How Sheffield Sharks are using double defeat to Leicester Riders as SLB play-off motivation

Leicester Riders are those form horses, winning three of their last four games to snatch a fifth-place finish in Super League Basketball.

All the while Sheffield Sharks were moving in the opposite direction, losing three straight to end the season as the second place that was within reach slipped away and became fourth.

That two of those losses came within 48 hours of each other to the Riders, home and away, means it is the lower-ranked team who for many pundits are favourites for a play-off quarter-final match-up that begins in Leicester on Friday and concludes in Sheffield on Sunday.

For their part, a Sharks team smarting from the manner in which their regular-season fizzled out are not willing to hide behind platitudes like those two defeats count for nothing come play-off time.

Their mantra is to embrace those defeats and stand toe-to-toe with the challenge ahead.

“It does count, absolutely,” insisted head coach Atiba Lyons. “It gives them confidence.

“We did play them better second time around but didn’t do enough of the right things consistently in the second game.

“I think we probably under-estimated them the first time we played them given all the stuff they had go well for them. They’ve put together a good team and are playing good basketball.”

His sentiments are echoed by Troy D’Amico, the 23-year-old forward from Illinois, who has only been with the team for a month.

“Yeah those defeats count, they motivate us,” said a rookie still in the early weeks of his professional career.

“Having a team walk in here and beat us at home, then beat us two days after at their place definitely doesn’t leave a good feeling inside us, we’re all hungry and have something to prove. We’re not looking at ourselves as underdogs.”

This is the fourth season in a row that Sharks and Riders have met in the play-offs, with a Prentiss Nixon-inspired victory in a best-of-three quarter-final two years ago the only time Sheffield have got the better of their long-time rivals.

The match-up also pits Lyons against Rob Paternostro, two men who took charge of their clubs in 2008.

Because of results last week, will Paternostro feel he has Lyons’ number?

“When you win two you can be tempted not to change anything even though you think you might want to, you’ll not want to mess up what works,” said Lyons in anticipation of the dilemma his opposite number will be going through.

“It can be an advantage but it can also be a disadvantage, you never really know.

“We’re positive, upbeat, confident in what we can do. Okay, we didn’t finish how we like but I think we’ve refocused from that.

“We had to reset minds a little bit but also put things in perspective.

“Losing sometimes can knock things out of focus but the team has been resilient all year and has come back and have faced people they’ve lost to before and come back. They show up, so I’m expecting them to do the same.”