R17 Preview: Perth Wildcats vs Tasmania JackJumpers

When: 9.30pm (AEDT), Thursday 24 March 2022

Where: RAC Arena, Perth  

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Sky Sport NZ


Who won last time?
Perth 89 (Cotton 20, Law 19, Travers 16) d Tasmania 78 (McVeigh 16, Adams 15, McIntosh 15) – Round 13, MyState Bank Arena, Hobart

The Jackies were on the march early, racing to a 10-point lead as the Anthill reached fever pitch. But things got quiet quickly as Perth’s role players got rolling, outscoring Tassie 18-5 over five minutes with only two points from their star duo. Once Law and Cotton got rolling the margin blew out to 19, before a late JJs rally added some respectability to the score.


What happened last start?

Perth rolled out their trademark slow start in their return to RAC Arena, trailing New Zealand by 10 midway through the first term, but this game played out a similar script to the Wildcats’ trip to Hobart. The  'Cats scored 19 of their 24 third-quarter points to turn a six-point deficit into a five-point edge, then Law scored 16 in a dominant final frame to seal the deal.

Tasmania got another quick start at home against the Hawks, leading by 11 after 11 minutes, but the sting went out of their tails shortly after. The JackJumpers had few answers for the intensity of Antonius Cleveland and Co, outscored 73-36 over the final 29 minutes as their offence spluttered under pressure and the D produced precious little offence.


Who’s in form?

Vice – Remarkably, Vic and Bryce burned New Zealand’s accommodating defence for 122 points at 56 per cent across back-to-back games, as the Kiwis confirmed Einstein’s definition of madness. With the Breakers shutting down the three-point arc, the Dynamic Duo scored 101 points from ‘ones and twos’ while also grabbing 33 boards and dealing 17 dimes.

Clint Steindl – You want hot? Steindl has drained 11/17 from the arc the past two games, hitting 65 per cent while his teammates made just 14/50. He hasn’t had as good a time of it against his former team, however, scoring just 17 points across two outings on 2/10 from deep, and he’s taken just five of his 19 attempts against the Wildcats from inside the paint.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Clint is heating up from deep early ?<br><br>live now on <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://t.co/acdp14uFWc">pic.twitter.com/acdp14uFWc</a></p>&mdash; Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1505076272338124803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Who needs to be?

Perth’s perimeter D – The Wildcats went 2-0 against New Zealand, but they were far from perfect performances. Their lack of disruption in the opening five quarters was stark, allowing New Zealand to execute their ball-screens with perfection and find open shooters. The JJs are similarly precise with their on-ball action, and can play a genuine five-out offence

Tasmania’s pressure – Early in the season, Scott Roth’s men were the masters of forcing opposition errors, resulting in opponents averaging low-60s field-goal attempts, the least in the NBL. In their past two games against Illawarra, the JackJumpers forced just 15 turnovers across 80 minutes, and the Hawks averaged 73 field goals and were +23 on free throws


Who’s statting up?

 - The JackJumpers forced 17 turnovers per game across the first nine games, but in their past 11 have forced just 11.2 cough-ups per night

 - Tasmania have averaged 12.8 triples at 39 per cent in their past eight wins. Over the rest of the season they’ve hit 8.4 treys at 28 per cent

 - In two games against the Breakers, Perth gave up 29 threes at 40 per cent. In six losses this season they’ve allowed 11.2 triples at 38 per cent, compared to just 7.8 trifectas at 27 per cent in 14 wins

 - Vic and Bryce have averaged 49.2ppg in the six-game streak, making up 52 per cent of the Wildcats’ total score. In six losses this season they’ve averaged 37.2ppg, which is 44 per cent of the team total


Who’s matching up?

Vic Law v Jack McVeigh – Law continues to take his game to ridiculous new levels, averaging 25.0 points and 11.5 rebounds during Perth’s six-game streak, shooting 66 per cent from two-range and feeding out 2.3 assists per night. Amongst all that fire, however, he has managed to hit just 4/21 from range in that stretch, after hitting 37 per cent in the opening 14 games.

Does McVeigh get this job, or will Matt Kenyon be given the task of shutting down Law’s penetration and pushing him off the block? Either way, at the other end Law will have his hands full tracking McVeigh on the perimeter and swooping in for his now-trademark d-boards. McVeigh has averaged 14ppg at 42 per cent from deep across his past three games.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">VIC LAW.<br>MAKING SURE.<a href="https://twitter.com/Followthe_LAW?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Followthe_LAW</a> punching it home on the break ?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> live on <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://t.co/GSGYJIJ5jY">pic.twitter.com/GSGYJIJ5jY</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1505439908055613441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Who’s talking the talk?

When the 'Cats walked into MyState Bank Arena 24 days ago, the chatter was they were in trouble.

Losers of four of their previous five games, the Perth's struggles had prompted the annual chatter about whether this is the year their playoff streak finally ends.

When they walked out of the Anthill 40 minutes later, that talk had been silenced.

“It's class,” JackJumpers coach Scott Roth said of his former team’s performance.

“Perth’s class, and United, and these teams that have been in the trenches for years and years. That’s where we want to go, where we want this franchise to go.

“They played a heck of a game and they're fun to watch and they just play. It’s a good learning lesson for us, unfortunately it was a loss.

“This game could have been a 25-point game very quickly, at one point it was getting ugly and our guys showed a tremendous amount of grit.”

After the JackJumpers made a fast start, Perth turned the defensive screws to unleash a 50-21 run in 18 minutes surrounding half-time.

Their intelligent ball-screen defence nullified the effectiveness of Josh Magette and Josh Adams, who always seemed to be facing a wall of taller defenders.

Offensively, Tassie targeted Cotton and Law, but the Wildcats executed their counters with aplomb, their supporting cast scoring 53 points at 51 per cent that night, led by Matt Hodgson and Luke Travers.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">?? The Hair up there ??<br><br>KZ with the alley, LT with the oop!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> live on <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://t.co/gU83vL3hMb">pic.twitter.com/gU83vL3hMb</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1505436671520567299?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



Then, when given space thanks to their teammates’ effectiveness, the dynamic duo burned the Tasmanians with a combined 16 points and 4 assists in 11 minutes after half-time to blow the contest out.

“It’s nice to have a couple of guys that people consider two of the top players in the league, that helps obviously, but that’s not enough to get it done in this league,” coach Scott Morrison said.

“You have to have a deep team, a number of guys contributing and on any given night someone else has got to step up.”

The Wildcats stepped up big time on the glass that night, seven players grabbing multiple caroms as the seconded 77 per cent of their d-boards and 44 per cent of o-boards to completely control the tempo.

After struggling in that key area, Perth have stepped up on the defensive glass, pulling in 73 per cent of boards at the end in their six-game winning streak.

“I'm happy that we have shifted our mentality, we've put more of a priority on it,” Morrison said after the win in Tasmania.

“I think that’s three games in a row where we've been at least even with the opponent, if not with a little bit of an edge, so that’s a big change from how it was in the first 12 games.

“I just challenged the team to not let that slip.”

Perth are now just one game behind Melbourne on top of the NBL ladder, but even with the possibility of a star signing joining the team, their inferior percentage means they will likely need to be perfect on the run home to have any chance of pinching the minor premiership.

The JackJumpers will have to be perfect to squeeze into the top four after their horror capitulation against the Hawks in Launceston.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Clint with back to back 3s early in the 4th to extend our lead<br><br>Tune in now to see it go down <a href="https://twitter.com/10PeachAu?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@10peachau</a> / <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXSportsAUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@foxsportsaus</a> / <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://t.co/RB6oEfeGqo">pic.twitter.com/RB6oEfeGqo</a></p>&mdash; Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1502849664064065539?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



After appearing to be truly on the march towards the post-season after beating Illawarra days early, Tasmania’s previously-humming offence got shut down completely in the rematch.

“They really got after us and really just manhandled us in a lot of areas. We missed a lot of assignments that we are pretty much en pointe with, and their shooters just started seeing the ball go through the net,” coach Roth said.

“If you want to get into the playoffs and you want to play playoff style basketball that was a great example of a physical game, and they were a much more physical, much more dominant team.”

it's been a year of firsts for the JackJumpers, who have now beaten every team in the competition except SE Melbourne and the Wildcats, something they can fix in the Jungle on Thursday.

“I'm still very, very excited about what lies ahead, to beat that team twice and win the series from them is a great credit to our group, and we just move on, flip the page and we’re onto the next one,” Roth said after the Hawks game.

“We have a lot of very difficult games ahead of us, Perth being one of them. On the road is always difficult to win and we haven't had a lot of answers for Perth just in general.

“We’ll have to regroup and refocus and see what we can do down there, but it’s always a great place to play, a great atmosphere, a heck of a team, so it will be exciting for us.”