READING Rockets (8-4) will play their third consecutive double-header this weekend when they visit Essex Leopards (7-5) on Saturday and Kent Crusaders (1-9) on Sunday, both games in NBL Division One.

Manuel Pena Garces’s men split last weekend’s games when they lost 83-68 to second-placed Derby Trailblazers (10-2) before claiming an important 82-75 home win against National Cup finalists Worthing Thunder (4-9).

Rockets remain fifth in the table, and Pena Garces reflected: “I was really pleased with Sunday’s win against Worthing because we had lost a difficult game the previous day and they had beaten us on the previous two occasions.

“I thought we were more disciplined during big parts of the game and despite a late run from them, we were able to close out the game well and record a much needed league win.”

He continued: “Saturday’s game was a big lesson for us. We did really well for three quarters and kept with Derby for most of the 30 minutes, but the final 10 were not good and this is where our focus has to be in order to improve and be better.

“We are working so hard on this and I am confident when we get this right we can win any game because we have some really talented players that can play really good basketball.”

The Spaniard is eagerly anticipating the coming weekend and said: “These are two more testing games for us that will be quite different because Kent is struggling results-wise but is well coached and hungry to win.

“Essex is a talented team that will want to overturn the win we recorded in overtime in the Trophy.

“But these are the games we want to play and we want to win and keep getting better so we are excited for this and really looking forward to practice and preparing to be better.”

Rockets go into this weekend’s games with no injury concerns and captain Danny Carter will be looking to keep up his form after his 25 and 21 points in last weekend’s respective games.

Pena Garces may welcome back Under 18 forward Ali Sbai after a three-week absence.

The Berkshire outfit will be confident going into both games having already beaten the two sides earlier this season.