Preview: Perth vs New Zealand - Round 7, NBL24

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Can the Wildcats keep the good times rolling into Round 7, or will the Breakers buck their losing trend and take a big win in Perth?

Friday, November 10 at 9:30pm AEDT | RAC Arena

Watch: Live on ESPN via Kayo Sports | Live on Sky Sports in NZ - International viewership details
Box scores: Download the free NBL App

The intense pressure on John Rillie and the Perth Wildcats has drastically lessened following their pair of victories in Round 6, and the wins have catapulted Perth back into the top six.

Bryce Cotton scored 53 points across the two victories, and starred after struggling to find his range in the opening weeks of the season.

New Zealand missed an opportunity to defeat Sydney in the dying stages of their clash last week. Parker Jackson-Cartwright missed a game-winning three, and Mody Maor said he would always back his import guard in that situation following the loss.

The Breakers have won just two of their seven games so far this season, but have a higher percentage than Adelaide, Cairns and Perth – all of whom sit above them on the ladder.

Perth
102-95 win over Melbourne
99-88 win over Adelaide
79-84 loss to Brisbane

New Zealand
85-87 loss to Sydney
91-81 win over Cairns
100-103 loss to South East Melbourne

Jesse Wagstaff
Perth captain Jesse Wagstaff has been playing a crucial role in tight victories for Perth since 2009, and he’s continuing to do so in NBL24 at the age of 37.

Wagstaff played over 23 minutes off the bench in the Wildcats’ overtime victory against Melbourne on Monday, and the influence he had on proceedings goes far beyond the six points and eight boards he registered in the emotional triumph.

The six-time champion called on his team to not let games slip like they had against Adelaide just three days prior, where the 36ers almost came from 20 points down to snatch victory, and the Wildcats delivered when the chips were down on Monday night.

John Rillie has shown an immense level of trust in his captain throughout this season so far, and there’s absolutely no reason why that shouldn’t continue.

“I felt like it came from the leaders on our team and just trickled down – Wags and Bryce telling us we were going to be OK. That’s what Jesse’s role on the team is, he’s a vocal leader – a coach that has a jersey on ... tonight he was able to help us out when we were in foul trouble, his experience showed at the end, especially late in the game.” – Kristian Doolittle following the win over Melbourne.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">6 points, 3 assists, 8 rebounds, +16 AND he hit a huge milestone in 1500 career rebounds ??<br><br>Have yourself a night, Jesse! ? <a href="https://t.co/o9V1FDKe75">pic.twitter.com/o9V1FDKe75</a></p>— Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1721494294572470675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Will McDowell-White
Breakers guard Will McDowell-White was the most sought-after free agent following the conclusion of NBL23. The Wildcats and Bullets were vocal about wanting to pair him with Bryce Cotton and Nathan Sobey respectively, and basically every team in the competition was reported to be keeping tabs of the fringe Boomer.

He elected to stay with Mody Maor and the Breakers though, and a hand injury suffered in pre-season has clipped his wings in NBL24. He's not been the game-breaking star we all know he can be so far this season, and he's been relegated to the bench in favour of import guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

Part of McDowell-White's danger last season was the ability he held to have the ball in his hands and run almost every play he was on the floor, but Jackson-Cartwright's addition as another floor general has seen him not quite take on the same role as last season.

WMW is a star of this league, and he's still putting up solid numbers. If he can learn to play in tandem with PJC, then the rest of the league needs to watch out.

"Will McDowell-White isn’t playing the way he did last year but I’m expecting that to happen ... he was probably the best guard in the league last year and almost a triple-double whenever he went out and played really good basketball. I think the injury to his hand took a lot of his confidence away. He’s still a playmaker, he’s averaging those assists, he can rebound the ball well – he’s just not shooting well. I don’t expect him to be on that bench for long. I know him well – he was in Sydney with us – he’s going to come at you, he’s going to get himself going." - Lanard Copeland on NBL Now.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Anthony Lamb was huge last night! <br><br>19pts on 7-12 shooting ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNBREAKABLE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNBREAKABLE</a> <a href="https://t.co/y2OOk87Xp5">pic.twitter.com/y2OOk87Xp5</a></p>— BNZ Breakers (@NZBreakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers/status/1720569801171710402?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bryce Cotton vs Parker Jackson-Cartwright
Bryce Cotton put Perth on his back and won the game for the Wildcats against Adelaide last week, while Parker Jackson-Cartwright has been left reeling from squandering a potentially game-winning possession against Sydney. But this week, two of the competition’s premier guards match up.

Cotton joked about someone else playing in his jersey for the first five weeks of the season. Round 6 saw the end of that.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bryce Cotton was in his bag tn. ?‍? <a href="https://t.co/vIGHpseg2Z">pic.twitter.com/vIGHpseg2Z</a></p>— Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1720767023893057617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He dropped 29 in the drought-breaking win over Adelaide, before following it up with 24 in the overtime thriller against Melbourne.

Jackson-Cartwright – on the other hand – had quickly found his niche in the NBL, however it will be interesting to see how he bounces back from last week’s disappointment against the Kings.

Outside of his final second miss Jackson-Cartwright was solid against the Kings with 18 points, four boards, five assists and two steals, but he’ll be hoping to shoot better than his 6-17 against Sydney.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Would’ve been special - on to the next. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UNBREAKABLE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UNBREAKABLE</a> <a href="https://t.co/RKbu31NuKY">pic.twitter.com/RKbu31NuKY</a></p>— BNZ Breakers (@NZBreakers) <a href="https://twitter.com/NZBreakers/status/1721277916015956454?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Perth has won 10 of its last 11 home games against New Zealand. The Breakers’ only victory in this run was in Round 14, NBL21, where Levi Randolph scored 23 points in a five-point win. It’s the only win New Zealand has registered in Perth in seven years.