Lauren Jackson takes us through the Melbourne Boomers’ hectic Women’s National Basketball League schedule
Opals, WNBL and WNBA legend Lauren Jackson is now commercial operations manager at the Wantirna-based Melbourne Boomers. Today she takes a look at her club’s hectic schedule
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Well what a ride the past week has been, four games in eight days – not to mention the travel.
It’s hard to believe we are in the middle of six games in 16 days.
That’s as tough as it gets in basketball, let alone any sport for that matter.
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Fresh off a big win last Thursday night against Sydney, the team ventured up to Townsville on Saturday to face their 2017/18 finals nemesis, the Townsville Fire, on Sunday.
The victory over the Flames was our first at home this season and, once again, our scoring prowess was on full display with a strong team effort.
Following on from scoring 101 points against Dandenong, it was nice to see the tram out on another 96 points against Sydney.
The speed at which this WNBL season seems to be travelling is incredible, there have been games at least every couple of days and you would expect the Boomers girls would be getting a little tired.
But they’re not, they’re incredible
They are getting better each game and the chemistry is really starting to evolve.
I think the most impressive thing so far is how the team just seems to be handling the adversity of injuries in its stride.
Our four Opals players came back from the World Cup a month into pre-season and it took a few weeks for things to start to fall into place out on the court.
And, when it did, people started taking notice.
Unfortunately, our young star Ezi Magbegor went down with an injury (broken hand) against the Canberra Capitals a couple of weeks back and will be sidelined for another couple of weeks.
The team has stepped up in her absence and we are starting to see some very good basketball being played.
Once back from Townsville late on Sunday night, the Boomers will likely get two training sessions in before flying to Perth to play the Lynx this Friday night.
Once again a quick turnaround will see us back at home on Sunday (November 18) when we meet Townsville for the second time in a week.
This Sunday’s game (1pm at State Basketball Centre) will be our annual Purple Power game, proudly presented by Maddie Riewoldt’s Vision.
I love this game. Seeing the fans come into the game all dressed in purple to support the team is so much fun.
We want to pack our home court again. This season, like last, we are again leading the league when it comes to crowds at games.
Of course last time against Townsville on our home court we witnessed that epic win in game 2 of the grand final series. That was an amazing night.
We want to get everyone behind us again as we make a run towards a playoff position and, hopefully, with a win we can make a statement to the league that we are a threat.
For the record: The Boomers returned form the long trip north with an epic 78-70 win over Townsville in their keeping, their first win over the Fire. Lindsay Allen led the way with a stunning haul of 29 points.
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