'Fast and wild' - Atiba Lyons on Cheshire Phoenix challenge as Sheffield Sharks develop their own rhythm
When Sheffield Sharks fell to defeat at unbeaten, defending Super League Basketball champions London Lions last week – a third loss in a row for his team – head coach Atiba Lyons would have been forgiven for reaching for the panic button.
Instead, calm heads prevailed, positives were taken, and Sharks took to the court against the 89ers of Surrey 36 hours later to get their season back on track with a win.
The ebbs and flows are, Lyons believes, symptomatic of a team still learning on the job.
“I think everyone is still in that position on this team,” said Lyons, inset, who chalked up his 750th game in charge of the club in that win over Surrey.
“The players are still getting comfortable with me and I’m figuring out who can do what, where to put them on the court, who to play them with. It’s still a pre-season feel right now, we’re still figuring everything out.
“We weren’t as worried as others might have been (about the losing run). We know where we are in as far as our development as a team. It’s hard to get too down when you’ve only played together a few weeks.
“We had a really good first week that was great, but we had injuries, we had guys just getting into the team and having no pre-season, so it didn’t really equate to the truth of where we are. I think we still have a lot of improvement to come.
“We have shown what we can do to some extent, but we just need to get more comfortable with each other. Against London, we definitely walked away from there feeling like we’d put in a good showing and shown some things that we’re capable of. It gave us confidence.”
Sheffield will continue developing a style and a bond against Cheshire Phoenix at the Canon Medical Arena on Sunday. Phoenix, like Sheffield, are still finding their feet after losing four of their opening seven games.
“They play a lot of fast, quick basketball,” said Lyons, who could welcome back captain Fahro Alihodzic after missing the last two games, but won’t rush him back. “They want it to be high-scoring. Their record is a little misleading because they’ve played London twice.
“They’ll play fast and wild and we’ve got to make sure we respond to it, contain that and do our thing.”