NBL1 West 2023: South West Slammers men’s team aims for improvement against Lakeside Lightning

Despite a degree of frustration, South West Slammers men’s coach Shane Goff knows quality basketball from his team is good enough to beat anyone.

A costly nine-minute lapse during the second quarter of Saturday night’s home 103-75 loss against East Perth — in which the Slammers shot 1/10 inside the paint — cost Goff’s men any chance of winning their second game of the season.

“If you are going to go eight minutes in the second quarter without scoring? That’s something which definitely needs to be worked on,” Goff said ahead of Saturday’s home clash against Lakeside Lightning.

“We need to make sure we improve and play for 40 minutes.”

Irrespective of their position on the ladder, Lightning men’s teams have always been regarded as one of the best at three-point shooting.

The Slammers boss believes this will be factored into the scouting report.

“The Lightning have got some outstanding athletes in their group,” he said.

“Defensively, if you take one of them away, the next player is ready to stand up.

“We will definitely look at who we need to stop, as I want to give my guys the best opportunity of knowing who they are playing against.”

Slammers supporters could also have a new fan favourite in coming weeks, with Deng Makuach working extremely hard at D-League level.

“He just came out of the woodwork,” Goff said. “Deng is a friend of one of my players and came along to training once.

“He trained once and after it, we asked if he wanted to go into the D-League team.

“Pretty much now all I am waiting on is the registration — in terms of ticking all the boxes with NBL1 and Basketball Australia — to get him into the group. I’m definitely to throw a contract at him for sure.”

Makuach has scored 57 points across his first two D-League appearances for the Slammers.

Scouting report

(Men’s) Lightning:

League position: 10th. Last round: lost to Perry Lakes Hawks 86-79 (OT); top performer (v Hawks) - Hayden Brown (30 points - 9/17 field goal attempts, 3/10 three-point attempts, 3/5 free throw attempts, three rebounds, three assists, one block).