All was not well in that department last weekend.
The Nuggets made just 24 of their 73 attempts from the floor during a squeaky 68-67 win against the Manawatu Jets in their opening game of the National Basketball League season.
And while no-one had to write a 1000 lines or stay late after practice to empty the bins, coach Brent Matehaere said the focus had been pretty simple ahead of tomorrow’s match against the Southland Sharks.
"We’ve been shooting the ball. Obviously, we’ve been working on our offensive execution," he said.
"I thought we did a great job against the Jets on defence. They hit some open threes, but basically we’ll be trying to limit those opportunities against the Sharks and accentuate what we did well on defence."
The Sharks’ opening game was also against the Jets and they had a more comfortable 96-87 win.
Grant Anticevich and Jeremy Kendle led the scoring for the Sharks with 23 and 22 points respectively, while Alonzo Burton (17 points) and Dru-Leo Leusogi-Ape (14 points) are scoring threats as well.
Romaro Gill tops the tape at 2.18m and his match-up with Nuggets centre Sam Timmins (2.11m) could have a big impact on the game.
The Nuggets registered four three-pointers from 24 attempts in a horrific night from the outside.
There were some good looks but some hasty efforts as well.
"Sometimes connections were wrong, sometimes the timing of passes were wrong and looking back potentially we rushed through our offensive sets and did not take advantage of what was actually there for us at the time."
In short, the chemistry was not quite there. With just two trainings as a full team together, that was hardly surprising.
American point guard JaQuori McLaughlin is instrumental in setting the tone and he showed glimpses of his ability.
There was a memorable behind-the-back pass to Robbie Coman and he can certainly get to the hoop. He will be a lot better with another week in the country and a little more time to adjust to the rims which rebuffed a lot of his attempts.
Fellow import Michael Harris had a tough shooting night as well, while Todd Withers hit some key buckets in the final stretch of the game to help the Nuggets post a win.
Jack Andrew and Josh Aitcheson are nursing niggles and their court time is being carefully managed.
Matehaere said teams would have good and bad shooting performances throughout the season.
"But what we can hang our hat on is our defensive intensity and make sure we are playing hard at that end of the floor. Then you can have games where you shoot 32.9% and still win."
NBL
Edgar Centre, tomorrow 6pm
Otago Nuggets: Sam Timmins, Todd Withers, Robbie Coman, Michael Harris, JaQuori McLaughlin, Jack Andrew, Josh Aitcheson, Matthew Bardsley, Darcy Knox, Patrick Freeman, Michael Ruske, Caleb Smiler.
Southland Sharks: Romaro Gill, Grant Anticevich, Dru-Leo Leusogi-Ape, Jeremy Kendle, Alonzo Burton, Sione Helu, Ben Hall, Ben Adamson, Tom Cowie, Riley Snow, Quake Webster.
