WORCESTER Wolves will be out to take any “free points” on offer tonight (7.30pm) as they bid to beat London Lions at the Copper Box.

The players were criticised by head coach Paul James after failing to land a series of free throws against Leicester Riders in the BBL last Friday.

Only six of their 15 chances from the “charity stripe” were scored by Worcester in an agonising 75-72 defeat to the leaders.

James said the area needed improving for them to be considered strong contenders in the play-offs.

“I was disappointed because when you look at the stats at the end of the game, we outplayed them in every department apart from at the charity stripe,” he said.

“Leicester shot 90 per cent of their free throws whereas we got six from 15 attempts.

“We were very poor from the free-throw line and have got to be a lot better than that because 40 per cent isn’t going to cut it.

“I don’t know why that happened as we practise it an awful lot but they’re free points and we should be shooting in the high-70s to be a team challenging for honours.”

But James said he was boosted by the way Wolves recovered as they hit back from 46-31 down to lead 72-71 with 19 seconds left.

“Once Leicester have got teams down by 15, you are usually looking at a 20-point or 30-point loss, so for us to fight our way back really shows our spirit,” he said.

“That’s a positive going into the play-offs because if we can play at that level, we know we can have teams like Leicester worried. It shows what we can do but we have got to do that for 40 minutes.”

Wolves dropped one place to fourth and now go to London, where they lost 80-72 in February.

But James, without guard Ashton Khan due to an ankle injury, feels his team can defeat their seventh-placed opponents.

“The last time we played at the Copper Box we lost narrowly and didn’t play together,” said James, whose side also travel to Bristol Flyers tomorrow (7.30pm).

“But, having said that, if we can play anywhere near what we played in the second half against Leicester, I am quite confident we can come away with a win.

“We set out at the start of the year to finish in the top four and that is still our goal. We have got an opportunity to do that.”