Seven Frustrating Quarters, One Disastrous One

I’ll start with the highlights from Manchester Basketball’s third quarter against Bristol:

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Anyway, the 76–58 defeat at Bristol Flyers on Friday was a game Manchester were genuinely in before that disastrous third quarter blew it open.

Sunday’s 73–64 home defeat to Liverpool Basketball was different. This time there was no third-quarter collapse or huge run to explain away. Manchester simply couldn’t score enough, and Liverpool did a very good job of making life uncomfortable for them from start to finish.

So, what do we actually take from the weekend?

Consistently Inconsistent

On paper, 76–58 looks like a comfortable Bristol victory, but it was a game of two halves. Manchester trailed 20–15 after the opening quarter but responded well in the second, winning the period 20–16. At half-time, Bristol led by just one.

Then came the third quarter *shudders*. Bristol put 30 points on the board. Manchester managed 7 (seven!). That 23-point swing in ten minutes meant the game was effectively over.

The problem was what happened with the ball once Manchester had it. Manchester had 18 (eighteen!) turnovers to Bristol’s ten, handing eight extra possessions to the home team, and Bristol made them count. Then there’s the shooting…

You Miss 100% of The Shots You Don’t Take

Although Manchester made a spirited effort at missing 100% of the shots they did take.

Manchester’s shooting was like they were doing it with their eyes closed. They went 20-of-63 from the field, and just 5-of-23 from three. The free-throw line wasn’t much kinder: 13-of-25, continuing their free-throw problems from last year.

These players are too good for the offense to be that ineffective two games in a row, right…? right?!

Liverpool 1 Manchester 0

If Bristol was about one catastrophic quarter, Liverpool was about four quarters of pure offensive frustration.

Manchester were back at the National Basketball Performance Centre, in front of their own fans, against a new franchise that had lost its opening two Championship games. So this was supposed to be the bounce-back game.

Instead, Liverpool produced exactly the sort of performance that newly formed teams need to produce on the road: disciplined, competitive and, most importantly, efficient enough to keep Manchester chasing the game.

The biggest issue for MCR was, again, scoring.

Manchester managed just 64 against Liverpool. After scoring 58 in Bristol, they averaged just 61 points across the two weekend defeats. It doesn’t matter how good your defence is; you’re not winning many games with that kind of offensive production.

Make Life Difficult for Your Opponents, Not Yourself

This is where the two games start to look similar.

Against Bristol, Manchester had enough of the ball, enough rebounds and enough opportunities to compete, but gave away too many possessions and couldn’t make enough shots.

Against Liverpool, they couldn’t generate enough offensive momentum early enough to put the visitors under sustained pressure and, again, couldn’t make enough shots. Manchester’s most accurate shooting was when they were shooting themselves in the foot.

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation

There are positive building blocks here. The team can rebound. There is ball movement and assists. There is defensive activity. There is size. There is talent.

There aren’t many more talented backcourt combinations in the league than Luke Nelson, Jordan Johnson, and Keon Thompson.

The problem over this weekend was that Manchester didn’t get enough of that combination working at the same time. They need to quickly figure out how to share ball-handling responsibilities and have the right rotations in place around those guards to get the best out of them.

Panic In The Streets of Manchester?

Too soon for talk of panic; it’s still early. There are new players, new combinations, new roles and a new offensive system to establish. The promising performance in the Champions League qualifying and at home to Surrey shows what this team is capable of.

So I’m not pressing the panic button after three league games. But the next few weeks are going to tell us whether these two defeats were just early-season teething problems or whether there is a genuine offensive issue that needs fixing.

Do You Want The Good News First, Or The Bad?

The good news is, Manchester won’t have time to dwell on this weekend. The bad? The schedule is brutal.

Élan Chalon are next in Manchester on Wednesday before Cheshire Phoenix visit the NBPC on Friday. Manchester then face KB Bashkimi in Europe the following week and a high-flying Newcastle Eagles team three days later.

There won’t be much time to work on the offense. At times it looked like Manchester were too structured on offense, playing too slowly to take advantage of their athleticism. A more fluid and instinctive offensive approach might unlock the talent they have.

And given what’s coming next, Manchester are going to get the opportunity to show us very quickly whether they’ve found the key.