No panic nor excuses for Petrik after pair of losses
Just like Perth Lynx coach Ryan Petrik wasn’t getting too carried with a five-game winning streak, he’s not overly concerned with back-to-back WNBL losses as his team prepares to return home this Thursday night.
The Lynx were on a five-game winning streak heading into last Thursday’s top-of-the-table clash with the Bendigo Spirit at Bendat Basketball Centre.
The Spirit ended up prevailing 72-66 in that match up to keep their undefeated season going before the Lynx had the quick turnaround to take on the Sydney Flames on the road on Saturday with the home team ending up winning 86-75.
Having averaged scoring 91 points in the first seven games of the season, the Lynx’s offence didn’t have the same bite against both the Spirit and Flames averaging just the 70.5 points across the two games.
Along the way, the Lynx only managed to shoot 37.2 per cent from the floor, 26.0 per cent from three-point range and 36.4 from the foul line along with having a total of 39 turnovers across the two games.
Those aren’t pretty numbers, but they are also out of sync with what the Lynx have produced the rest of the season to date to sit on a 6-3 record following the first six rounds so Petrik certainly isn’t thinking too much into it.
“Sydney played really well and Bendigo are elite. Even in the Bendigo game, we led for 19 minutes and they led for 17 so we think that’s a 50-50 or 60-40 game,” Petrik said.
“Then in this game, Sydney were really good and we’re probably not 6-1 good like we were coming into this round, but we’re probably 0-2 bad either so you try not to get too low with the losses or too high with the wins and we’ll be fine.”
Looking back on Saturday’s game in Sydney against the Flames, ultimately Petrik just felt the biggest difference was that the Lynx couldn’t make a shot which saw them shoot 34 per cent from the field, 31 from downtown and 35 at the foul line.
Add in the fact that they were without Alex Ciabattoni who was getting married to long-time partner James Goodlad in Adelaide, Amy Atwell got hurt in the fourth quarter and that they had played at home less than 48 hours earlier, and the physical nature of the Flames took its toll.
“Sydney were just too good. We fought for as long as we could but in the end they made some really timely shots, and George and Swain just got away from us again and again and again,” Petrik said.
“Then we just couldn’t hit the side of the barn from the foul line especially late in that third quarter when we were getting ourselves right back into it, but kept kicking own goals. There were a lot of own goals from ourselves, but in the end Sydney were just too good.”
Laeticia Amihere also only got to play 21 minutes for the game for the Lynx with constant foul trouble and ultimately fouling out as she did her best to try and match the physical nature the Flames were playing at to turn a lot of into a wrestling match.
“It’s the first game she’s fouled out this season so you’re kind of playing a little bit of Tetris in your head which gave us some different line-ups,” Petrik said.
“Certainly with her in the five and with Anneli in the four, we can essentially play with five guards which is a bit unusual.
“Even though she’s 6’4 we really think she plays more like a guard with her presence at the rim, to block shots and to start a fast break and her ability to put it on the floor were all things we missed from her once she fouled out from sure.”
Petrik is never one to make excuses and will always make the best of whatever situation his team is dealt, but playing a tough and physical grind out game with Bendigo at home on Thursday night, flying to Sydney on Friday and then playing a fresh Flames outfit on Saturday certainly didn’t help.
“We try and be a no excuse program and in fairness we got Sydney on the back end of their massive road trip two weeks ago where we killed them in the second half because they’re just fatigued and tired,” Petrik said.
“It all comes out in the wash eventually and there’s certain games in the schedule easier than others just because of the fatigue factor, but it comes around for everyone and we never want to use that as an excuse.”