SF Game 3 Preview: Perth Wildcats v Illawarra Hawks

When: 9.30pm (AEST), Monday 14 June 

Where: RAC Arena, Perth

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

The last time
Perth 79 (Mooney 18, Travers 13, Steindl 12) d Illawarra 71 (Harvey 24, Jessup 11, Deng 9) – Semi-Final Game 2, WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong 

The first two games of this semi-final series have been quite the physical, dour and intense battles with the road teams getting the victories on the back of dominating the offensive glass to force Game 3.

Illawarra pulled off the shock result in Game 1 at RAC Arena making it their second ever win in the building, and second in their last 36 attempts out west. Pulling in 14 offensive boards to six proved crucial for the Hawks as did forcing Perth into 12 turnovers and with Justinian Jessup putting up 17 points and Justin Simon producing a brilliant all-round performance including 16 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Then in Game 2 in front of 5217 in Wollongong, the Wildcats up 32 points in the third quarter after scoring just 28 in the entire first half to set up the eventual 79-71 win. This time, The Wildcats outrebounded the Hawks 49 to 34 with 18 offensive boards to 11 even with Mitch Norton joining Bryce Cotton on the sidelines. 

John Mooney had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Clint Steindl 12 points in the third quarter and the breakout star was development player Luke Travers with 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists while also playing some strong defence on Tyler Harvey in the second half.

Beyond that, this is the sixth playoff series these two teams have played between one another over the past 11 years and Monday night is going to be the third time it's gone to a deciding third game.

The first time was the Grand Final back in 2010. Wildcats captain Jesse Wagstaff and out of retirement Hawks star Tim Coenraad were rookies back then, and the opening two games were won by the home teams. But in Game 3 at the old Challenge Stadium, future two-time NBL MVP Kevin Lisch took over and eventually the Wildcats broke away to win and claim their first championship in a decade.

Then in 2013, they met in the semi finals and Perth won in two games by a combined 32 points and they met again in the semi finals of 2014. Again the 'Cats won in two games by a combined 31 points.

Then again in 2016 it was another semi-final contest and it once more went the way of the team with the home court advantage. The home teams won the opening matches, but back inside RAC Arena, Perth proved too strong winning Game 3 in front of the home fans 89-74 on the way to beating New Zealand for the championship. Jermaine Beal and Wagstaff had 17 points each for Perth, and Nate Jawai 15 and Matty Knight 14 while Kirk Penney put up 18 for the Hawks while Kevin Lisch fought valiantly through an ankle injury.

The Grand Final meeting between the Wildcats and Hawks in 2017 also went to three games, but that was a best-of-five series with Perth claiming another championship.

 

The now

The stage is now set for Game 3 at a packed RAC Arena on Monday with the Wildcats looking to keep their three-peat hopes alive or for the Hawks to finally put this Perth hoodoo to rest.

Not only have the Hawks won only twice in 24 attempts at RAC Arena and twice in their last 36 games overall out west, but they've also had their seasons ended either in Grand Finals or semi finals in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Monday night presents the chance for Illawarra to put all that history behind them and to finally beat Perth in a finals series and advance to a Grand Final for the first time since 2017, but more importantly their first one since 2005 that won't be against those pesky Wildcats.

However, the fact that Illawarra is now attempting to win a second game in Perth inside five days when they have only managed to win twice in almost 20 years across Nullarbor tells you everything about the task that lies ahead for Brian Goorjian's men.

Working in the favour of the Hawks is that they appear healthy, at least in comparison to the 'Cats who are already without their two-time MVP and three-time champion Bryce Cotton with Mitch Norton under a cloud to hit the court too after reinjuring his hip during Saturday's win for Perth in Wollongong.

Offensive rebounding has played a significant part in who has won the first two games so that's going to play its part again on Monday night, but it's going to take players stepping up to make heroes of themselves as is usually the case in a deciding Game 3.

Can Tyler Harvey breakthrough and shoot the Hawks to victory especially if Mitch Norton isn’t out there to hound him, or can Kevin White and Luke Travers do a good job to limit his influence. Can the Hawks bigs led by AJ Ogilvy and Sam Froling stand tall again opposed to John Mooney and Will Magnay. 

Would it be a former Hawk Todd Blanchfield or the out of retirement Tim Coenraad who catches fire shooting. Could someone like Deng Deng or Clint Steindl provide that winning spark. All these questions and more will be answered on Monday night as we find out the first team to advance to the Grand Final for 2021.

 

The stats

- So much of history is against the Hawks heading into Game 3 but in their favour is the fact that 24 of the last 25 playoff series have been won by the team that prevailed in Game 1.

- The last five games that the Wildcats have taken part in have been won by the road team. However, the 'Cats haven’t lost a deciding finals game at home since falling to the Hawks in 2001 although they did lose one-off playoff games to Cairns and Townsville.

- Illawarra has only won three Game 3 deciders on the road in the club's history. Two of them occurred on the way to their championship in 2001 and then in Adelaide back in 2017 on the way to the Grand Final.

- Trevor Gleeson has never lost Game 1 and gone on to win a series in his coaching career.

- The last time the Wildcats won a series after losing Game 1 was the 2000 quarter finals against the West Sydney Razorbacks. The last time they lost a Game 1 at home and won the series was the Grand Final of 1995 against the North Melbourne Giants.

The key men

Luke Travers/Clint Steindl – With Mitch Norton under a cloud, Bryce Cotton ruled out and the Wildcats pretty much being able to bank on what they'll get from John Mooney and Todd Blanchfield, they need X-factors. Travers and Steindl provided exactly that in Game 2 and need to back it up on Monday. If Steindl is knocking down his shots, the 'Cats look such a more dangerous team. Then with Travers, if he can bring that same energy on the glass, help with the ball carrying duties and use his length to good effect defensively, then the Hawks might struggle to limit his influence once more.
 
Tyler Harvey/Justin Simon – There is a Grand Final at stake and this is when you need your imports to deliver and the Hawks are no different in their reliance on Harvey and Simon. Harvey has gone at 17.0 points a game so far this series while hitting 8/23 from deep, but he has not got to the foul line once. That needs to change on Monday. Simon, meanwhile, was the match winner with his defensive intensity and then liveliness on the boards and offensively in Game 1. He played every second of the fourth quarter but didn’t get on at all in the final term on Saturday. The Hawks can't win unless he has a significant impact.

 

The quotes

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson knows that nothing but the best from his team will see them win and advance now on Monday night.

"We just have to evaluate where we're all at and it's great to get back home for Monday night, but we know if we take any shortcuts we are going to get beaten. Hopefully the Red Army can give us that extra energy that we're going to need," Gleeson said.

"It will be a battle just like the first two games have been there's no doubt. As for Norto, he reinjured his hip so obviously he has to get treatment on that leading into Game 3 and we'll try to get him up for Monday but he will have to go through that process first."

Looking back on Saturday's Game 2 win on the road, Gleeson never doubted his team could do it even without Bryce Cotton and Norton.

"The belief has always been there, it's not something that you have to invent in a two-minute speech, the resilience is there. I thought our discipline to stay over the game plan was better than in Game 1 and it was our passion to crash the glass that was empty in that first game," Gleeson said. 

"Then when Mitch goes down, it's a bit like that's the way it is and we have to find a way through it. Luke stepped up, Whitey stepped up, our team was getting Clint some great looks out there and he was knocking them down, and that boosted our energy. Our defence was creating points for us and it wasn’t a major thing that we thought about at half-time except just get on with the job."

Development player Luke Travers has already turned himself into a key cog for the Wildcats even before starting his first professional basketball contract. Not only is he important on the offensive end, but defensively if Norton is unavailable he'll need to spend time on Tyler Harvey again too.

"It's just about Luke's growth from the start of the year. He is obviously still finding himself as a professional athlete playing against men, but if he can handle the ball and be 6'9 and get to the rack, and keep developing his shot which he's working on every day, it's a progression from all the work he's been doing over the last two years," Gleeson added.

"Now he's getting the opportunity and is grabbing that. He was brilliant out there in that game. He is getting better with his defence too. It's something that he has worked on consistently and he is tracking where we thought he'd track, but in fact he's probably in front. As soon as he gets that wingspan out, he's got the athleticism to worry shooters on the defensive end. That's a weapon for him to have, it's a great weapon."

Gleeson was disappointed to see his team outrebounded on the offensive end so significantly in Game 1, but was happy with the turnaround in Game 2 and needs to see that continue.

"That's something that we pride ourselves on not just for this one game but over the whole season," Gleeson added.

"To get outworked like that in Game 1 was really disappointing on our home court so that was a focus of making sure that we have multiple guys crashing the glass because we have athleticism. It's hard to block us all out if we are all crashing the glass, but it's pretty easy if only one guy goes in there."

Perth sharpshooter Clint Steindl delivered 12 points alone in the third quarter during Saturday's Game 2 win and he's going to keep shooting when the chance arises.

"I got a couple of good looks during that third quarter, and one of them was just off a broken play and I was able to knock that down," Steindl said. 

"I think after that I came off a pick and was able to knock another one down so I was able to find a little bit of rhythm and from there I just tried stay aggressive. They probably didn’t fall in the fourth but they were predictable shots and we got offensive rebounds out of them. If they are there, I'm going to shoot them."

Illawarra coach Brian Goorjian knows that a couple of things need to turnaround from Saturday's Game 2 loss if the Hawks are to win Game 3 – namely hitting the offensive glass and getting easier baskets whether it's in transition, at the foul line or being more aggressive attacking the basket.

"There's a lot of pressure on us in the halfcourt when we're not able to get any easy baskets. We just need to find some transition baskets, some offensive rebounding baskets and some free-throws. I'm sure that would loosen it up and our defence for most of the game wasn’t too bad, it was just the rebounding where they really hurt us on the offensive glass," Goorjian said.

"We did a good job on that in Perth and then it's that foul line where it's huge, and it has been all season about who can get to the foul line more. I think in that first game we did that, but the discrepancy here was significant and I just have to look at the film. 

"Obviously we're shooting too many threes or aren’t getting our shoulders down to get on the rim, but I've never played in a game like that where you look at the scoresheet and we haven’t got to the foul line. That's something we have to focus on at the offensive end, we have to maybe get some deep catches and stuff in the block, and get our shoulders down and get on the rim a little more."

Hawks veteran sharpshooter Tim Coenraad knows his team just has to shake off the disappointment of losing at home in Game 2 now and put all their focus into a second win over in Perth inside five days.

"You've got to look forward to Monday night now. This is it. It's the deciding game of a semi-final series and if you can't get up for this one then you don't have a heart in your chest. Obviously the biggest thing we need to address is our rebounding and taking care of those swoopers, and keeping guys like Magnay, Mooney and particularly Travers off the glass," Coenraad said.

"When we rebound we're at our best and we run, and they can't set their defence. We still took more shots than them, so if you look at it that way, if we had taken care of the boards we probably win the game. That's a team that knows how to win too, they've been in this a while and I don’t know if we have quite grasped the magnitude of the situation we're in. 

"Game 2 was now a moment in time we didn’t take advantage of as a group and now we have to get back up for another one. We'll feel sorry for ourselves later on, we have to prepare and get ourselves mentally ready for this battle. It's going to be a war in Perth and we didn’t want to go back there, but now we have to and it's up to us to put our foot down."

If anyone knows about Illawarra's record in Perth, it would be Coenraad. He has been there for all five playoff losses over the last 11 years that the Wildcats have inflicted on the Hawks, and he's only won twice out west his whole career. But for Monday night, he wants to embrace the occasion and hopes his teammates feel the same.

"The record speaks for itself and this is just our season on the line. We just have to find the energy and the communication is a big one, and we need to lock in on that. You live for this kind of stuff, though, as hard as it is when you lose a game at home in front of 5200 people, you live for these make or break situations," Coenraad added. 

"We have to move on straight away and go over to Perth and be in a situation people would die to be in. We are going into a Game 3 in the biggest stadium basketball-wise in Australia and that place is going to be rocking. 

"The atmosphere is going to be great and as a basketball player, and human being, you live for this kind of thing. It's going to be exciting and I'm looking forward to a real battle. No matter what happens, as long as we can look at ourselves in the mirror at the end of the game knowing we left it all on the floor, then we'd be a good chance of winning."

The pain that the Wildcats have inflicted on the Hawks during Coenraad's 320-game NBL career almost defies belief. Coenraad was part of the Grand Final losses of 2010 and 2017, and the semi-final defeats of 2013, 2014 and 2016. 

Some of the losses he's been part of in Perth have been horrific too, but there'd be nothing sweeter than for him to come out of retirement and be part of a semi-final win now against the Wildcats.

"It would mean the world to me, there wouldn’t be anything sweeter to win a Game 3 against those guys. But it's not going to come easy, that's just a team that knows how to win and you don't make however many straight finals they have without a culture of winning," Coenraad said.

"If we can get this game then I can't even express how much it would mean to me, but we are going to have to fight and scrap, and communicate and rebound and do everything right because their fans are going to the rocking. They're going to be rocking and you wouldn’t be human or a basketball player if you can't find the energy for this one."