kinda solved with no crowds in that Liggins has caused big issues already. Off court not on.
Don’t think he will last in UK too long after his behaviour already around town.
That and Copper Box won’t allow him to play due to his battery’s of women and small child case in States which is not good PR for them as a community organisation. That I guess comes with the territory of being a 6’8 guy beating up a woman and child so guess he can’t have any arguments about that -but he will of course

It’s gonna be a ride and Tuesday will be tight but I think they’ll surprise a lot of people.
Good luck to them

Yeah, odd comment to make that instantly makes you cast doubt on the credibility of anything else said. The Copper Box have hosted events featuring people with far worse historic criminal convictions.

As for the rest of it, I could see some truth in some of it, but who knows. Let’s see how well they play on Tuesday afternoon...

We’re obviously all hoping Lions qualify for the Basketball Champions League, but if they enter the FIBA Europe Cup instead we’ll have a bit of a wait to see them play in Europe again - the start of the regular season has been rescheduled for 6th January 2021.

www.fiba.basketball/news/fiba-europe-board-approves-youth-competition-organizers-decides-on-tip-off-dates-of-club-competitions

And for completeness, the start date of the Basketball Champions League regular season is 13th October 2020.

For last season? That was announced a while ago I think, but apart from that yeah that’s correct.

Is the game on TV or streaming anywhere?

Don’t think Walker travelled with the team judging from his Instagram

Obviously going small ball then !

The luxury of leaving three 6'10" plus players out of your twelve man game day squad.

Reported in another thread, but i'll post it here too...

London Lions v Neptunas Klaipeda will be broadcast live tomorrow (Tues) afternoon on the BBC Sport website and BBC iPlayer.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/basketball/54234441

New kit

Same thoughts here, aren’t Kappa still the official kit supplier of the BBL? Although I now London City Royals used Nike for a while at the very beginning.

I know the black/white was used last year, but I wonder if it’s permanently replacing the purple/yellow?
On a related note, and probably something for its own thread, but I’m disappointed with current Lions merchandise on offer... nothing new for the black/white colour scheme, and no way of getting a Lions jersey anywhere. Hopefully that changes once the season gets underway. Rant over.

So what are everyone’s thoughts on the game...
I think if Lions can beat Neptunas in the first round they’ve got a good chance of winning in the second round and entering the Champions League regular season. The challenge is the first game in my opinion.

That new uniform is dull as dirt. Looks like practice gear.


Interesting. It would appear that Bet365 opened Neptunas at an anaemic 1.33 and most firms had them as favourites so I'm sure you were right at the time you posted this. Books have now flipped and Lions are decent favourites most places.

History obviously favours Neptunas. They've been decently competitive in the BCL every year since it's inception and have made the last 16 three times out of four. But according to some (badly translated) Lithuanian pieces I've read their budget is down considerably this year. I dare say that's a narrative we'll be hearing quite a bit but the story does check out here. They've got no Americans and they appear to have lost most of their key guys from last season. They have still got a few pretty decent looking veterans but there's also a lot of youth on the roster. And they've got a young head coach who was coaching their reserve team last season and has no experience at this sort of level. They won their domestic curtain raiser a few days ago but only narrowly, against a team that is consistently among the weakest in the league and finished joint bottom last season (no relegation due to Covid I assume).

Long story short, I'm not convinced they're going to be all that strong. Not going to predict a Lions win with too much conviction as I'm not entirely confident they're going to be as good as the sum of their individual parts, at least at this early stage. But I do think Lions figure to be the stronger team on paper here. And I'm kicking myself a little bit for not taking a closer look at this Neptunas side sooner.