ON the eve of the final weekend of the regular season, the Cheshire Jets find themselves caught between two stools.
On one hand, whatever the results in their final two games, it will not affect their standing in the BBL Championship play-offs, so they will want to remain fit and injury-free.
But on the other, history tells them that the team that does best in the play-offs is usually the one that comes into the post-season on a hot streak.
After their crushing defeat of Leicester Riders on Sunday, the Jets have something to build their play-off campaign on and forward Quemont Greer agreed that it was a tough balancing act.
“We’re just finishing out the regular season, trying to make sure we execute and do all the little things to get us prepared for the play-offs, make sure we don’t take a step backwards and try to move forward,” he said.
“We need to make sure we’re playing well and we’ve got to make sure everybody is healthy, too, because it’s key going into the play-offs to have everybody healthy.
“We’ve just got to go there, play the games, make sure no-one gets hurt and get the games out of the way.”
The Jets travel to Worthing Thunder on Saturday before hosting Worcester Wolves on Sunday at the Northgate Arena (5.30pm) knowing they have secured fourth place and home-court advantage for the playoffs. But once the whistle goes, anything can happen.
“Injuries happen and we expect everybody to play hard once you’re on the court, but we’ve already secured our spot in the play-offs and the two teams we’re playing against are probably not in the play-offs,” said Greer.
“We want to win the game but it’s not a big factor if we win or not, we just want to make sure everybody stays injury free and we play well.”
Beating the Riders 117-94 at home on Sunday without the injured Colin O’Reilly gave the Jets a huge boost and Greer believes they are in good shape for a run at the final piece of silverware.
“We felt Sunday was a mandatory win coming off a tough trip and a long tough game at Plymouth,” he said. “We felt we had to come out with a lot of energy and step up and that’s what we did as a team.
“There’s a lot of things we need to get squared-off before the play-offs but I think we’ll be ready.”
