Turnaround no excuse with JackJumpers back home

The schedule might be working against the Tasmania JackJumpers as they look for an improved home performance on Sunday but there are no excuses as they look to tidy up some costly areas in an overall strong Friday showing in Perth.

The JackJumpers had a chance over the previous week to recharge and refresh after playing 13 games over the opening nine rounds. They also regained import David Johnson for the Friday night match up in Perth with the Wildcats.

Tasmania did a lot right on the night too against an in-form opponents including racing out to a 13-4 start. They stayed in touch right to the end with Josh Bannan and Majok Deng especially impressive combining for 55 points and 20 rebounds in the continued absence of Will Magnay.

The JackJumpers don't have much time to think about that game, though, and have the supremely quick turnaround to host the Sydney Kings at MyState Bank Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Tasmania will spend all day on Saturday returning home to Hobart and then prepare for the 2:30pm tip-off against a Kings team who haven't played since last Sunday and who come into the clash on a four-game winning streak with the chance of Matthew Dellavedova returning.

That's just the reality of the situation and coach Scott Roth knows there's no point complaining. His team just has to go out there and give it their best shot to try and reward their home fans with just a second win in front of them for NBL26.

"It's already 12 o'clock in Hobart right now and we won't be back to the hotel until 1 o'clock Hobart time, and we have recovery and so on and so forth, and are up at 5:30 in the morning to travel and have to make two stops to get to Hobart," Roth said directly after Friday's game.

"It is what it is and you get the schedule that you get and whether you like it or not, you have to go and play the games and show up.

"Don Nelson used to say that you have to play them all and it doesn’t matter where they're at, so we'll get as much as recovery as we can.

"Maybe Magnay's back so that will help our spirits I think just in general, but a team laying there waiting for us is obviously quite dangerous and we haven’t had very much success back home either.

"We have a lot of work to do which is not the worst thing in the world, and we'll continue to get after it."

It was a big task for the JackJumpers front court on Friday night especially up against Perth seven-footer Jo Lual-Acuil Jr and trying to limit his influence without the size, experience and physicality of captain Magnay.

The work that both Bannan and Deng did was enormous with them playing almost 35 minutes of the game apiece with Bannan finishing with 29 points and nine rebounds, and Deng 26 points, 11 boards and four steals.

Roth couldn’t praise both men enough including the big role Nick Marshall continues to play who was out there for another 25 minutes to finish with 12 points and two rebounds on 5/7 field goal shooting.

"He's (Bannan) just a worker and he's only turned 25 and he's all about being a workhorse, and has the right attitude and he fits in beautifully with our group," Roth said.

"We just need to continue to support him and his growth, and he's only just scratching the surface at this young age of what he can do. He's been there every night for us and I also thought Majok Deng played his heart out.

"Guys like him are getting a lot of extra minutes we never really planned on them getting, and Nick Marshall and those sort of guys were supposed to come off the bench to help us but they are having to take on much bigger roles.

"Majok's out there for 35 minutes tonight and Marshall has been a workhorse these last five or six weeks, and we're asking a lot of guys to extend themselves in a little bit different roles, and they've responded the best they can and are doing a wonderful job."

It's hard to ignore that perhaps the biggest factor in the game was the number of times that the Wildcats got to the foul line compared with the JackJumpers, but Roth wasn’t interested in complaining and quite simply wants his players to stop fouling.

The numbers were quite stark, though, with the Wildcats having the first 15 free-throw attempts of the game with the JackJumpers not getting to the stripe until Bryce Hamilton stepped up five minutes into the second quarter.

By half-time, Perth had 19 foul shots to three even though the numbers weren't quite as eye-opening by the end of the game with the Wildcats taking 35 free throws 20 with the JackJumpers getting to the line 13 times in the fourth quarter.

Roth isn’t interested in anything but just not wanting his players to send their opponents to the line so much which has been an on-going concern.

"It just varies from game to game and you have to adjust to the refereeing for what building you're in, and what the crew are calling and what they're not, and you have to make adjustments if there's not that consistency," Roth said.

"As a player, you have to adjust and you can't rely on a fair whistle, especially on the road, you have to earn your right to get that and I'm sure they did foul us, but we were fouling there's no question about that.

"I think it's just stupidity at the end of the day and we talk about change, and changing now, and as a player you get a tick-tack foul in the game and don't realise it's creating another one and another one, and the next thing you know they are in the bonus already and we're on the back front.

"Then we're not guarding the three-point line because we're a bit slow closing out not wanting to get another foul, and that stuff is controllable, which is good, but we need to change."