SF Game 1 Preview: Perth Wildcats v Illawarra Hawks

When: 9.30pm (AEST), Thursday 10 June 

Where: RAC Arena, Perth

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

The last time
Illawarra 81 (Harvey 27, Froling 14, Jessup 12) d Perth 79 (Steindl 15, Mooney 14, Wagstaff 12) – Round 21, WIN Entertainment Centre

The two teams only played off last Tuesday in the 'Gong on a night where the Hawks beat the Wildcats for the first time this season and locked in a finals berth in the process.

The Hawks were back on their home court at the WIN Entertainment Centre on a three-game winning streak knowing they had to win one of their remaining two games to guarantee a final spot.

However, no team in the league knows just what a challenge it is to beat the Wildcats even on your home floor and even if they are missing injured superstar Bryce Cotton. Even with Brian Goorjian in charge, Illawarra had yet to beat the Wildcats so far in #NBL21 but this was their first game at home against the two-time defending champs, and they came out victorious but typically it went down to the wire.

MVP candidate Tyler Harvey scored a game-high 27 points including two clutch threes in the final minutes for the Hawks. Illawarra reserve forward Deng Deng had his own fairytale performance with 11 points, four steals and two blocks using his length and athleticism to repeatedly win plays for his team.

Wildcats captain Jesse Wagstaff gave his side a chance to win with his own outside shooting but he couldn’t make a contested corner three with 12 seconds to play that would have put his team ahead on the night he passed Shawn Redhage to move to second on the club's all-time games played list. Clint Steindl led the Wildcats with 15 points while John Mooney had 14 points and 15 rebounds as their side won bench scoring 40-26.

 

The now

The Illawarra Hawks would be excused for thinking that qualifying for the finals in the NBL automatically means you have to lock horns with the Perth Wildcats, but they will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes this time around.

Remarkable the last five times the Hawks have either been eliminated in the semi finals or lost in the Grand Final it has all come at the expense of the Wildcats.

It began with a hard fought Grand Final Series back in 2010 that the 'Cats won in three games on their home floor in the decider. Perth then beat the Hawks in the semi finals of 2013, 2014 and 2016 before clean sweeping the Grand Final of 2017 winning in three games.

The good news is that most of this current Hawks squad haven’t tasted any of that pain against the Wildcats, but Tim Coenraad has experienced all five of those heartbreaks and AJ Ogilvy has been there for most of them.

Not only is there that finals hoodoo the Hawks need to overcome, but if they are to beat the Wildcats they will need to win at least once inside RAC Arena where Game 1 will be held on Thursday night.

Illawarra has only won once in 23 attempts at the new Perth venue while going back even further, the Wildcats have enjoyed a remarkable home dominance against the Hawks having won 34 of their last 35 games out west against them combined between Challenge Stadium and RAC Arena.

This genuinely shapes as a 50-50 contest coming into the series, though, despite that history of the Wildcats dominating the Hawks in the playoffs and in Perth.

The Wildcats qualified for a 35th consecutive NBL finals appearance from second position with a 25-11 record but they lost their last two games to the Hawks last Tuesday in Wollongong and at home to Melbourne on Friday. They will regain point guard Mitch Norton for the playoffs but it remains to be seen if the absence of two-time MVP and triple championship winner Bryce Cotton is too much to overcome.

The Hawks have booked in their playoff spot in Brian Goorjian's first season as coach with a 20-16 record to end up in third position and having won five of their previous six matches.

With a genuine star point guard in Tyler Harvey, a defensive master in Justin Simon, a sharpshooter in Justinian Jessup, and strong, motivated veterans Tim Coenraad and AJ Ogilvy, and the emerging Sam Froling, Isaac White, Daniel Grida, Emmett Naar and Deng Deng, and this could be a team to end the Perth hoodoo under Goorjian.

However, the Hawks no better than any other team in the NBL that the hopes and beliefs of being able to knock off Perth in the finals is much easier said than done.

 

The stats

- This is the 10th time the Hawks and Wildcats have met in the NBL finals. Illawarra has won in a series or elimination game only once previously which was back in 2001 on their way to the club's lone championship. Overall in 21 finals games, the Wildcats have won 17 and the Hawks four.

- The two coaches already are the most successful in NBL history combining to win 11 championships, Brian Goorjian six and Trevor Gleeson five. Head to head, Gleeson leads the battle with nine wins opposed to Goorjian's eight.

- Tyler Harvey holds the key to this series in so many ways and Illawarra is undefeated this season in the eight matches when he has scored 25 points or more.

The key men
John Mooney – The rookie big man has gone from being part of the best one-two punch in the league alongside Bryce Cotton to now being the key to the Wildcats hopes of being able to pull off a championship three-peat minus their two-time MVP. He has had a remarkable first professional season with 17.6 points and 11.5 rebounds a game with 23 double-doubles along the way, but his output has been down a little in the absence of Cotton. The chemistry they had was remarkable but if the Wildcats are to prevail, he needs to dominate his battle with the Hawks bigs.

Tyler Harvey – He has all the ability to take the Hawks a long way in this playoff series and he finished the regular season in dazzling and dominant form to ensure he was named one of three MVP prospects. He averaged 20.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the season while hitting a league-best 114 three-pointers but against the Wildcats he has been limited to 17.8 points a game while going at 28 per cent from three-point land including hitting just 3/16 in Perth. He'll need to fire for Illawarra to win on Thursday. 

 

The quotes

Wildcats captain Jesse Wagstaff is happy enough with his team's preparation leading into Thursday night as he prepares for his 12th finals series.

"It's nice knowing our opponent finally. We played them pretty recently and they've played a game since so everything should be pretty fresh in our mind in terms of how they play and what to expect," Wagstaff said.

"You never take finals for granted and it's not a given even with the Wildcats' phenomenal record. It's hard work to get here so you just have to enjoy it and savour it. It's a different game now and the regular season kind of means nothing. It's an important time of year but it's why you play and it's enjoyable, and you try to have fun."

Wagstaff is confident that point guard Mitch Norton will be right to go and ready to lead the charge in trying to stop Hawks star Tyler Harvey.

"Mitch is looking a lot better and I assume he'll be right for the game. He's a huge piece to the puzzle and has been playing really well in recent weeks," Wagstaff said.

"Norto is phenomenally defensively and we've always had that really good defensive point guard since I've been at the club, and he's taken over from Damo really well this year. That's his jam and what he prides himself on but Harvey is an exceptional talent, and can score in a variety. It's a team effort, though, and we'll help Norto out and hopefully limit the influence of Harvey."

First-year Wildcat Kevin White and former Hawks captain who was there for the 2017 Grand Final against Perth is now looking forward to his first finals appearance with the 'Cats.

"We didn’t play all year to bow down in the semi-final or give this opportunity away. We are working really hard in the gym, we are getting after it every day and this isn’t something where we are going to show up on Thursday and roll over I can tell you that much," White said.

"We are here to hold up the championship at the end but first, we have to take care of business on Thursday and this semi-final match up is our first job. As long as we take care of our own business I think at the end we'll be in a position where we can have a crack at the championship. Everyone knows anything can happen in finals so we just have to do a great job of getting ourselves there."

Having had tough battles with Perth over his career at Sydney, Illawarra and Adelaide, White couldn’t be more impressed with everything about the Wildcats from the inside.

"When you sign at Perth you kind of get the question of how would it be not being in that first team that doesn’t make playoffs, but when you come in, you are welcomed into the club and an organisation that takes care of you and wants you to do well as an individual," White said.

"When you get into that environment you can understand why they are how they are, and why this organisation is where it is because they make you feel so welcome and do such a great job of making the pieces fit. Then piece by piece, Trev does an unbelievable job of letting guys know their role, guys coming in to do play their role and do their job, and from the front office to the back office everyone holds each other accountable. We punch above our weight I think."

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian has been happy with the momentum his team built leading into the finals both in terms of what they produced on the court and the support they received from the Wollongong community.

"I do think that this team is starting to get some energy behind it in the way we play and the community is starting to embrace them. We feel that and I think those games that we've won and even this last game, we wouldn’t have had a chance," Goorjian said.

"But we now we come into the finals and we've got a little momentum in here and I don’t think this last game hurt us. They can see the young kids are getting better, and are really working and no matter who we put on the floor they are going to give them everything they've got. We are in a really exciting period of time for this organisation and for this team to get a big playoff run going hopefully in front of a sold out crowd. It's really exciting."

Having now had a week since their last game of the regular season, Goorjian couldn't fault the preparation they've been given for this crack at Perth.

"I think there's a lot what we can do to improve. We haven’t had a block of time like this to make some adjustments with Tim into the group and there are some different pieces, and different line-ups out there," Goorjian said.

"Maybe we can get a little more structure in there offensively and then on the other side of it, which we haven’t been able to do lately, is actually prepare for our opposition. That's such an advantage with four or five days to go through film, walk through what they do and then defend it over a period of time. This is going to be a different challenge and I'm excited to have this time to do those things and prepare for the playoffs."

Isaac White as a rookie finished the regular season in hot form and he is now looking forward to this finals run with the Hawks.

"I'm super excited. It's obviously what we've been working for over such a long time. We talk about it a lot and we started in Albury-Wodonga, we went up to Cairns and we've gone all round the shop," White said.

"To get the results and the reward for that is awesome and now we are super confident. We think we can be really dangerous in the playoffs and we are going to rest up, and crack into it this week now once the playoffs start."

There were times throughout the season when White didn’t always get a lot of playing, but his role has increased in recent weeks and he's delivered some standout performances to be feeling good entering the finals.

"It's nice to put it all on the floor in a real game like I've been able to do lately. Obviously I've been preparing for a pretty long time and it was a long pre-season, and has been a long season so I've been getting a lot of reps at practices," White said.

"It was tough, but I tried to put all my energy towards being ready for when my name was called and then it's been nice to actually see the results on the floor and seeing the plus-minus of how I can actually help the team. A lot of that came from picking up the ball in the full court so my role has been kind of clear cut the last couple of weeks and that makes my job easy. I really appreciate the opportunity and I love being out there for the team."