Glasgow Rocks @ Surrey Heat: BBL Championship preview

With the Newcastle Eagles having a weekend off, the Surrey Heat have an opportunity to move level on points with last seasons league winners, as they host the Glasgow Rocks at Surrey Sports Park on Sunday 18th November.

The Heat have been this seasons surprise package, thanks to their 7-1 start to the year – their only league loss coming against the London Lions in early October. Since that time, the Heat have reeled off five straight league wins including victories over three of last seasons top four teams (Wolves, Raiders and Riders).

The 81-74 win over the Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders last Sunday, further confirmed that Coach Creon Raftopoulos’ team are capable of competing at the top end of the table. And with the victory coming with two of the Heat’s starting five missing, the win was all the more impressive.

Martelle McLemore (sprained ankle) and Samuel Cricelli (back spasms) both missed last weekends win but Coach Raftopoulos anticipates that one of the sidelined pair will return to action this week.

“McLemore is still going to be out,” advised Raftopoulos. “He’s got about another three weeks to go, quite a severe sprain that damaged some ligaments. We’re hoping to get him just after Christmas.

“Sam trained this week and should be cleared to play this weekend against Glasgow. Peter Simek did a great job filling in but Sam’s been great for us all season so we’ll get him straight back into the starting line-up.”

The Glasgow Rocks, in contrast to the Heat, have experienced and uneven season so far, going 3-3 in the league and struggling on the road.

For the season, the Rocks are 1-3 on their travels, with their solitary victory coming in a 92-82 win over the Durham Wildcats and it may have something to do with their slow starts in the first half of games (they are among the bottom three in the league in points per quarter over the first two periods).

Working in the Rocks favour, however, is how dangerous they are from deep with approximately 20% of their points a night coming from behind the three point line, while shooting a league best 38.3% for the season.

Last time the two sides met, was at the Surrey Sports Park when the Heat beat the Rocks 84-78. The Rocks will be visiting the Surrey Sports Park this weekend on the second night of a back-to-back having played the UCP Marjon Plymouth Raiders the night before but will be hoping for a better result than last time out.