Road Warrior Wildcats Ready to Go All the Way

If the Perth Wildcats are to make any waves in the NBL23 Finals, they’re going to have to do it all on the road.

After finishing sixth in the regular season courtesy of a heart-stopping win over the Sydney Kings, the Wildcats have travelled to Melbourne to take on the South East Melbourne Phoenix in the first Play-In Qualifier in NBL history. The winner of that game will progress to the Play-In Game against either Tasmania or Cairns.

The winner of the Play-In will then progress to a best of three Playoff series against Sydney.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The final six are LOCKED IN ?<br><br>After an exceptional finish to the NBL23 regular season, who&#39;s keen to see what the finals will have to offer? ? <a href="https://t.co/QWiqrUabQH">pic.twitter.com/QWiqrUabQH</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1622132866502238209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 5, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Given they finished sixth the Wildcats will be deprived of a home-court advantage for the entirety of their run in the Finals – however long that may last.

Perth’s Next Generation Award nominee Luke Travers says the group is prepared for a long stint on the road.

“We’re there now, so we may as well go and win it all,” Travers told SEN. “We’re all packed for the two weeks we expect to be here and we’re looking forward to the opportunity.

“Going into this game a lot of guys are excited for the opportunity to keep this thing going. Making finals is a tough thing  in this league. These last couple of games have been do-or-die, so we’re looking to put our best foot forward and build on what we’ve been building on all year.

“As the season’s gone on you realise how close this league is and how good it’s getting as well. To have those extra couple of teams make it and make some noise in the Finals – it’s a super cool thing.”

Travers was one of a handful of Wildcats players to take on the scoring load left by an alarmingly out of form performance Bryce Cotton against the Kings, as the six-time scoring champion shot just 1/19 from the field in the final regular season game of the campaign.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell has already said he doesn't expect Cotton to back up his rare poor game with a second struggling performance.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers draftee ended the game with 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists in what could end up being a career-defining performance.

He says it’s on the rest of the team to help free Cotton up from the extra defensive attention he's set to once again receive.

“’Wags’ (Jesse Wagstaff) does an awesome job with setting screens and freeing [Cotton] up a little bit, but it’s definitely on us to give him actions that can get him that space,” Travers said.

“There’s a lot of factors to it and we’re probably going to look at that.

“We’re just going to go into the game with an aggressive mindset. Obviously [South East Melbourne] is going to pay a lot of attention to Bryce – and to Corey Webster as well.

“I’m just going to try and pick my moments and help out at any time I can.”

The Wildcats take on South East Melbourne at John Cain Arena on Thursday, February 8 at 6:30pm AEDT.