Today, the St. John’s Edge are in Windsor, Ont., where they will begin their last road trip of the season, which should be — by their standards — a relaxed jaunt through southern Ontario.
After tonight’s contest against the Express, the Edge have three days off before taking on the KW Titans in Kitchener Wednesday, then finishing up with a Thursday date in St. Catharines, Ont. against the Niagara River Lions.
But the relative ease of the trek doesn’t mean there isn’t any pressure on the playoff-bound Edge (22-13), who share the best record in the National Basketball League of Canada’s Central Division with the defending champion London Lightning,
Home-court advantage is on the line over St. John’s five remaining regular-season contests (the Edge finish up with two games at home over the Easter weekend). That’s something that’s always desirable, but maybe even more important to a team that has attracted mostly large and enthusiastic crowds at Mile One Centre, where it is 13-5 this season.
Yes, the Edge will be looking to fine-tune a roster that’s undergone some significant relative recent change as it readies for the post-season over the next couple of weeks, but that is just a focus that’s collateral to the eternal one: racking up wins.
“We’re pushing hard for position,” said head coach Jeff Dunlap this week before the team left for Windsor. “We want to make sure we have as many games at home as we can. I think that’s crucial.”
His team can make their first achievement in that regard tonight. A win over Windsor (17-16), which lost at home earlier this week and had a game Friday against the visiting Saint John Riptide, would give the Edge home-court advantage in a first-round series that, as it stands today, would be played against the Express.
It’s still conceivable St. John’s could garner home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, although the Edge entered the weekend as the third overall seed.
The Halifax Hurricanes (23-11) are on top, followed by the Lightning, who would prevail over in St. John’s in the first tie-breaker, which is head-to-record. London won four of the team’s seven meetings this season.
The Hurricanes also have the tie-breaker advantage against the Edge, having won two of the three games they played.
St. John’s is a little hamstrung in that it doesn’t have any games against either Halifax or London, but Dunlap still packed a hopeful attitude for the road.
“I believe we can win (our remaining game) and I also believe London and Halifax can still lose and help put us in a position to get more home-court advantages,” he said, noting there is built-in playoff preparation when a team has something to play for towards the end of the regular-season.
“When you are coming down the stretch, five games is a lot. There are things we want to do (playoff preparation-wise), but we are playing for that seeding.”
The Edge’s cause could be helped by the return to the lineup of centre and rim protector Anthony Stover, who has been troubled by a hand injury. He’s officially appeared in four games for St. John’s since being acquired a trade deadline deal, but only saw less than four minutes of action in total in the last two for which he dressed.
The 6-11 Stover needs to get into two more games in order to be playoff eligible. St. John’s could do that by reactivating him and adding to him to a couple of game-night lineups no matter if he sees court-time or not, but Dunlap suggests that the big man could be ready to go for real tonight.
“I think he can play. I’m not expecting it to be perfect, but as long as the hand is serviceable, I think he can play. I felt last week that wasn’t the case,” said Dunlap, referring to Stover not being on the active roster for the Edge’s four most-recent home games.
“Then, he really winced when the ball hit his hand, but (this week) he was really snatching it. I think he can contribute.”
Twitter: @telybrendan
