Preview: Perth vs Tasmania – NBL24 Playoffs, Game 3

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Will the Wildcats advance to the Championship Series, or can Tasmania upset the MVP and his charges?

Wednesday, March 13 at 9:30pm AEDT | RAC Arena

Watch: Live on ESPN via Kayo | International viewership details
Box scores: Download the free NBL App

Game 1
Five made three-pointers from Keanu Pinder led the Wildcats to a Game 1 win at RAC Arena, in what was an equal-season high points tally of 25 for the former Cairns Taipan.

The Wildcats emerged as eight-point winners after a breathless opening quarter that saw the sides enter quarter time on 24 points apiece.

A late unsportsmanlike foul committed by Marcus Lee on Jordan Usher saw the JackJumpers center suspended for the second game of the series.

Game 2
A third-quarter blitz from Milton Doyle helped Tasmania keep the season alive in Game 2. The star guard scored 15 of his total 24 points of the game in the third-term to give Tasmania its first lead of the game, before it locked away the victory with a staunch fourth quarter defensive showing.

Keanu Pinder played just 13 minutes before fouling out, and Bryce Cotton top-scored for the game with 26 points.

Majok Deng stepped up in the absence of Marcus Lee to add 18 points on 6-7 shooting, after barely being sighted since Round 12 due to an ankle injury.

Kristian Doolittle
The Wildcats don’t have just one player to watch – the entire offensive supporting cast around Bryce Cotton needs to find a way to produce like they did in Game 1, and although Kristian Doolittle was the pick of the bunch in Game 2, he could be the one to step up again in the decisive Game 3.

Doolittle was Cotton’s running mate in the early stages of Monday’s loss, and he was the only other Wildcat to finish the game with double-digit scoring. Cotton had 24 points, Doolittle had 20, and behind them it was Hyrum Harris and Tai Webster with nine points apiece.

Perth’s import forward is one of the best close/mid-range shooters in the NBL, and you can tell when he’s rolling by the number of three-pointers he takes – it’s almost a case of the fewer threes, the better for him – and he didn’t attempt a single shot from outside the arc in Game 2. He was going to work on the inside.

He was strong in the post, he was dangerous off the dribble, and he was strong in his screens, but then – like a lot of Perth’s offence – it just faded in the second half.

That’s not to say Doolittle isn’t a solid outside shooting threat by any means – he’s connected on just under 25 per cent of his three-point attempts this season – but with players like Bryce Cotton, and the Webster brothers in the backcourt, and Alex Sarr, Jesse Wagstaff and Keanu Pinder as more capable frontcourt shooters, he needs to go to work on the inside.

If Doolittle can hold Tasmania’s defence accountable inside the three-point line, he might not just get his own, but he’ll likely open up space for his team’s sharpshooters to go to work.

“Doolittle was good early, but late in the game when Tassie was getting it out of Bryce’s hands they dried up and they shot 20 per cent from three – outside of Bryce, they were 2-15 from beyond the arc, so they need others to step up.” – Liam Santamaria on the Coca-Cola Cool Down.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">KD is gettin' to his spots. ?<br><br>Watch live on ESPN via Kayo. <a href="https://t.co/HsouTWIaRP">pic.twitter.com/HsouTWIaRP</a></p>— Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1767117431661879751?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Majok Deng
The NBL24 Finals has thrown up some unlikely match-winners already, and Majok Deng absolutely added his name to that list in the Game 2 victory over Perth.

The former Cairns Taipan has barely been sighted since he suffered an ankle injury in Round 12, and after making his return with seven minutes on court in Game 1, he exploded off the bench in Marcus Lee’s absence on Monday night.

Deng connected on six of seven shots to finish the game with 18 points in 16 minutes, but there was more to his game than his exceptional shooting.

He was active across all levels on the offensive end, and he formed a crucial part of the JackJumpers’ rearguard action when the game was there to be won.

Milton Doyle stated his belief there aren’t many players with a better point-per-minute line than Deng, and he’s proven across his whole career that he has the ability to get hot like he did on Monday, but there’s one big change set to happen in Game 3 – the return of Marcus Lee.

Deng spent roughly seven minutes holding down the center position in Game 2, and was also, at times, played in tandem with Will Magnay.

Lee will almost certainly be re-injected into his usual position in the starting five ahead of the do-or-die clash, but Deng absolutely showed how much of an impact he can make on the floor.

How will Scott Roth manage his rotation of bigs in his side’s most important game of the season?

“Majok Deng had 10 weeks of not playing and seeing him grinding away and going through rehab and not really getting minutes and waiting these last 10-12 days of wanting to get on the floor, it’s the nature of this group ... I’m super proud of him, because I saw the rehab and all the work he did to try to be ready if his number was called and tonight he did a number of jobs for us.” – Scott Roth following Tasmania’s Game 2 win.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">DengAgainAgainAgainAgain <br> <br>Watch now on ESPN via <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/RqsqxE2aKn">pic.twitter.com/RqsqxE2aKn</a></p>— Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1767123683833999577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Bryce Cotton vs Milton Doyle
Out of all the important matchups in this do-or-die clash, there’s one that stands out above the rest. It could only be this. Bryce Cotton, Milton Doyle, and a season on the line is going to make for electric viewing.

After he was held to just 15 points in Game 1 between these two sides Cotton exploded in the early stanzas of Game 2. He ended the game with 26 points, however a blanket effort from Sean Macdonald saw him go scoreless in the final quarter.

Milton Doyle, on the other hand, stepped up to lead Tasmania’s comeback out of halftime. He finished the game with 24 points, but 15 of those came in the third term to push his side into the lead for the first time all game, and although that lead was in contention for the back end of that term, the JackJumpers never looked back.

The best players stand up when they’re needed the most. Bryce Cotton has a long history of doing so for the Wildcats, while Milton Doyle has done it on more than one occasion during his two seasons in Tasmania.

There’s nothing more to say about this titanic clash of two of the NBL’s best guards than that it’ll be game-defining, and it will more than likely be must-watch basketball.

The Tasmania JackJumpers have progressed to the decisive game of a Playoff Series in all three seasons of their existence in the NBL. They won their NBL22 decider against Melbourne by three points, but suffered a 15-point defeat to New Zealand last season.