Six of the best for Thunder

Thunder won a hard-fought game at London Capital, 80-75, on Saturday, before defeating rivals Reading Rockets 83-76 on Sunday.

Thunder are level on points with leaders Bristol Academy Flyers but have lost two games to Bristol’s one and James Brame, again in a player-coach role in the absence of Gary Smith, who missed the game through illness, said: “We’re racking up the wins and we’re level on points with Bristol now, but we’ve lost that one more game.

“We’re chasing them, though, and the league will be very tight this year. When we used to be in the EBL, if you lost one game, you could lose the league. But this year, it’s so wide open and I think we’ll be up there.

“We’re playing well at the moment, have a lot of confidence and will be a much better side when we play Bristol again later in the season.

“We are a very different team now. We want to keep our winning streak alive and, when we play our game, I don’t see anyone beating us.

“That’s a bold statement to make but, if we keep getting better, come the end of the season, we’ll be up there and will, hopefully, have a strong run in the play-offs and pick up some silverware.”

The six successive wins follow four consecutive defeats and Brame said: “We were still finding our feet earlier in the season as we were a new team.

“We’ve come together now, though, and we’re just going to get better.”

Brame is now targeting an improvement on Thunder’s performances on the road – starting with their next game at Leeds on December 18 and he said: “We’ve got to go up there and be professional.

“It will be totally different to when we played there earlier in the season. We haven’t been great away from home as we’ve scrapped a few wins but, hopefully, we’ll go there and get a win and go into the new year with seven successive wins.”