BBL Games Sunday 5th November

[reallyoldfeenixfan2]

However there are a number of comments about the way the fans felt about the game. Wonder it they would have preferred to lose by 30+ against a full Lions squad or win like that. They all looked extremely happy watching it and realistically at the moment they will struggle to have many more home game victories. You play and beat whoever and whatever turns up.

[SamH]

Usually if there are suspicious betting patterns on an unexpected event which then comes in, there is an investigation so they'd have to be careful, but wouldn't be hard to get a few distant contacts or even people in other countries to put some bets on if the market were available out there. I wish I'd known, although I still might not have had much confidence to back Plymouth!

The best one ever was a couple of years ago in the NBA. Golden State announced that Draymond Green was going to start a game because it was Klay Thompson's first game back after nearly 2 years out with injury, but Green himself had a nagging injury so was going to come off at the first break and not play again. Loads of punters on hearing this, got in by betting on the 'under' for Green in every category (i.e. under 15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists etc. or whatever they were) before the bookies reacted, and absolutely cleaned up!

[massiveridersfan]

If I'm honest, I would LOVE Lions to turn up without their star players this coming weekend and allow us an easy victory. Somewhat jealous of Plymouth fans.

[eillo23]

Congrats to PJ on his 500th win.

Reading through comments about Lions resting 6 players, which is not entirely true. Sharma, Nelson and Dekker were all injured and unavailable. All 3 sat out of their Eurocup game in the week. Can’t comment on Taylor and C. Morgan, as I don’t know if they were injured or rested. At a guess I’d say both had knocks, as London only played this game with 9 players, that’s including a player from their youth team. The new big guy showed his skill set but doesn’t look fully fit. Soluade had a rare off night shooting the ball. Queeley playing minutes for the first time in nearly a year since his bad injury.

I’m surprised it has taken them this long into the season to not be able to field a fully fit lineup. The idea they should field a full team for every BBL game is far fetched.

If you look at the bigger picture… Injury’s and schedule are the cause of the Lions Roster for this game. Ok M. Morgan and Olayseni were fit, but with a big Eurocup game coming up on Wednesday, their minutes were limited. Lions coming off the back of 2 consecutive Euro losses and needing a win… make sense to limit minutes and let other players coming back from injury’s sit another game out.

Also surprised by the lack of admiration shown to Patriots and PJ. PJ has made some changes recently which have clearly worked. The new signings have the team looking much more balanced and competitive. They shot the ball extremely well on Sunday, and you could argue that they would have had the same result against any other BBL team on the night.

Sometimes you have to look past the politics and concentrate on the Basketball.

[D44]

PJs interview on Below the Rim put London's squad rotation down to arrogance. Thinking they could rest key players and still win. Maybe he's right, Pat's have been far better recently whilst not getting results.

[LTfan]

Thought I'd add my thoughts for the record...

Do I think London wanted to lose this game? No.
Do I think London wanted to prioritise other things over this game, and thought they could do so and still beat Plymouth? Yes.

Remember they were without Sharma, Nelson and Dekker against Bristol, 2nd in the league, just 48 hours earlier and won by 28 points. So it's my belief that they thought they could downscale the team further for this road trip and still get the win. And that backfired big time.

Well done to Plymouth. They saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

Although I will say I feel a bit sorry for Surrey (and maybe Manchester) in that they weren't chosen for this experiment, but I suppose that's just how the fixtures fall.

[SamH]

The thing is why did they feel the need to rest so many players for the same game, especially if 3 had already rested in the Bristol game. Honestly, they're not playing that often really - its a bit pathetic that they are doing this load management thing.

[LTfan]

Nov 7, 2023 15:57:39 GMT SamH said:

The thing is why did they feel the need to rest so many players for the same game, especially if 3 had already rested in the Bristol game. Honestly, they're not playing that often really - its a bit pathetic that they are doing this load management thing.

I guess because they felt if they can beat the team ranked 2nd in the league by 28 points with that line up they could probably afford to travel to the team ranked worst in the league with an even lesser line up and still win. Clearly a mistake, but I understand the logic behind it - especially when it's clear this is a business to them and Europe is their priority.