R19 Preview: Perth Wildcats v Cairns Taipans

When: 9.30pm (AEST), Friday 21 May

Where: RAC Arena, Perth

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Perth 89 (Cotton 24, Mooney 11, Blanchfield 11) d Cairns 78 (Jawai 20, Machado 17, Krslovic 11) – Round 18, Cairns Pop-Up Arena 

It was only back on Monday night when these two teams did battle in Cairns and that turned out to be a solid win for the Wildcats even though it was an improved competitive showing from the Taipans.

Perth spread the load across their roster in the first half which also allowed them to get 20 valuable minutes into the legs of new recruit Will Magnay.

After being humiliated by South East Melbourne on Friday, Nate Jawai and Scott Machado showed the way for the Taipans to bounce back emphatically to take it to the Wildcats, especially when stars like Bryce Cotton and John Mooney were on the pine.

At three quarter-time the scores were locked at 65-65 but the big guns of Perth blew the brave Taipans away in the end. Best of all, the Wildcats conserved energy with one more road game to come against the Bullets on Wednesday night.

Cotton was sublime in the final quarter and finished with 24 points and five assists while Mooney chimed in with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Todd Blanchfield had 11 points while Mitch Norton, ably supported by his Far North Queensland family in the stands, had 10 points and three assists.

The win ensured that Perth will play finals basketball for the 35th consecutive season but the fight for top spot remains firmly on the line.

While yet another loss will be a bitter pill to swallow for Cairns, they were vastly improved on Friday night and gave their fans something to cheer for. 

Local favourite Jawai continued his superb finish to the year with 20 points, nine boards and three blocks while import Machado had an improved 17 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

Fabijan Krslovic rounded out the scoring with 11 points and four rebounds while the other young guns toiled hard.

 

The now

Cairns arrive in Perth for Friday night's game looking to cause what would be the upset of the season and if they can pull it off, it might very well be curtains to the Wildcats' hopes of claiming top spot.

While it's not quite the marquee match up it was going back to last season when the Taipans and Wildcats locked horns in a cracking semi-final battle that went to three games with Perth eventually winning on their way to the championship, it doesn't mean the result is by any means a formality.

Both teams actually come into the game at RAC Arena on Friday night after losses too with the Wildcats ending their Queensland road trip losing to the Brisbane Bullets on Wednesday with Cairns' last game being that one at home on Monday to the 'Cats.

The Wildcats have announced captain Jesse Wagstaff will miss the game against the Snakes while Todd Blanchfield will be a game time decision having missed Wednesday's loss to the Bullets with knee soreness.

That could potentially slightly open the door for the Taipans but it's just simply a must-win game for Perth if they still want to maintain any sort of touch with Melbourne United who occupy top position.

Coming into Friday night's game, the Wildcats now hold a 22-9 record and while that has them five games clear in second position, they are now two behind Melbourne with both teams having five matches to go in the #NBL21 regular season. 

Making up a two-game gap over the space of five games won't be easy, but the things working in the favour of the 'Cats are that one of those games is against Melbourne and that if indeed they end up on the same record, it'll come down to percentage and theirs is superior to that of United's right now.

So top position is still there to fight for as far as the Wildcats are concerned as they chase a championship three-peat, but a loss on Friday would make that decidedly less the case.

It would be a significant morale boost for the Taipans to go out west and come back with the upset victory. It's not something foreign to them and going back to last season, they handed the Wildcats their biggest ever loss at RAC Arena in what doubled as their very first win of the season.

But with Nate Jawai inside and Scott Machado at the point, the team always has a chance and the Snakes should head out on Friday night with clear minds and knowing they can turn all the pressure back on Perth the longer they stay in the contest.

 

The stats

- In each of the past 18 NBL seasons dating back to 2002, the Taipans have beaten the Wildcats at least once. The Snakes now need to win on Friday night to keep that streak going in their final meeting with the Wildcats for #NBL21.

- Wildcats point guard Mitch Norton will assume the captaincy on Friday in the absence of Jesse Wagstaff and will look to put the clamps on Scott Machado, but attempt to not foul out like he did on Monday for the 16th time in his 254-game career. It was the first time he's fouled out without scoring and first scoreless game of the season too.

- The Taipans are the slowest starting team in the league this season, and have trailed at quarter-time in 10 of their last 11 games. The exception was against New Zealand in Tasmania and that just happens to be their sole win in the last seven matches.

- Since the arrival of Will Magnay, John Mooney has gone from 18.1 points a game to 16.0, 11.9 rebounds to 10.0 and from 13 shot attempts at 57 per cent to 12 attempts at 44 per cent.

 

The key men

Bryce Cotton – The dual MVP and triple championship winner remains the centre piece of the Wildcats even if he's sure to have a tinge of disappointment this week knowing he's not going to be able to play for the Boomers at the Tokyo Olympics. He has been Perth's top scorer in all three games this this season putting up 23, 28 and 24 points, and the Taipans just don't have an ideal match up for him. Another 20-plus point performance from him on Friday night and the 'Cats will be tough for the Taipans to topple.

Nate Jawai – The manner in which he is finishing the season is showing that he has plenty of basketball still in front of him and the 34-year-old has taken on the responsibility with great effect of stepping up since the departure of Cam Oliver. His minutes have doubled in the games since while he's averaging 14.8 points and 5.2 rebounds a game over that stretch. He is leading Cairns' scoring over the last six games ahead of Majok Deng who is delivering 12.3 since returning from his knee injury. He has the chance to continue to dominate down low again, and if he does, an upset could be brewing.

 

The quotes

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson isn't too worried about doing the maths of where his team sits in the top spot race right now, all he wants is to see them play how he expects and now to bounce back from that loss to the Bullets on Wednesday.

"I don’t think we can worry about counting number of wins just yet, we're more concerned about playing the right way. I thought we did that for a half on Wednesday but we have to start doing that for 40 minutes. The ladder and positions all work themselves out in the finish so I don't lose any sleep worrying about that," Gleeson said.

"I think the guys that were out there were still good but Bryce obviously played too many minutes. We had guys in foul trouble but I probably should have got Bryce out for a rest at some period of time but everyone else has played close to under 30 minutes. 

"There are no excuses at all though. We had an opportunity to put the game away, the game was there to be won and congratulations to Brisbane, they wanted it more, kept on fighting all the way to the end and they got the cherries."

Clint Steindl wasn’t making any excuses for Perth's loss in Brisbane on Wednesday and is looking forward to trying to bounce back against his original NBL club.

"We put ourselves in a very good position through a number of parts of that game where we really should have put it away so it didn’t come down to us travelling or fatiguing at all," Steindl said.

"We're still fighting for top spot so we are going to give it everything we have. Top spot is huge and you get home court advantage through the whole playoff series so that's what we are still fighting for."

Speaking of Steindl, he broke out to equal his career-high with 25 points on Wednesday in the absence of Todd Blanchfield, and he's looking forward to continuing to be more aggressive out on the floor.

"It was good to finally see the ball go through the hoop. Part of my role is to do that and to space the floor, and to cut hard. It was good to see the ball go through that's for sure," Steindl said.

"I guess anytime I get out there I'm trying to find some form but I've kind of taken the pressure out of it so I can just go out there and be me, cut hard and space the floor. The opportunities rose in that game and I was able to knock a few down. Going forward I'm going to carry on that mentality and have that intent of trying to be an elite shooter out on the floor."

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was left virtually speechless in disappointment after last Friday's loss in Melbourne to the South East Melbourne Phoenix, but it was a vastly improved showing on Monday against Perth even it didn’t quite result in a victory.

"I thought the guys competed the whole way through and when you do that then you can think about basketball matters. The other day we didn’t do that as well as we did in this game so I was happy with the effort," Kelly said.

"Perth kind of got more comfortable with our zone as the game wore on and then we turned the ball over. I think their defensive pressure was solid the whole game but we turned it over in the fourth and that killed us."

Kelly was again pleased with the performance of Nate Jawai as he keeps standing tall since the absence of Cam Oliver, but ultimately the Taipans couldn’t quite get the job done but they get the chance to do it again now on Friday.

"Nate responded really well. He had nine rebounds and he did a great job of just being active defensively especially on the boards, and then offensively he wanted the ball and finished. He was great to see him being so active and leading from the front," Kelly said.

"You put yourself in a position to win and then good teams know how to finish that, and we haven’t been there consistently. Then I think Scott got tired after having the ball in his hands a lot. A couple of fouls on three-pointers with Bryce are the stuff that adds up in the finish.

"The major motivation is always to win games and to compete, and we did that in this game. The guys gave that effort, we just weren’t up to it to get the win and get the job done, and Perth was good enough to do that."

Jordan Ngatai has produced the best NBL season of his career and was happy to see the team bounce back with a better performance on Monday, is looking forward to further growth on Friday and that's where his focus remains right now.

"It wasn’t the greatest after that South East game, but I thought this was a good little bounce back for us even though the result doesn’t show. I thought we came out and competed," Ngatai said.

"I think every day you are playing for a contract it doesn’t matter what part of the season it is. Everyone talks around the basketball community, but right now my motivation is trying to get a win and not a contract for next year. That will all take care of itself if you do well on the court, win and play hard. That will all just fall into place."