HEAT COOLING OFF
03/17/2008

Guildford Heat coach Paul James has criticised his team after they crashed to two defeats against sides in the bottom half of the table over the weekend, causing serious damage to their defence of the BBL Championship title.

"I guess you could say a week is a long time in sport," said James, who saw his team follow up their BBL Trophy final success with a 99-92 loss at strugglers PAWS London Capital on Saturday, before losing 112- 105 at home against Worcester Wolves the following day.

"We were up against two teams who were desperate for a victory, and we showed a lack of passion and commitment," James said.

"I'm very disappointed with the way we played, we didn't play much defence, there was a lack of effort and rotation there, and we need to improve that. I stressed at the beginning of the season that if we could keep teams in the high 70s or low 80s we would win a lot of games, but if we let them score 90 plus, we'll lose more than we win."

The losses have seriously damaged Heat's chances of retaining the league title they won last season. They are now five wins behind leaders Newcastle Eagles, with one game in hand. Their chances are not over, however, as they host the Eagles on Easter Sunday (March 23 - tip-off 3pm) before Newcastle visit for a second time a fortnight later on Sunday April 6 (tip-off 3pm).

Before they worry about Eagles, however, Heat have the chance for instant revenge against Capital, as Steve Bucknall's side visit the Spectrum on Sunday afternoon.

Prior to Saturday's shock loss at the Capital City Academy, Heat had won the first three meetings between the sides. Capital were down 91-88 with 1.21 remaining of the first clash, but could get no closer as the Heat saw out the game from the free-throw line to win 96-91. Danny Gilbert led all scorers in the game netting 26 points for the Heat, while Sam Bradley led the Capital scorers with 24 points personal.

There was also a tight game when the teams met in the BBL Trophy at Capital City Academy in December, with Heat eventually winning 83-77, but the home side ran out comfortable 102-67 winners when Capital travelled to Surrey for the opening game of 2008.