Division One Men's Playoff Final: Reading Rockets v Hemel Storm - 28.04.24

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Hemel Storm will look to defend their playoff crown as they square off against Reading Rockets in the final game of the NBL season.

For Hemel, this is familiar territory. Storm may have lost their regular-season crown to Derby but their playoff defence is alive and well thanks to a pair of impressive wins.

A 90-80 success against #6 seeds Loughborough Riders was followed up by a tense 80-79 victory against #7 Bradford Dragons, who were on a roll after ending the hopes of #2 seeds Essex to open the playoffs.

That means Coach Clark’s team are heading back to Manchester for a fourth-straight playoff final, aiming to pull their record back to 2-2 if they can defeat the Rockets.

That’ll be no easy task though, with the Berkshire outfit knocking out top seeds Derby last weekend, sealing an 87-84 road win as a follow up to their 90-60 W over Newcastle University the week before.

That means there will be no #1 or #2 seed in the final this year, a testament to the general strength of D1M this season.

That certainly shouldn’t suggest these teams lack quality, with the likes of Hemel’s Taylor Johnson (who left to join Plymouth before returning), Sam Newman, Hakeem Sylla and more all returning from the unbeaten team of a year ago.

Former BBL winner Darien Nelson-Henry has been another solid addition, leaving Hemel with plenty of big match pedigree at their disposal.

Reading have been brilliant too, making it to January’s NBL National Cup Final before being narrowly beaten by Milton Keynes, knocking off Derby twice in the last month and splitting their contests with Hemel this year.

Clarke (15.8PPG, 4.8APG) is a skilled operator at guard who can finish well inside, and the likes of Elijah Maynard (12.6PPG), Lewis Champion (11.5PPG), Jermiah Jenkins (108.PPG) and Zack Powell (10.4PPG) are all high-floor scorers, offering solid baseline production with the potential to take over a game if they can get hot.