Sa'eed Nelson will be back for Sheffield Sharks' play-off campaign

Sharks stretched their run to nine wins from their last 10 games by beating Manchester Giants 80-71 last Friday night, despite the absence of the 24-year-old point guard who was nursing a minor injury.

Head coach Atiba Lyons has revealed the New Jersey native, pictured, who has scored 354 points, has the third most assists in the league and made the fourth most free throws, is back in training but will not be rushed back into duty at Leicester Riders on Friday night or at home to Bristol Flyers for the season finale on Sunday.

"Maybe some small minutes just here and there to get him some game time, we’re managing the situation,” confirmed Lyons, who has one eye on next week’s play-off quarter-final.

"Missing Sa’eed, whose one of our leading scorers, is always tricky, but we did a good job to get past that (against Manchester).”

With Sharks currently in sixth, they would match-up against third-placed Bristol Flyers, while Leicester are also a potential opponent over the two-legged tie.

For Lyons, who Sharks face next week as they enter the play-offs for a 28th consecutive season is ‘irrelevant’. “At this time of year you don’t have a preferred opponent you just want to play good basketball,” he said. "It’s about seeding now, it’s about keeping our rhythm and our momentum.

"Hopefully we can experiment slightly with some stuff that we’re looking at for the play-offs, but I don’t expect to change too much.”

Lyons was full of praise for the way his team has finished the season after struggling for consistency for two-thirds of the campaign.

"They’ve stepped up and they’ve been exceptional this last part of the season," he said. “It’s a very enjoyable group of guys to be around and coach, and we just want to keep the energy going and have a good finish to the year.

“Considering where we were five weeks ago I didn’t have fourth in mind, just making the play-offs was the target. So now to just finish as high as we can would be great."