"Glue guy" holds JackJumpers together

In what Scott Roth labelled "one hell of a game", the Tasmania JackJumpers lost to the New Zealand Breakers 81-80 on Friday night.

Despite the result, which drops the JackJumpers to 2-8 at home in NBL26 and 9-12 overall, coach Roth took positives from the defeat.

As well as praising his side's defence, which concedes a league-low 85.6 points per game, the NBL24 championship-winning coach spoke glowingly about Nick Marshall, who scored seven of his 15 points in the opening quarter.

"He's a glue guy that can play multiple positions and guard multiple positions," Roth said in Friday's post-game press conference.

"He's got a really good motor and has fit in extremely well [with our group], especially once he got thrown in the fire with DJ (David Johnson) being hurt for eight or nine weeks.

"He had a play for us [during that time] and the confidence he got during that time has been helpful for his [development].

"[Honestly] thank God for him in the first five or six minutes [on Friday night], because we would have been in a bigger hole than we actually got ourselves into [without him]."

As happy as he was with Marshall, Roth knows there's areas his team need to address ahead of Monday's clash with South East Melbourne at MyState Bank Arena.

"The [first aspect we need to fix] are the crazy turnovers (14 on Friday night), because unforced, self-inflicted wounds like that is [uncharacteristic by us]," Roth said.

"We also fell in love with the three-point line and didn't attack the rim enough. That [philosophy] is not how we're built and it's completely different to how we played against United.

"We can't afford to settle and need to play with more force and maturity [if we want to win games consistently]."

Monday's Round 14 fixture with the Phoenix tips off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.