Nick Nurse was today preparing his Brighton Bears for their toughest week of the season after another home supershow kept them on title course.

Bears blasted Thames Valley Tigers 111-77 at the Brighton Centre on Saturday, with the added bonus of 18 minutes of court time for Randy Duck as he eases his way back from injury.

It was another hugely entertaining display of skills and defensive power from Bears, albeit against weak oppositon, and they were further helped by defeat for Sheffield at Chester last night.

Now Nurse will call his men together and prepare them for trips to in-form Newcastle on Wednesday, Sheffield for the BBL Trophy final on Saturday and Scottish Rocks in Glasgow the following afternoon.

He admitted: "This is a very significant week and if we get through it I'll really fancy our title chances.

"It's probably our biggest challenge of the year domestically.

"Newcastle will be ready, they are playing well and I know for sure Saturday will be a dogfight. I haven't been in a cup final that wasn't."

Duck's return will boost Bears' chances, though he was rusty in terms of shooting on Saturday and does not have a full range of movement.

In fact, he seemed more dejected with proceedings than most of his dis-interested opponents.

He admitted: "It's bitter sweet. It's great to run out on court and get an ovation but it's really difficult to not be able to play the way I want to.

"I knew I wasn't going to score 30 points but I just didn't feel like I was moving the right way.

"Against a good team I would have been exposed.

"I know I can't explode off my leg or make those dynamic moves so that's really tough because it's 90 per cent of my game. I've got to change and maybe be a spot-up shooter and that's the biggest challenge for me."

At least Duck has time to ease his way back in, so well are his colleagues playing.

They have won their last four home games by an average margin of 30 points and are combining showtime attacking skills with hard defensive graft.

Take the case of Mike Brown. Chasing seemingly lost causes brought him three steals which in turn were converted into a three-pointer for himself, a driving lay-up for Sullivan Phillips and a Kendrick Warren dunk.

Or what about the start of the second quarter? Todd Cetnar had just hit back-to-back threes to give Tigers their last lead of the night at 27-26 when Bears forced three successive shot-clock violations.

The hosts re-took the lead in style, Phillips bouncing a pass off the backboard into the path of the flying Warren, who slammed the ball home.

Yorick Williams sank three threes in 67 seconds to open the second half and Jason Siemon rounded things off with a couple of soaring dunks and a tip-in on the buzzer.

The big centre is playing his best stuff of the season and had the once doubting home crowd chanting "Siemon, Siemon" in the way Arsenal fans used to salute their England goalkeeper of the same-sounding surname.

Siemon received a further boost today as his ejection from the win at Sheffield was rescinded. Sharks' Lynard Stewart has been banned for one game, at home to Leicester while Tom Frederick has been cited for violent conduct.