Roth Slams JackJumpers' Defence

Tasmania JackJumpers head coach Scott Roth has slammed his team’s defence, after suffering a 24-point loss to the Cairns Taipans on Monday night.

Despite leading by as much as 11 points midway through the second quarter, the JackJumpers collapsed and allowed Cairns to drop 39 in the third - and the margin only grew from there.

Tasmania grew its reputation in its debut campaign on grit and their defence.

They allowed the opposition to score 84 or more points just eight times in NBL22, and the 106 points conceded to the Taipans is most in JackJumpers regular-season history.

“Our defence is obviously nowhere near the level it was last year for whatever reason,” Roth said.

“Both nights, meaning the South East game and tonight, 29 and 32 times they went to the foul line, so that’s a recipe for disaster.

“It’s just undisciplined defence across the board.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rashard Kelly is getting it done on both ends to get the <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JackJumpers</a> back into this one ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> is live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/djS69KqqJo">pic.twitter.com/djS69KqqJo</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1576879802975682560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

JackJumpers star Matt Kenyon echoed the sentiments of his coach.

“They (Cairns) shot it really well, but that comes off the back of a quarter of poor defence,” he said. “They don’t just start making shots. They’re comfortable and feeling good, and then they start hitting shots.

“It’s a little disjointed. You talk about five guys being on a string, and right now I think individually it just feels like we’re guarding one on one.

“We need to have each other’s backs and I know we’ll get there.”