Not a must win game for the Kings, but a crucial game. A win to them gives them a mental boost and would put them in 4th.

The action will certainly be around the screens. The refs must watch the off ball screens.

'Cats have won by about 20 points the two times they have met. That margin might be the same.....

mutiny.

This will be the game the kings break their losing streak against the cats

Will be some angst in the Kings camp over this one. The streak is starting to look a little substantial.

Perry and madgen need to step up if they are going to get the w, think perth barring another drought in a qtr. Kings are due to beat us, don't see it thou, u never know.

Violet Crumbles.. will crumble!

"Not a must win game for the Kings, but a crucial game. A win to them gives them a mental boost and would put them in 4th."

True, but Melbourne play the Hawks tomorrow, and then host Sydney. The results of these three games could see a wedge between 4th & 5th.

As others have said, its hard not to see The Wildcats as favourites, however the sometimes get sloppy on the road. If the team that gave up 102 points to Townsville turns up, then Sydney are in a will chance.

It will be interesting to see if Daniels and Childress go H2H???

Hahahaa, holy crap Gleeson, subbed out the whole starting five in one hit when we fail to score, and then the bench team evens it up. Alrighty then.

Bet365, pay $20 into your new account and the world is live including NBL.TV's great coverage.
I find it strange that those with direct nbl.tv coverage say it's crap. This isn't a plug for bet365, but their streaming is extremely good. A few hiccups as you would expect but great.

I don't get the Wildcats this year. Our starting five is having to be carried by the bloody bench half the time.

The annoying thing is that we CAN score in bulk. Some of the runs we get on can absolutely blitz teams, and we've put a few 30+ quarters up, and some 90+ scores. But our offense is just mindblowingly inconsistent.

im surprised the cats are 15 down at the half. would have thought it was closer. 28 in a half?

Early days yes but lets hope a 15 point lead is enough get a home W and break that streak.

15-pt deficit to overcome away from home in a half. Ugly task we've set for ourselves.

Ignorant little anons everywhere.

VERY VERY un-wildcat like. **shakes head**

3/4 q time and Perth trail 65/ 51.

We all know Cats have been poor on the road this year.
It has NOTHING to do with the Reffing.

Perth on a roll Kings scoreless and its now 65 / 57 1:12 gone in the last.

Cats CAN win from here, they have the legs,
but that means playing all the guys on 3 PFs and hoping they don't foul out.

Plausible but unlikely

Kings still in front and have finally scored 2. 68/62.

NBL TV has seriously bias commentary. love the kings everytime

Really starting to like this Kings team... Soon good seeing the Cats lose, always a great pleasure.

I think that last season Ennis (and Beal) obscured some emerging problems.

Martin is becoming a running joke. DPOY be dammed, he's a starting PG who can't score. LOve the guy to bits, but without Ennis, and with Redhage really down on points, there's just not enough firepower out there in that starting 5.

Redhage is one of my alltime favourite Cats, certainly THE favourite of the last decade. But he seems to be past it. Needs to be moved to the bench and replaced with a younger PF. Probably a Marquee player.

And dare I say it, once again DD has struggled against tough opposition. Falls back to trying to play outside and just can't nail enough shots.

Well the team that was least worse for the least time got the points but what an ugly game.

Suck it up perth fans, another loss that's five this season. Missing ennis and without him, there would have been no championship last season. It looks like being a cairns NZ grand final.

Id really like to see Childress on the big stage... they way they are playing, if Cadee can keep giving them fire power off the bench who knows. By the way great call but the 6ers not wanting to resign Cadee, no really good stuff.

"Suck it up perth fans, another loss that's five this season. Missing ennis and without him, there would have been no championship last season."

Really? You think not having the best player in the league would have hurt their chances?
Better strip them of that title then, obviously they are the only team to ever have an Import.

"It looks like being a cairns NZ grand final."

Dream on. Cats still one of the best teams in the league, they'll be in the final, but chances of beating The Breakers in NZ are slim.

Great to see the Kings beat the streak. Away Finals may be a problem it seems ;)

Cairns NZ GF isn't that far fetched. No need to get defensive, Perth were not up to it tonight, and it'll be tight from here on in with the top teams. 6ers need not read this, as I refer to the top teams.

Sydney deserve credit for that win. Perth almost got over but left the run too late, I just don't rate our offense this year at all.

Win or lose this game hasn't changed my mind about NZL being the team to beat.

Daniels isn't exactly NBA material, win some lose some with the recruiting, overall good risk from a league point of view. But this guy isn't up to it, all potential with his body type.

Kings fans should be thanking the 36ers for softening up the Wildcats with that gruelling encounter on Sunday!

Perth without Ennis is like NZ without Jackson.

@Kobe24 "By the way great call but the 6ers not wanting to resign Cadee, no really good stuff."

Are you being sarcastic? This season he is 6ppg at 34% and has more turnovers than assist.

The wildcats are getting stuck into that christmas pudding early this year

"Perth without Ennis is like NZ without Jackson."

Perth without Ennis is like a summer holiday without the sun

"Daniels is the wrong fit for the Wildcats they needed a 3 who could create his shot. Daniels is more of a role player."
"Really hard for Perth to have a functional offense with Damo and Daniels on the floor at the moment.

They both can't shoot. "
What Perth really needed was another PF.
Instead they got a skinny swingman who when faced with bigger forwards reverts to trying to play outside.

Their outside offence basically rests on Beal.

I'd like to see Martin with less minutes, BEAL take point in his absence with U'U in the 2 spot.
I'd also like to see them try Wagstaff in the SF role against SOME opponents.

"Cairns NZ GF isn't that far fetched. No need to get defensive, Perth were not up to it tonight, and it'll be tight from here on in with the top teams."

Ok, fair enough. I still see the Cats as being good enough to make the final.
Still hard to look past The Breakers at home.

"Hire is more of a loss than anyone realises, especially in the away games."

Quite possibly, he was a big improver towards the end of last season. At least he gives them another option off the bench. Wagstaff is their only forward on the bench, and with Redhage seeing less court time it doesn't give them many options.

Raises a couple of questions.
What is happening with his injury? It was supposed to be 6 weeks, it's been like 10, and last I heard he was at least 3 weeks away.
Given that, was Muo really their best option as an injury replacement? Not sure who might have been floating around, but in any event they didn't look very far.

Anon 507137 - I hope you don't play the pokies with regression to the mean as your strategy!

All of the problems and they are 1 game of top spot? What happens when they click? If?

Kings looking good!

Kings hold on against 'Cats to move into top four

Did some quick sums.

Damien Martin shooting over the last four games is cumulatively:
2/21 FG, 0/8 3pt

Yep, it has been five games since Damo hit a triple.

Here is our problem, as good as Damo is defensively, if he doesn't produce an at least nominal offensive output, he becomes a net negative for the team, because it puts exaggerated pressure on the rest of the team. He *has* to get his scoring right.

It's actually already too late though, these last two rounds have turned this comp from a three-horse title race to now being entirely dependent on Cedric Jackson's health.

Now people can understand why Martin was not picked for the Boomers, i love how he plays D and works his backside off, but we are basically playing 4 on 5 when he is on the court at the moment.

It is the Wildcats from the Beveridge years, relying on one player to do the scoring, instead of Lisch it's Beal.

No way we can get past NZ playing so poorly on offense.

I think people are overstating the impact of Martin's lack of interest in the offensive end. Perth have countless options to finish for him. They lost narrowly on the road to a mid-range team.

They've been very successful with him before, as NZ were with Boucher (who didn't even attempt threes!).

Not being sarcastic, could've moved Cadee to the point, and used Wilsons import spot for some decent. Cade was very well liked amongst the guys and played very well when Gibbo was out last season. His stats don't tell the full story for what he does in Syd, made some key 3s last night.

Don't think we are overstating it. When Damo shoots well, we win titles. When he doesn't we don't.

At the moment, he's on an arctic cold streak and unless he does a total 180, we are a frankly disturbing chance of being bumped from finals by NZ again :P

It's good to see Cadee doing well

What has happened to Kevin White?
Any chance he s carrying some sort of injury?

"His stats don't tell the full story for what he does in Syd, made some key 3s last night."

Yes last night, the rest of the season he has been poor, probably due to lack of opportunity. His salary wouldn't have been worth the Sixers getting him

The problem is not that Martin isn't a big scorer,
its that at the moment he's struggling to score at all. He generally averages around 7~8 points, but this season that has fallen to around 4.

Opposition teams are now getting cocky and really sagging off him. He gets left wide open, almost obligated to take the shot, and still can't make it. U'U has shown what happen to most players when the opposition doesn't treat you with respect, he gets left open and he drains it. For whatever reason it's just not happening for Martin.

Cats are probably still the best defensive team in the league, but they find it much harder on the road.

Gos is that Hire should be back for their next game. Could be interesting. It's really gotta be a must win for the Cats if they want to stay in touch with Cairns and The Breakers.