Nick Nurse relished a tough double weekend and told his Brighton Bears: "It's for real now."

Bears visit Birmingham tomorrow (7pm) and Sheffield on Sunday (4pm) aiming for two wins to keep the heat on Southern Conference leaders London Towers.

It has been a tough week on the practice court for Brighton after their Trophy defeat to Towers last Sunday.

Coach Nurse said: "This is where we make our move. It's another big weekend for us. We beat Birmingham a couple of weeks ago but they came to us extremely tired.

"We will not see that Birmingham team again. They get big crowds and they are really energised at the moment. The hard thing will be to spell that out to my team. They didn't look too clever at the Triangle but anyone who saw them in the cup final last month will know they are a good basketball team.

"Then we go to Sheffield, who are extremely talented and maybe have the most depth in the league.

"They are very well coached and are a good side, although they threw their Trophy game away last Sunday."

Bears' Trophy defeat was largely down to their over-reliance on outside shooting at the expense of hard graft close to the hoop. Nurse has addressed that on the practice court this week.

He said: "The players have been working extremely hard but you expect that when you lose.

"We have spent a lot of time working on offensive execution and playing against zone defences.

"Everybody who saw us last week will be looking to play zone against us now and invite us to take outside shots."

Nurse watched Bullets' lose at Towers in the NEBL on Tuesday.

They have doubts over John O'Connell (knee) and Nurse's former Manchester Giants centre Danny Craven, who has a knee problem.

Brant Bailey currently leads the Birmingham scorers with 21 points per game while Antonio Garcia is the league's top rebounder with 15.3.

Sheffield's top marksman is Nate Reinking with 17.3 points per game while Lynard Stewart averages nine boards.

Bears have broken some long losing sequences this season and can do so again on Sunday. They have suffered 13 successive defeats at Sheffield, going back more than six years.

There is, however, the chance to complete hat-tricks over both sides.

Bullets and Sharks were both defeated in Sussex towards the end of last season and suffered further punishment from Nurse's men in the current campaign.

Worthing Thunder hope to have James Brame back from an ankle injury as they go to Reading in the NBL Conference tomorrow (7.30pm).

Coach Gary Smith saw his side beat Teesside last week and said: "Our aim now is to be performing well when we go into the play-offs."