Krslovic, JackJumpers' key with Deng out

Fabijan Krslovic has made a career holding his own as an undersized big and he's going to have to do that more than ever in the run home.

With Magnay having already been ruled out for the regular season with a fractured toe suffered back in mid-December, the tandem of Majok Deng and Krslovic have been doing a power of work keeping the JackJumpers competitive against the bigs across the NBL.

That included Deng having a match-winning 26 points and eight rebounds last Friday night in overtime against the Adelaide 36ers, but now the championship winner and Olympian joins Magnay out with an ankle injury, Roth confirmed his season was likely over. 

“It’s probably two to three weeks, a mild sprain ankle, it is a sprained ankle. I would probably say his season’s done," Roth said. 

You can make a case that the JackJumpers are now missing their three most important players for the rest of the regular season with Sean Macdonald also ruled out along with Deng and Magnay.

That trio is averaging 36.3 points, 15.2 rebounds and 7.3 assists a game this season to emphasise what Tasmania is playing without right now.

When you factor in that they did expect to have championship hero Jack McVeigh this season too before the Houston Rockets gave him a two-way NBA opportunity, and Tasmania have done a sterling job to still sit sixth at 12-12.

"I don't want to throw him in there, but you can throw McVeigh in there too before it all started with the process with what we're doing," Roth said.

"You're wiping 30, 40 points off potentially from our local players and for me, the local players are the keys to winning basketball games ultimately. 

"If you have good local players that are doing the right things, it makes the imports jobs a lot easier. Those are pretty good players that aren’t on our roster right now but the beauty is that guys get to step in, play extra minutes and get evaluated, which is good.

"We'll just show up in Sydney now and play as hard as we can, and I still believe we can get a few of these over the line if we can be a little sharper at certain points of the game."

Krslovic banged down the door firstly as a training player and then development player at the Cairns Taipans before earning a place on the full roster, and then being part of the inaugural JackJumpers squad.

He's been a crucial piece of the Tasmania team ever since including in last season's championship. Right now he has never had a bigger role to play for the rest of NBL25.

Krslovic will need to continue to battle against bigger bodies and do what he can to help the JackJumpers compete. He did that well against the Breakers with Sam Mennenga and Tacko Fall on Thursday with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes.

"I've been an undersized center my whole career so whenever I'm playing that position I'm going up against guys who are three, four inches taller than me," Krslovic said.

"It gets a bit different when it's almost a foot, but I just do what I can to try and make things difficult for them. It's always a different challenge and I just do whatever I can on whoever I'm guarding.

"It's not a whole lot fun out there against Tacko, you just try and make it as difficult as possible for him, and if he gets the ball around the rim and too deep you can't really do too much.

"You try to do your work early and make it difficult for him once he gets the ball, and then try to make it difficult for him on the other end as well."

It was like two completely different games in one on Thursday for Krslovic whether or not he was guarding Mennenga or Fall. Now the challenges continue on Sunday when the JackJumpers face the Kings in Sydney.

That will see Krslovic either matched up with former league MVP Xavier Cooks or former teammate Cam Oliver who he always enjoys seeing again.

"Week to week there's so many good players in this league and it's a lot of fun just to go out there and compete against them," Krslovic said.

"I spent a couple of years with Cam up in Cairns so it's always good to see him and have a bit of a chat and catch up, and I've seen what he can do behind the scenes as well. It's always good fun going up against him."