Feature image via: Sports Imagery
With a 109-87 win over the Perth Redbacks on Friday night, head coach Mike Malat explained his team finally showed the hunger he’s been after all season.
“We’ve put in a lot of work, we’re making adjustments and this was the game where we could see those changes come to life,” Malat said post-game.
“Our word tonight was ‘desperation’, play with that desire and play with that feeling of ‘it has to matter’ and ‘it has to be personal’.
“If you do it the right way, as a collective unit, the things that we can accomplish are really cool.”
Malat challenged his 4-9 squad during the week “in an almost borderline disrespectful way,” to emulate a game situation. That resulted in a strong win against Perth and a close loss to the always-potent Rockingham Flames on Saturday.
He explained the team and crowd brought into their new-found strength and said this is the recipe for success for the rest of the season.
Their mindset change was most shown in Mike Adewunmi’s outstanding performance of 43 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists. Making 19/20 from the free throw line, Lakeside’s aggression in the paint and on the glass was the game-changer.
“I didn’t necessarily come into the game thinking ‘press the gas’ the entire time, it was just taking whatever the defence gave me,” Adewunmi said.
“Just letting the game come to me, whenever I got opportunities to knock them down, just taking my time and trust my work.”
The Lightning’s last 10 games of the season are split between teams currently in the top eight and outside the finals race, giving them a perfectly balanced schedule of possible wins and chemistry-testing clashes.
Make sure to tune into their next game against the Cockburn Cougars on Saturday, live from 7:30pm AWST via NBL1.com.au or the NBL1 App.
