Adelaide Lightning can make it three wins from four this weekend to move up WNBL table

ADELAIDE Lightning is on the verge of winning three of its four games since the WNBL’s season recess if it holds out Melbourne tonight and takes Canberra on Sunday.

Adelaide Lightning v Dandenong Rangers WNBL game at Wayville Sports Centre. Lightning's Leilani Mitchell.

ADELAIDE Lightning is on the verge of winning three of its four games since the WNBL’s season recess if it holds out Melbourne tonight and takes Canberra on Sunday.

The Lightning resumed the season on the road to Dandenong last week, having lost to the Rangers at The Lighthouse 63-79 before the break which accommodated the Opals playing pre-Olympic “test” games in Rio.

But Adelaide smacked Dandenong 77-63, lost to league leader Perth in Perth and now has a real chance of taking out both opponents this week.

Two wins would move Lightning into Melbourne’s seventh spot, the depleted Boomers having to back up in Perth while Adelaide goes to Canberra to face the 0-19 Capitals.

Melbourne, on a 7-12 -loss record to Adelaide’s 6-12, hits town tonight without Tess Madgen, Elyse Penaluna and Brittany Smart.

Madgen (ankle) and Penaluna (knee) may have surgery in their future while Smart injured a hamstring at training last Sunday and most likely is out for the rest of the season.

“Britt could be kept out for the remainder, we’re just trying to assess that at the moment and Kristen, issues similar to Elyse, her knee doesn’t like playing basketball,” Boomers coach Guy Molloy said.

The player most likely to flourish in her extended time is South Aussie forward Olivia Thompson but Melbourne will have its work cut out.

Largely due to its starters of Leilani Mitchell, Mikaela Dombkins, Kelly Bowen, Kayla Standish and Mikaela Ruef, Adelaide has found its identity and is ready to push its claims up the ladder.

Originally published as Adelaide Lightning can make it three wins from four this weekend to move up WNBL table