The battle of the unbeaten teams in the Men’s NBL will go down on Friday 4th as the Namuwongo Blazers take on the JT Jaguars.

Both teams have had a good start to the season, the Blazers winning 3/3, while the Jaguars have won 2/2, including a victory against the defending Champions, City Oilers.

The lingering question on everyone’s mind is;

Can the JT Jaguars stop the flying Namuwongo Blazers?

Last season, the answer to this question would have been easy to say given the difference between the two teams.

However, this year, the answer is not as simple to give because of how much the Jaguars have improved as a unit.

In their opening game, they registered a comfortable win against Livingstone and they played like a said that meant business.

When they took on the Oilers, they established an early lead and worked tirelessly on defense, limiting the Oilers to just 64 points.

Read more: JT Jaguars shock 10-time Champions, the City Oilers

When these two sides met last year, the Jaguars came close but couldn’t get the job done.

Game one was decided in overtime while the Blazers made a 17-point comeback to win by 2 points in Game two.

Read more about the Blazers victory in round one of the 2024 season.

Do the Jaguars have enough to complete the mission this time around?

Jaguars Assistant Coach Cuthbert Nkoba shared some insights ahead of the game.

“We have to play good defense, the intensity and play like we did thr last game”

“As the Jaguars, we are excited to go against the Nam Blazers. It is a match up that we’ve always come up short.“

“We are having back-to-back games against big teams in the Arena and it goes on to show you that we are no longer as ‘small’ team as most people might have thought us to be.”

“Namuwongo is a team that we haven’t defeated and it is a thirst that we are longing to quench”

The Namuwongo Blazers seem to be the most scary team in the league and for them, this is just another game.

They have improved as a unit from their first game against the Oilers till their last game against JKL Dolphins and they will be looking to do the same against the Jaguars.

Head to Head

Nam Blazers 62-60 JT Jaguars

Nam Blazers 85-76 JT Jaguars

Previous Games

JT Jaguars 74-64 City Oilers

JT Jaguars 73-46 Livingstone

Nam Blazers 91-79 JKL Dolphins

Nam Blazers 99-63 Victoria Crocs

Nam Blazers 81-80 City Oilers

Expectations

After their ‘slow start‘ against JKL, having trailed 16-12, Namuwongo came hard in the second quarter, scored 36, and established a sizeable lead.

However, that is a thing you do not expect to see against the Jaguars.

When the Kira side led the first quarter 18-14 against the Oilers, they never gave up their lead for the remainder of the game.

One thing you don’t want to do is give a motivated team a reason to keep fighting.

The Blazers need to start strong in order to establish a significant win and in that way, they will have killed some resolve of the Jaguars.

If the game is still close, the Jaguars will keep their belief and who knows where the game can end?

Defense

Namuwongo has allowed 74.3 points per game this season.

Despite their offense being in autopilot, they need to adjust their defense.

Allowing more than 70 points a game can be a problem more so if you face a team that knows how to  defend.

The Jaguars showed us a glimpse of what they can do on the defensive end during their game against the City Oilers, and you’d expect them to employ a similar strategy.

Being aggressive and disciplined on the defensive is very important, and they showed that as a unit, they can collectively cut off the offensive supply for any team.

The Blazers have very experienced guards who you’d think will win their individual matchups but it won’t come easy.

3-point shooting

In the 2 games that the Jaguars have played so far, they have scored 10/41 attempts from the 3-point line.

Clearly, this is lacking and they need to improve significantly.

On the other hand, the Blazers showed us a glimpse of how explosive they can be from behind the arc.

They scored a record 18 3-point shots against the JKL Dolphins and that kind of explosiveness should scare any team.

However, it is also important to note that the last time Namuwongo played at Lugogo, they scored 2 of 25 attempts.

Is the venue such a big consideration? We shall be finding out.

A victory for either team is imperative and this game is expected to go down to the wire.