It's a hard choice for Sixers fan which team to barrack for. Now I know how the CIA feel - "which bad guy do I support?"

Perth look to have lost a bit of their mojo and will need to bag this one to give them some confidence on the road. Bench depth is a concern, but let's not forget U'U scored 22 this season so it's times like these when the bench needs to lift.

Melbourne are the Steven Bradbury of the NBL. Just when you think they are done, someone falls over and they get the win. The two recent games against Sydney could have easily been losses. If they get to finals, for them to make any impact, it needs to be from their own hand. Talent wise, you could argue they are more talented than Perth.

Games like this get down to winning positions and winning each possession. Things are going well for Adelaide at the moment and that is why pessimists are tipping a Melbourne win.

However, confidence is something the Wildcats have plenty of and if you want to, they sell it in the online shop by the bottle, alongside the player's grandmothers. You can also get the GM to sign the bottle for an extra few bucks.

Wash my mouth out, Perth to limp over the line.

Seriously I hate perth like everyone who don't support perth. Everyone has great joy seeing them lose particularly at home in front of those spoilt brat fans. Melbourne too win then after tonight hope they lose games so we can overtake them in the top 4

At least if we lose I know our sacrifice will help end the finals charge for people like the posters above :)

Wow sixers147, you have one great win and it's gone too your head. I'll take great pleasure now seeing sydney and woolongong beat you this weekend.

Every fan base has feral supporters with little or no idea, it's just that the Wildcats haven't had to many bad seasons for the rest of us to feel better about.

The best team will win the title and if it's the 3rd or 4th seeds then so be it.

If the Breakers can't win the title this season my preference is for the Taipans to win their first title as I think Fearne has put together a highly competitive team at both ends of the floor.

From there as Perth, Adelaide & Melbourne have all won numerous titles (United haven't as United yet but that franchise has won titles), I wouldn't have a preference if the GF played out between those 3 teams.

I'm hoping for a Breakers VS Taipans GF because they are the 2x best teams and I think it will be a super competitive final with at least one OT game.

As an Adelaide Fan i too would like to see Cairns win a title... said it after they beat us first game this season and then to go on a 6-0 run they certainly deserve the accolades...

Either way i think it is an exciting time for the NBL... 1/4 of the season left and only really wollongong and Townsville not able to make the top 4... Sydney have A LOT of work to do... but are still mathematically a possibility...

I expect Perth will win tonight. They wont like having lost a close one to the sixers and they are going to be coming for it

I hope tonight's game is as cracking as the game vs Adelaide. Well, maybe with the Cats winning the close one this time :) Was one of the best games I've seen in a long time and games are usually blown out at the Arena.

@Sixers147 Unfortunately its the few fans like yourself that give any clubs fan-base a bad reputation.

so united if they lose tonight will be blaming they had to fly economy?

I think everyone outside of Townsville would like to see the Taipans win a title.

Easy, we need Perth to win to have any chance at all at finishing 4th.

Exactly where in Europe are you going to find a similar distance to a NZ->Perth trip? The only comparable trip distance is teams on the western edge of Russia travelling to Vladivostok on the eastern coast. And I reckon they don't bus that.

Perth Wildcats Twitter : " Heading towards another crowd of 13,000 plus for tonight's game! "

13K for a Wednesday night, just days after pulling a crowd of 13,500.......just awesome.

If we do hit 13k+ on a mid-week game, you'd think that if Marvin was behind the resistance to mid-week games, as Boti et al, suggested, that he'd be feeling pretty embarrassed about the success right now.

Nathan, they may fill up as everyone is worried. Ordinarily if top of the ladder may not fill up.

It's also one game, during school holidays, with no TV.

Try it every week, during school, competing with TV, and it might not be the same story.

2 games actually...in a week, with one of the games telecast on TV :P Most games have been 12K or above also

Perth filling up midweek and every other NBL team filling up midweek are two very different things.

Come on you floppy cats! 34:41 at half time

Cats running with a 6 1/2 man rotation, Melb giving all 9 a reasonable run. Legs might be a problem at the end?

take 2 or 3 players out n they are as hard to beat as hawks are. haha. no sympathy whatsoever

don't worry bout glory this year cats

Still a game behind Melbourne :-(

If I were Perth, I would want to win one on the Sunshine Swing this weekend - otherwise there could be trouble.

:-/ Well at least I got a piece of that $3.00 action.

Cats are serving up some real rubbish right now. The offence is as bad as ever, but now the D has got all kinds of holes in it as well, even basics like getting back in transition.
I didn't think Melbourne were that great, but they were more than good enough. eg. they didn't cough it up 19 frikkin times.

Why Gleeson.. Didn't look like they had any tricks up their sleeves.

Defence terrible and why was Jervis not used more or plays run for him.

What about trying 2 guards Uu and Martin together with some hustle to pressure the ball.

Beal over dribbling tonight and the passes, poor receiving seriously demeaning for those players.

I put it all on the coaches head ... players had issues but they did not look like they knew what was going on and had no solid plans.. Rotations we ???

This team dosent have a Ennis to bail them out anymore. They look done. It is between NZ,United, Cairns and the 6ers with DJ.Perth are going to be making up the numbers in the playoffs if they make it.

Terrible coaching is being exposed.His flex offense is not very effective anymore.Beal has gone off the boil and they get no offense from Damo.

Yeah, there's very little purpose in our offence. Every possession seems like we're working things out completely from scratch.
Doesn't help that Damo is now passing up layups. Just a sign of where our aggression to score is at.

On the plus side, our hip-and-shoulder technique is textbook

Last seasons offense looked better because Ennis could erupt for 30 plus at any given minutes and blow a game wide open. This eeason there are no more match winners out there. Beal was balling and the Cats were wining, once teams adjusted on Beal in the last few weeks the Cats offense has dried up.Redhage is not the a match winner like he was 4 or 5 years ago either.

It dosent help Knight the Cats best player thus far is gout for the foreseeable future either.

Dammit Perth.

Cats offence is just plain ugly. Really missing Knight who was a big focul point on their game plan. I like how Daniels is coming along but Beal is really struggling. Gleesons rotations seem to be a lil bizarre at the moment also.

To the last anon, still very much on for spots 3 and 4. Makes it tough, no doubt but Perth are more vulnerable than there ladder position suggestions and who knows with Melbourne. Certainly still a chance.

I have especially enjoyed the signing of Luke Martin.

Before we signed him I had my doubts about our championship credentials but now that we have another ball handler who can't get the ball out of the backcourt without turning it over i think we'll be fine.

In all seriousness Wildcats fans cannot complain, we get to watch our team in a great arena and we have been fortunate enough to have a lot of success.

Great win by United, another loss for the spoilt fans of Perth. 12-8 with their loaded squad shows another failure with the exception of last year. Clearly a better team than Melbourne, and they are almost on par. Rob Beveridge era only 1 championship when they were clearly the most loaded team in the comp. Hoping for the sake of the finals, Perth drop out and Adelaide get in.

Great Game. Personally I like to see teams playing solid defence.
Credit to Melbourne, they were simply more consistent. If anything they did a better job on defence and forced the turnovers, whilst they just kept coming on offence. When Perth left a hole they went through it.

Great to see Damo finally nail those 3's when he was basically forced to take the shots, pity he had been avoiding taking shots all night.

Beal had an off night, but then he was getting doubled-teamed a lot. That's the problem when its too easy to sag off other players.

If the make the four and Knight is back, I wouldn't want to play them, that's probably one of the worst performance I have seen in a while, if Perth click at the right time and if they do it will be interesting.

I would rather watch nz win than watching Adelaide on the finals. No one likes the home cooking any more. Got to change the menu.

It is getting a bit sad. The bench are getting frustrated. The first 5 are knackered. Damo played 36 mins. They could have used the likes of U'u a bit more

Boy, they are sure missing Matty, were so small with a gaping hole in the middle. Hope they can hang on to a finals spot until he's back.

2 games actually...in a week, with one of the games telecast on TV :P Most games have been 12K or above also

Losing 7 games in a row is gonna hurt Adelaide so much, the fact Wildcats lost ain't gonna help them whatsoever... And just when they seem to be getting a run together and starting to gel... Haha, be so funny if having DJ back they start playing shit again. They would be better of without DJ at this point but should be a good laugh if it turns to shit like what happend when they got Motum in.

I don't see the Cats as the same team as last season when they had a aura about them. This season they look like a team with downgraded defences and their offence looks clueless.

I think last seasons Cats would still be the team to beat this season, but this years version looks really, really bad compared to last season.Talent wise I don't think the Ennis to Daniels conversion is that much of a downgrade to warrant such a spiral in performace.Injuries to Hire and Knight haven't helped, but it looks something is not right.

If Adelaide start losing games again, no need to blame Wilson. Bringing DJ in when the team is doing so well could backfire bigtime

Perth. By a lot.

Why did Hire start and not Daniels? Have they forgotten that he's just a solid role player and not a starter in this league? Why risk upsetting the main man?

Wow - what a massive win for Melbourne!

Top 4 in danger for Perth after second straight loss

Although they own a two win advantage over fifth placed Adelaide, four of Perth's final eight games come against Cairns and New Zealand while a Round 20 match-up with the 36ers looms as a potential elimination final.

Starting to look like a three-way battle between Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide now for the final 2 spots in the top 4.

A coach under fire and feeling the pressure...

Gleeson being exposed as a coach.

Anon...Sixer fans had already given up on the season. Sure our recent run of form has us a little excited about the possibility of still making finals but we also know it is a very long shot.
DJ returning could upset the chemistry, it could also bolster the chemistry - who knows? We're just excited to have him back in Blue and seeing how he performs with the rest of the team.

"Why did Hire start and not Daniels?"
I assumed it was just to give Daniels a bit of a shake-up. If so, it definitely seemed to work.
It's about the only thing that did though.

Okay, well, now it's a problem.

Melbourne's win over Perth gives them the season series and United also already have Adelaide covered there too. Melbourne still need to win games, but they are now in a pretty good position with the other two final 4 contenders.

From memory Adelaide are down about 25 pts

and 1 win...

Adelaide still have a game to go against Perth... I think its 2-1 but point differential looks right.

If the Wildcats dont have 5 American born players they going to find it hard to win against the top teams.
Im sure they can find another "American Aussie" to fill Earnest Ross's spot, then they will be back t full strength and dominating again!

Martin's offensive sludge this year is a pretty serious concern.

I mean, last year Martin was racking up some phenomenal stats that made him a threat at both ends of the court. Unfortunately, this year he's basically opening up the double team on Beal because he won't take open shots, and when he does take them, he's missing them.

peeps can't have a go at gleeson whinging, other coaches where the same last year with Ennis getting all the calls.

Gleeson is obviously trying to deflect pressure away from himself by making these comments

When you see a number of talented individuals underperfoming it usually means the team systems aren't functioning.

Same happened to Ennis, they never get the call. Chilldress or Jackson get a touch, it is a different story. Not making excuses, it would be good to get a few. His been good, just no one else is giving him any help and when he turns the ball over or misses the shot tho focus is on him.

As good as martin is good, u need to put points up, his the pg. So basicly u have four on five in regards as scores, don't no any team that there pg scored 2 points a game, this yr has been his worst and it is telling on the team.

Paul is on the money! Hence the coach is under pressure...

Been leaning towards feeling that Gleeson needs the sack for a while now, the thought gains a lot of momentum every time I see us coming out of a timeout and producing a lot of spuddery.

Did you guys listen to him in the half time footage on Friday's game?

"yeah, uh, we're gonna run, uhhhhh, that thing...."

Actual quote

Ahaha, I wish x.x

Bloody Melbourne.

Don't know who's talking about cutting players, but the rumbles about Gleeson started last year and have been picking up a bandwagon from early on this year.

The saving grace for both Perth and Melbourne could be the 36ers indifferent start to the year and then that 7 game losing streak. If we had won even just 2 of those 7 games then it would be a LOT closer right now.

That might be the difference.

Clearly the Wildcats are tanking to avoid facing the 36ers in the finals ;)

To the anon who thinks Perth are the same as last season. You are delusional. They are nowhere the offensive or defensive team they were last season. Not even CLOSE!

yeah you cant drop 7 in a row and expect to be alive come the end of the year. I hope we can pull it off somehow but i'm assuming i'm like most and just enjoying this push for what it is.

A big concern for Perth is why they haven't got an injury replacement for Knight. They obviously need some help there and I wouldn't trust Knight to be back in time for the finals.

The reality is that at full strength, the Cats have 8 very good players. When you look at most clubs, you see a similar story of upto 8 players dominating the court time.

Redhage is nolonger the player he once was. No problem with that, except that if you're looking for 3~4 players to carry the offence, he's not the massive scoring accumulator he once was.

Hire suffered what transpired to be a devastating injury, missed most of the season, and has not fully recovered. He can run fine, but can barely jump at all, which is not what you want to see in a basketballer.

Jervis (who had an off game last night) is an 80~90% replacement for Knight in the starting 5. Problem is that he doesn't do everything Knight does, and NOBODY is replacing him off the bench.

Damo is still doing what he does best, but yes, in the seasons that the Cats dominate he is offensively dangerous (which he MOSTLY isn't now.)

Early in the season, U'U and Ross were providing offensive support off the bench. Now they're not.
Maybe U'U is just symptomatic of the tougher time that the Cats are having.

I know people like to remark on the "loop-holes" that allowed Ross and U'U to play as "locals," but the fact is that even before Ross' injury they were only bit players. Perth's strength was always always in those eight players, and they really only have 6.5 of them now.

Not 100% sure what was behind the move of starting Hire. Without Ross (or even Muo) and with U'U running cold, Perth are a bit top-heavy. (At times last night they played with 4 forwards.) So I can perhaps understand trying to use DD in more of a 2-3 role. But if you wanted to start another forward, Wagstaff would have been better, and I still think that DD could have started.

They have 2 more wins because they haven played NZ or Cairns as many times as 36ers or United