Our mixed bag of results last weekend was a reminder that our schedule is going to be especially challenging this season.
On Saturday night against Surrey, we played solidly with some outstanding performances.
Neil Watson's stat-line was simply unbelievable – he did not miss a shot from the floor, the three-point line or a free throw, and he dished out 10 assists and took six rebounds to boot.
In terms of efficiency, it was up there, as was Rashad Hassan's game-leading effort with 34 points on 76 per cent shooting and nine rebounds.
We should have won a bit easier than we did, but we continue to be sloppy at times and make a few too many errors.
It is a part of our game we really need to tighten up, or we could find ourselves struggling in games we should not.
But, overall, it was comfortable enough against a Surrey outfit which will surprise a few teams.
At London Lions on Sunday, we played very well in a high-tempo, high-scoring first half and managed to get our noses in front, but then ran out of gas.
London dominated us defensively in the third quarter when our offence dried up and we managed just nine points, and then in the fourth quarter I thought we were mentally and physically drained.
But you have to hand it to London as well – they shot the ball well, including nine three-pointers, often late in the shot clock, which can be demoralising when we had played decent defence ourselves.
But we know we are going to have to find a away to cope with these quick switch-around games, because we have a lot of them coming up in the second half of the season.
The way the BBL Championship is, to win on the road you need to be mentally switched on every game, or they will very quickly get away from you, particularly on the road.
We get another shot at Glasgow Rocks at home on Saturday, our fourth meeting this season, which is not good for anyone.
But there will be no secrets between the teams and it will be all about the little adjustments the coaches make to take away some of the strengths of the opposition.
A huge factor in our cup loss was the 13 threes we allowed the Rocks.
They are coming off a couple of big wins at home last weekend, including an overtime win against Worcester, and have moved in the play-off spots, so they will not lack confidence.
But we will get better as the season progresses, and it promises to be a very close game.
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