Monstrous Magnay back to his best despite team's poor defensive performance

Conceding the largest NBL score ever recorded at Launceston's Silverdome (97), his motto of 'defending the island' via a rugged defensive style that has often limited opponents to less than 80 points in seasons gone by was nearly non-existent as their opponents added to their tally at will.

Both teams shot at near-enough 50 per cent on the evening, but an 11 per cent difference from behind the arc proved the difference between the two sides in what was only a five-point game.

"They were the better team tonight throughout the entire game and they just played harder and smarter than us," Roth reflected.

"Our defence continues to be quite porous and it's something that if we don't fix it we're not going to go anywhere that the group wants to go.

"We're scoring at a relatively good pace and our offence is generating points, but it's fool's gold at the end of the day.

"If you're not able to defend at some kind of consistent basis, you're just going to win a game, lose two, win a game, and just be all over the map and that will lead to not getting into playoffs and not finishing in top six.

"It's a fragile balance of trying to get those two working together and it's a work in progress."

Despite the dire outlook taken by his coach, it was a remarkable home return for injury-prone big man Will Magnay - ironically led by his work on the defensive end.

In just 16 minutes, he had a team high in points (20), rebounds (13) and blocks (four).

Speaking of his motivation to make an impact prior to the match, Magnay was pleasantly surprised with his production on the night.

"I've worked hard to get back and I think the big thing for me right now is to not get too far ahead of myself, I still have a lot of work to do," he said.

"I'm most pleased with my rebounding, it's something I've focused on coming back and we're not the best defensive-rebounding team and so it's something I could definitely come in and try and clean up."

While he was happy with his rim protection too, the former New Orleans Pelican was disappointed that his shot-blocking was required as often as it was.

"I've always prided myself on defence and four blocks is nice, but that's one of those telling things that we're getting blown by a lot and (opposition) guards get into the paint," he said.

"Yes, it's nice to block shots and I guess the ability to have me in the paint altering them, but they're just getting in the paint and they did it all night. They played harder and they just killed us in there, so we've got to take a bit more pride one-on-one."

The JackJumpers have the chance to put the loss behind them quickly as they fly up to Far-North Queensland for a clash with the Cairns Taipans on Saturday, at 5.30pm.