Sheffield Sharks shift focus onto court in bid to make Super League Basketball Cup final

A two-legged SLB Cup semi-final with Bristol Flyers starts on Friday night in the south-west, with the second leg set for Sunday at what is expected to be a pumped-up Canon Medical Arena.

The prize is a place in the final against either Leicester Riders or Surrey 89ers in the SLB Cup final at Nottingham Arena on Sunday, March 9. It would be a first final since 2018 for the Sharks when they lost to Leicester in the Trophy, with a chance to win silverware for the first time since their play-off success two years earlier.

Almost every Sharks player interviewed this year has mentioned the word silverware, ramping up the importance of this weekend’s semi-final.

For their long-standing head coach Atiba Lyons, the week has been about trying to keep feet on the ground.

“It’s not been that different a week, we’re trying to get some guys healthy, we’ve had some bangs and injuries and we’re still teaching what we want, so we can’t go too hard but it’s been intense enough to get out of what we need to get out of it,” he said.

“We’re going in knowing we have to perform but like I said right now we’re focused and any game is important to us.

“We want to stay alive and win as much silverware as we can so we’ve got to make sure we show up on both days.”

The erratic nature of Bristol’s form makes them difficult to prepare for. They reached the final of the SLB Trophy in Birmingham but barely laid a glove on Newcastle Eagles.

They won four and lost four in their European North Basketball League campaign and just last weekend, scored 59 points in defeat on Friday night, 122 in victory two days later, underlining the feeling that you don’t know what you’re going to get.

In 25-year-old American guard Keddy Johnson they have a player who averages the most points per game in the league.

“They’ve got a wound from a recent loss in a final so it’ll be a tough game and we know they’ll be hungry,” said Lyons, whose Sharks go into the semi-final tied at the top of the league standings with an 11-4 record.

“What happened to Bristol last weekend happens in basketball, sometimes the ball bounces for you, sometimes it doesn’t, but I know for sure that having that sting of a previous final defeat will propel them and they’ll be strong.

“So we can’t be too lazy, we can’t look back at our run and be happy with that, we’ve got to look better.

“Because we’re still figuring things out but still winning which is great. We’re still finding our style of play, we’re confident as a team and the chemistry is good, so we’re optimistic.

“Going into their gym away is a tough place to play so it’s going to take everybody being focused.”