Williams Faces Former Club
Guildford Heat guard Dean Williams is looking forward to
facing his old club, the Kularoos Plymouth Raiders, when the
sides clash in the BBL Championship Playoff semi-finals on
Saturday at the National Indoor Arena.
"It should be fun, they are a tough team to play against,
but it should be good. I'm yet to get to a playoff final in
the BBL, and I definitely want to at least try it out,"
said the 31-year-old Londoner.
While Heat have won four of the five meetings between the
teams this season, Williams admits that he hasn't relished
facing his former club,
"I don't really enjoy playing against them, I don't
think I've had a good game against them once this season -
maybe I'm too eager to do well."
After six seasons with the Raiders when they played in the
EBL, Williams joined Thames Valley Tigers in the summer of
2004 - coincidently just a few weeks before Plymouth stepped
up to the BBL. The 6' 3" shooting guard moved on to Heat
when Tigers folded, but he enjoyed his time with the West
Country club,
"I won the league, play-offs and National Cup with them
in the lower division. The highlight was playing at Sheffield
in the Cup against EJ [Harrison], who is now a team-mate of
mine. We won by seven and I had a really good game. We won
the league with an all- English backcourt, and that's something
that me and Gavin Love were really proud of."
Williams is quietly confident that his club can defeat the
Raiders and reach their first playoff final, after falling
in the semi-finals in each of the last two seasons,
"To be honest, if we play to the best of our ability,
they will have a real tough time dealing with us. If we all
play to our strengths, we have a lot of depth in our team.
We need to move the ball well, and play as a team."
One Raiders player that Williams rates highly is small forward
DeAntoine Beasley, who has been with Plymouth since he was
there,
"We have to stop DeAntoine, I think he's their best
player and we'll need to keep him quiet. He's one of the best
players in the league, and he's really underrated. He knows
the game really well, he's one of my favourite players to
play alongside.
"We also have to look out for Drew Lasker, he's a high
scoring guard, and he'll be tough to play against."
Heat tip-off against Raiders at 6pm on Saturday, with the
winner taking on either Newcastle Eagles or Marshall MK Lions
in the following day's action at 5pm - with the game live
on Setanta Sports.
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