Hawks Battle “Playoff Game For Us”: Magette

Saturday, February 4, 2023

The Tasmania JackJumpers are gearing up to win their last game of the regular season, with Josh Magette saying the club is treating it like a “playoff game”.

The JackJumpers are fourth on the ladder with a 15-12 record and can secure that fourth spot with a win over the bottom of the ladder Illawarra Hawks on Saturday.

Although a defeat seems unlikely, Magette reiterated the unrivalled nature of the league this season, and that anything can happen.

“We’ll go in knowing that if we don’t take care of business the hill is going to be very uphill for us and very long and hard,” Magette said via The Mercury.

“It’s a playoff game for us. It’s our biggest game of the season for us on Saturday.

“It’s game 28 and so its 27 games in the making of trying to get to this spot, it’s not a mission accomplished but finishing top four is something to be really proud of (if we win).”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rashard Kelly will not suit up in tomorrow's round 18 game against the Illawarra Hawks due to illness. Isaac White is the nominated replacement player.</p>— Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1621388011312234496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Magette assured the JackJumpers are not overlooking the bottom of the ladder Hawks, who have won just three games.

“We respect them and who they are and I don’t think we’ve overlooked anybody that we’ve played this season as that’s in our DNA of our club and Scott (Roth) has preached that from the start,” Magette said.

“They’ll be playing freely and with nothing to lose like we expect and it can’t mean more than them than it means to us so we’ll be ready to go and have that sense of urgency from the start.”

Tip-off on Saturday night is 5:30pm AEDT at the WIN Entertainment Centre.