The Canberra Capitals are planning their attack on the two league leaders without Lauren Jackson for their weekend WNBL double header.
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There is still a question mark over whether Jackson will be fit to play in Friday night's home game against Adelaide or the Sunday away game against Bendigo, with captain Jess Bibby suggesting yesterday Jackson is unlikely to play either.
''She's feeling pretty good, she's certainly been around practice and is being a little bit more lively in terms of anticipating she'll be back soon. In terms of when that happens, we certainly haven't been given any indication that it'll be this week,'' Bibby said.
''It may be, hopefully we'll find out more as the week goes on.''
The absence of the big centre will make the Caps' task all the harder as they take on Adelaide with last season's MVP Suzy Batkovic in the centre, and Bendigo with the in-form Gabrielle Richards.
''Adelaide was one team we matched up really well against last season, and I think Biz [Brigitte Ardossi] did a great job when we did play Suzy,'' Bibby said.
''And they had Suzy and Abby Bishop last year, so they're sort of down one of their two-headed monsters in terms of size.''
Even without the 196cm Jackson, the Capitals have some depth of bigs to match up on the 192cm Batkovic, including 19-year-old Alex Bunton [196cm] who returned from injury last Friday.
''Sam Norwood's been playing well for us, Val Ogoke's been playing some good minutes, we've got Alex Bunton back in the line-up as well, so we've got some size to throw at the Batkovics and the Gabe Richards and we can throw Loz [Jackson] in later down the track.''
For the Caps, who are sitting on four wins - two of them against the winless Sydney Uni Flames - and two losses, the weekend will be a real test to see how they match up in the competition.
''They're the two top teams at the moment, Bendigo are coming off the bye, they're undefeated at the moment and Adelaide haven't lost since losing to Bendigo first up, so two big challenges for us,'' Bibby said.
The Capitals will be hoping to continue their unbeaten run at home when they take on Adelaide at the AIS Arena, then will travel to Bendigo Stadium for Sunday's match-up.
