Banged up JackJumpers take stock before Perth trip

Missing Will Magnay, David Johnson and Anthony Drmic, and giving up a 28-point lead to Adelaide left the Tasmania JackJumpers a hole to dig out of, but coach Scott Roth is looking forward to taking stock ahead of returning to the road.

The JackJumpers played their last of five consecutive games in Tasmania, with two of those at the Silverdome in Launceston, when they lost to the 36ers at MyState Bank Arena last Thursday.

However, when Adelaide were up 28 late in the third quarter and possessing plenty of firepower and weapons while the JackJumpers were missing three of their ideal starting five, there was a lot ahead of them.

A group of less character might have suffered a 30 or 40-point loss in the circumstances, but Tasmania got all the way back within seven with a big final quarter ahead of now having eight days before playing again against the Wildcats in Perth.

"Obviously our guys continued to fight which was a really good sign and they will always continue to fight whether we're up or down," Roth said.

"It could have been quite ugly there at one point or another, but they dug in and found a way to at least make it interesting down the stretch there so there are some positives to take out of that.

"I don't know how much you really learn by losing, but ultimately we just don't have enough bullets in the chambers to score enough points consecutively to put scoreboard pressure on right now."

After finding themselves 28 points down against the 36ers last Thursday night late in the third quarter, the JackJumpers dug deep and produced 31 points in the final term to get back within seven at one stage.

They had some good opportunities to get even closer too and Roth was proud of the fight from his playing group, but that's not something he would ever doubt.

"It's just a good credit to the guys that they kept fighting and fought through some adversity over the course of the game," Roth said.

"Basketball's not fair to you all the time and sometimes you get punched in the mouth, and you have to get to the other side of that and right now we're getting punched in the mouth quite a bit.

"It's not the worst thing in the world and you have to just continue to grind away, and our guys will continue showing up to put in the work and stack days again, and try to get individually better and we'll just go back to what we normally do.

"It's the ebb and flow of sports in general, and basketball, and I did mention that they could have hang a 35-point game on us very easily at one point there so the fight back showed a lot of characters from our guys. We have a lot of character guys who are good dudes trying to do the right things."

Emerging JackJumpers big man Archie Woodhill made his first appearance of the season last Thursday in the game against the 36ers and showed some encouraging signs after a long layoff.

He played almost eight minutes against Adelaide for two points, a rebound and a steal, and Roth is looking forward to him building on that now moving forward.

"We were just trying to put him out there for about eight-10 minutes because he only just practiced for the first time in two and-a-half months on Tuesday in five-on-five drills," Roth said.

"So we had to be a little bit careful of bringing him back into the fold but we were trying to get him those 8-10 minutes out there to run around.

"That's something for him to obviously build on over the next few days until we get to the break and we'll continue to ramp things up for him a little bit."

Without Magnay available last Thursday against the 36ers, it was a big job for Majok Deng and Josh Bannan to hold down the fort up against the likes of Isaac Humphries, Nick Rakocevic and Zylan Cheatham, who finished with 27 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.

"Cheatham's a hell of a player and I've always liked him and loved him at the Breakers, and he's just got an energy and motor that's undeniable, and he had a fantastic game on both sides of the floor," Roth said.

"And obviously, we're a little bit lacking in depth right there for right now and got bullied a few times just in general, but it's a lot of work for Majok just to be down there and Bannan is finding his way.

"But for Majok to be down there playing the five for longer minutes, he's not physically built for a long period of that, but those guys too battled."

The JackJumpers at no point this season have been at full strength with the injury curse striking before things even got underway when Sean Macdonald was injured playing with the Australian Boomers.

Now through the first nine rounds of the season and opening 13 matches, Anthony Drmic, Majok Deng, David Johnson, Archie Woodhill and Will Magnay have all been sidelined at different points.

With having eight days from last Thursday's game at home to Adelaide and taking on Perth this Friday, Roth is hopeful that Johnson might return from a calf injury while Magnay is more likely to be available after the FIBA break.

"David Johnson, we're hoping for something here in the near future with him and he played his first time back with five-on-five also on Tuesday and we'll see how he goes over the next three or four days before we head to Perth," Roth said.

"But he's close to being ready and it will take some time with his timing and stuff but knock on wood we don't have any setbacks. We said the same thing about Drmic and all of a sudden the bottom fell out of that one.

"Then Magnay is around the corner and I don’t think it will be a long-term thing, I hope not, and it might be two or three weeks here to get the swelling down, but there's no structural damage and it's more pain tolerance.

"Like a lot of teams, I would love to see what the roster would look like with all of our guys on the floor at the same time, and it may or may not happen, but we're hopeful."

Given the JackJumpers have won four of their six games outside of Tasmania so far this season, getting on a plane again later this week to take on the Wildcats in Perth on Friday night might not be the worst thing in the world.

"If you're a player of any sort, you like to just go and play and we'll look forward to going to Perth," Roth said.

"The weather will be a little warmer than it's been here, which will be nice, and it's a great atmosphere to go play there.

"They are on a roll there and playing very, very well, and seem to have their roster intact so it should be a good test for us again."