HEAD coach Paul James believes Worcester Wolves are hitting the peak of their powers as they launch the defence of their British Basketball League play-offs title.

Wolves, who finished third in the table, are aiming to triumph in the end-of-season showpiece for the second year in a row after beating Newcastle Eagles at Wembley Arena in 2014.

Tonight they host sixth-placed London Lions in the quarter-final first leg at the University Arena (7.30pm) before heading to the Copper Box on Sunday (4pm).

The winners will face either Leicester Riders or Sheffield Sharks in the semi-finals next weekend.

James said: “We want to go out there with a lot of confidence, relax and play our game and not stress too much on the importance of it. As long as we perform, the winning will take care of itself.

“It’s just a matter of playing our normal way. If we go behind we have got to try to limit that damage but I don’t really see that happening with the way we’re playing.

“The side that plays the best team basketball is going to win this competition. At times we have shown some great team basketball and other times players have gone their own separate way and we’ve looked terrible.

“Hopefully, that’s out of our system and we can move forward and get the job done.”

He continued: “We just want to win our home games and, hopefully, we can do enough and if we do have a lead it’s about building on that and not letting them back into the game — sewing that seed of doubt for when we go back to them on Sunday. Any sort of lead is going to be great for us.”

Wolves have lost two of their three meetings against the Lions — winning 83-78 at the University Arena in November but losing 75-70 at home in December and 88-70 away last month.