NEWS CHANNELMK Lions will be looking to end a run of three straight defeats when they host Glasgow Rocks at their Winterhill home on Friday night.
It will be the first meeting of the season between the two clubs, and they go in to the game at opposite ends of the BBL Championship table.
Lions have games in hand over all of their rivals but occupy tenth place with only two wins from eight games, while Rocks are still chasing leaders Mersey Tigers and are currently fourth in the table with an 8-4 record.
Lions boss Mike New is expecting a difficult test when the Glasgow side come to town, he said: "Rocks have been playing well recently having won three of their last four.
"Sterling (Davis) has gotten his team off to a good start and they have a good balance of outside and inside threats."
New sees Rocks' teamwork as the key to their success, he added: "You can't key in on one guy when you play against Rocks, they have a number of players who are capable of having big game and we have to be ready to defend as a team."
Although his team went down 108-106 in the shoot-out at Cheshire Jets on Sunday, New was pleased with how they played at the Northgate arena.
New said: "I think we played really well against Jets and that type of effort will begin to yield some good results.
"Kris Clark and Anthony Haase played really well against Jets, Travis Nelson was solid again and Stefan Gill is finding his way. It was a really good team performance."
While the teams haven't met yet this season, Rocks player-coach Sterling Davis has scouted Lions on a number of occasions, and expects a tough game at their new den, a warehouse in Winterhill.
Davis said: "The Lions have a good core group of guys that are really beginning to mesh as the season goes.
I think Jelani Gardner and Travis Nelson are key to how they play the game. Jelani gives them the shooting from the perimeter and Nelson is proving to be a real handful from the inside."
Rocks go into the game with an 88-81 victory against Leicester Riders under their belt, and Davis was pleased with their performance.
"I thought the Riders game went pretty well especially in the first half. I think we executed defensively what we had worked on throughout the week.
"I thought Brice Fantazia really did a good job this game especially keeping Leicester on their back feet with his attacking in transition."
Tip-off at Lions' Winterhill Warehouse 7.30pm on Friday.
