Why Lowery's "concern" levels are high for Tasmania

Sydney’s massive Round 15 victory over New Zealand has taken some heat off the out of form back-to-back reigning champions, and pushed more eyes onto the indifferent run of results that is currently being endured by the Tasmania JackJumpers.

The NBL22 Championship Series runners-up have won just two of their last eight games, and all six of those losses have come by single digits.

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The current poor run is bookended by one-point defeats to both Perth and Illawarra, and former Hawk Damon Lowery believes the consistent tight defeats are indicative of the entire side not being locked in on their roles.

“My level of concern is high,” Lowery said on NBL Now.

“I heard about this team once in 2001, the Wollongong Hawks, they won eight or nine games by less than four points. They knew how to win down the stretch.

“To do that you have to execute, everyone has to be on the same page, you have to take care of the ball and you have to defend, and you have to rely on your studs.

“Tassie’s studs are shaky right now”

The “studs” in question Lowery is referring to are import backcourt pair Milton Doyle and Jordon Crawford.

Doyle was kept scoreless in the first half of Round 15’s double-overtime loss to Illawarra before he exploded for 18 points in the second half alone.

Crawford, on the other hand, had 24 points – but it was the first game in which he passed the 15-point margin since the Round 12 win over the same opposition.

“Jordon Crawford has taken a backseat. He’s playing with little confidence right now, he shows it in glimpses but he hasn’t been able to mesh like he was earlier in the season, for whatever reason,” Lowery continued.

“He is now not like himself, he’s a scorer – and explosive scorer – and he’s playing very passive.

“Milton Doyle, we were talking about him as an MVP candidate earlier in the season, but you don’t know if he’s going to show up or not.

“How can a guy who is this good go a half with two or three shots and then come out and get 18 points in the second half … somebody’s got to fire this dude up, his personality is so laid back, so passive and casual it worries me. Can he turn on when it’s time to?

“That’s why I’ve got a high level of concern for the JackJumpers.”

The JackJumpers’ next opportunity to halt their current two-game losing run will come on Friday night against Melbourne United.