Preview: Brisbane v Perth (Round 12)

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Tuesday 27 December 2022
Where: Nissan Arena, Brisbane
Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Foxtel; Sky NZ
LIVE SCORES & STATS

Who won last time?

Brisbane 106 (Sobey 28, Johnson 18, Krebs 18) d Perth 95 (Cotton 30, Manek 17, Thomas 13) OT – Round 9 at Nissan Arena, Brisbane

This was Brisbane’s miracle game. After being hammered by New Zealand in Sam Mackinnon’s first night in charge, and without Aron Baynes, Tyrell Harrison and a third import, they somehow found a way to pip Perth in overtime. Nathan Sobey was the star, with 14 of his 28 points in the final 12 minutes of the game, while the Wildcats’ imports dropped 60 points on 9/18 from deep while their teammates managed 35 on just 2/14.

What happened last game?

There have been no miracles since for the Bullets, 0-5 with an average losing margin of 19.6 points, their past two by a combined 68. They were humiliated at home to start Round 12, an undermanned Phoenix side smacking them 84-55 after quarter-time. Perth are 4-0 since that Round 9 loss in Brisbane – which prompted John Rillie’s successful changes to the starting five – and there’s been no win better than their 22-point demolition of Cairns in the Far North to finish Round 11, their pressure defence back to its early-season best.

What’s working?

Being healthy – Combining multiple coaching changes with multiple key injuries is not advised. The good news is Tyler Johnson, Gorjok Gak and Tanner Krebs are back, with Krebs’ last game an 18-point blinder at the four-spot against Perth. Johnson was also superb that night with 18 points on 5/6 in the paint, six rebounds, three dimes and zero turnovers, while Gak’s past four games have delivered 12.3ppg at 67 per cent, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists.

Road warriors – Perth’s only road loss since the start of November was to the Bullets in OT, and they're 3-0 away in December with huge wins in Auckland, Adelaide and Cairns, scoring 98.3ppg while giving up a below-league average 85.7ppg. At a time when there are whistles aplenty, the Wildcats committed just 12.7 fouls in those three games, gifting only 12.7 free throws and going +29 from the charity stripe in a combined winning margin of 38.

What needs stopping?

TaShawn Thomas – Averaging 19.0ppg at 71 per cent inside in his past three games, Thomas has been the key to Perth’s interior offence, grabbing 3.7 o-boards and dishing 4.0 dimes as he makes intelligently reads from the short roll, the top of the arc and in finding kick-outs to shooters following offensive rebounds. His passing ability, composure to play off two feet inside the paint and his deft hook shots make him hard to stop once he has the ball. Defensively, he must do his work early on Aron Baynes to prevent deep catches.

Leaking like a sieve – Brisbane’s defensive numbers from the past two games are not pretty – 212 points at 53 per cent, 110 points in the paint and 32 opposition o-boards from 74 misses (43%). The Bullets have only kept opponents below 20 points in three of their past 28 quarters while giving up 30 or more seven times. While injuries do impact, leaking 80 and 84 points after quarter-time in their past two games suggests there’s been a bit of quitting too.

Who’s matching up?

DJ Mitchell v Brady Manek – Like Thomas, Manek’s frontcourt passing has been a key to Perth’s offensive renaissance. In nine Ws, the former Tar Heel has dealt 20 assists, up from just four in seven defeats. He has not grabbed a single board in 45 minutes across his past two games, however, something that is not sustainable if the 'Cats want to continue their winning ways, especially with Mitchell grabbing three o-boards last time the teams met.

Tyler Johnson v Corey Webster – Johnson ranks first in Brisbane’s plus/minus, second in scoring, blocks, steals and three-point makes, and third in assists, field-goal percentage and three-point conversion. He needs to step back in and provide scoring punch to relieve Sobey and counter Webster, who made life easy for Cotton by averaging 22.7ppg in the first three games of Perth’s win streak, and will be looking to bounce back from an 0/7 night in Cairns.

Nathan Sobey v Bryce Cotton – Bryce has gone off for 28.3ppg in his past three games at 41 per cent from deep and 18/19 from the foul line. His D is helping fuel that explosion, pinching nine steals in those three contests, and he’s had 24 thefts in nine wins compared to seven in seven Ls. Sobey has coughed it up 12 times in the past three games, and he must look after the rock to make the tough task of defending Bryce a little bit easier, and make his improving scoring contributions – 20.2ppg in his past six – more valuable.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CADEE ?? SOBES FOR 3! <br><br>Watch on ESPN via Kayo and Foxtel<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIVERCITYSTRONG?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RIVERCITYSTRONG</a> <a href="https://t.co/vbX9fQO2JL">pic.twitter.com/vbX9fQO2JL</a></p>&mdash; Brisbane Bullets (@BrisbaneBullets) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets/status/1605499634465529856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s saying what?

The saying goes you should pick your employees wisely, and it’s fair to say sharp-shooting Wildcats DP Michael Harris has done just that in fellow marksman John Rillie.

“Very few guys have the mentality he has in his approach to the game,” Rillie said.

“It will drive some coaches crazy (but) I embrace it. I have to harness it sometimes, but I love his fearlessness.”

That was on full display in Cairns as the 23-year-old dropped 17 points at 67 per cent, grabbed five boards in 15 minutes and went a game-high +18.

He did it all within the Wildcats’ system too, highlighting just how far they’ve come from the disjointed outfit of just a few weeks ago.

Bryce Cotton and Corey Webster are making plays off the catch and the bounce, feeding off each other and the great screens they’re getting from their bigs.

Luke Travers, TaShawn Thomas and Brady Manek are taking on important playmaking roles from the middle cylinder, finishing efficiently and in the case of Travers and Thomas, upping their rebounding games.

Mitch Norton is penetrating with poise, Jesse Wagstaff providing great decision-making at both ends of the floor and now Harris is showing he can be another piece in the puzzle.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Talkin&#39; about MICHAEL HARRIS. ??<br><br>Harris turned it ? in Cairns last night, finishing with a career-high 17 points and 5 rebounds. <a href="https://t.co/BCvG4XUU38">pic.twitter.com/BCvG4XUU38</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1605364011205218305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“We're slowly coming together as a team," Rillie said.

“When we weren’t playing great, we didn’t have multiple contributors on a night and that's not just always in the points column. We're probably on this four-game stretch we're on right now with having great contributors.”

They’ve gotten back to their early-season trademarks of sharing the ball, valuing possession, forcing turnovers at the other end and not putting teams to the foul line.

When they get the defensive side of it right, their multi-dimensional offence becomes hard to guard, especially with the Cotton-Webster-Travers-Manek-Thomas starting five now humming.

“This is a pivotal point in the season and that sense of urgency is what picked it up for us,” Cotton said after the Cairns win.

“I think everybody is at a stage now where we’re all really locked into the same goal, we’ve all got the same focus and it’s starting to show on the floor.”

Right now the Wildcats are a clicking, team-first unit that new Brisbane coach Greg Vanderjagt can only dream of.

With the big man confirmed as head coach for the remainder of NBL23, ‘Vandy’ set out his strategy for getting the players all on the same page.

“I’m excited about the opportunity and for the challenges ahead,” he said.

“I’m going to do everything I can to empower this group. It’s my responsibility to lead this group and help them be successful.”

The question is does this group have the leadership and selfless culture to take that empowerment and turn it into something positive?

While Brisbane were facing their own challenges last week, to get destroyed by a Phoenix team missing Gary Browne, Ryan Broekhoff and Zhou Qi, and then suffer a setback with Alan Williams mid-game, was nothing short of embarrassing.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">All the space for JUNIOR! ?<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://t.co/qnJkBxkFlQ">pic.twitter.com/qnJkBxkFlQ</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1605490222556655616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Right now it’s all about actions,” Vanderjagt said afterwards.

“We can sit there and talk about it and sing kumbaya or whatever, but at the end of the day it’s actions on the floor that speak volumes right now.

“I’m tired of talking. The group is tired of talking. We need people to lead … it’s our response to adversity that lets us down.

“There’s going to be adversity, there’s going to be the crowd, there’s going to be bad calls, there’s going to be the opposition. It’s how we respond to that that’s the concern.

“We get three games in the space of five games coming out of Christmas to correct some of the struggles we have right now.”

What they need most is leadership, because when momentum swings Brisbane are going individual, rather than executing intelligently to wrestle the game back on their terms.

Vanderjagt knows that must improve against a Wildcats team who thrive in the open floor and can move into fourth place with a double-figure win on Tuesday.

“It’s the defensive transition which is a product of shot selection and turnovers,” he said.

“We have control or we have momentum in games and then it’s three or four possessions that break our back.

“It’s disappointing because we give ourselves chances but then it’s a lack of communication, a lack of concentration, a lack of discipline defensively and we just break down.

“Maybe guys are tired, maybe they’re not locked into the game, maybe they’re thinking about what happened at the other end of the floor, but we need to figure it out really quickly.”