Forgot to mention.... Sportsbet odds:
Wildcats $1.66
Taipans $2.25
Line: -2.5 points

Im all over Cairns tonight, very odd those odds.... excuse the pun!

Heart says Perth but head says Cairns I yhink they will win by 5.

I certainly couldn't resist a healthy bet on the Taipans. If I lose that money I'll be a very happy and somewhat surprised Cats fan tonight.

I think Perth might run out of steam in this one. Especially with Redhage out and Hire doubtful. Everybody needs to step up in this game, not just Beal and Daniels.

TC to have a big one :)

Drake to decide that it's comeback season, say "thank me later" to his teammates in the pre-game meeting, and take care of Wilbekin when he checks in late in the first quarter.

As much as I'd love to see Perth win and take it to 3, I can't see it. Will be embarrassing if Cairns don't win when they're fully fit and Perth has no Redhage, Hire or Ross. If Cairns lose this one, NZ will roll them.

Yes, if Cairns can't win this game then Corey Webster will personally roll them and then smoke them in the GF

I want to edit that previous post to add that he will also light them up

Give the man a ball!

I feel a little too much is being made of the Cats being "run into the ground" in Game 1. Yes, Beal and Martin played 40 and 39 minutes respectively, but their back court opponents Wilbekin and Gliddon played 39 and 37 themselves.

The Cats will probably feel the pinch at some point from their shortened bench, but I don't think it will be after one tough game. The travel/rest factor for both teams coming back from Cairns is also equal.

I was personally heartened that the Cats were up late in the game after being thoroughly outplayed in the 2nd quarter and think they have enough fighting spirit to force a 3rd game.

Wildcats were awesome on Friday, but fatigue is a concern. At times this season Martin has looked like he has been playing with injury anyway. I'm not writing them off though, can't wait for this game!

Come on, test of every away finals series, have to at least defend your home court game. Let's do this, Wildcats! :D

Staying up late just for this game on a Sunday night! So I hope it's a good one, I'm tipping Cairns taking it out in a close one by 5

OFFS! I was afraid of this ...

"The Perth Wildcats horror run of injuries has continued, with vice-captain Greg Hire ruled out of the semi-finals series against the Cairns Taipans."

Go Taipans!!!

What the ... ?? Sportsbet now have Cairns out to $2.44???

Centrebet have dropped us from $2.45 to $2.40. Go figure. And Wildcats at long odds for the Championship - now out to $8.00, Breakers $1.90, Taipans $2.35. (They swap Breakers and Taipans around every 24 hours or so).

No Redhage + No Hire = No game 3

We have virtually no bench now.
Our best hope is that our home court starting 8 plays to their absolute best ;)

Let's go refs, let's go! *clap clap*

if Perth doesn't run out of steam in this one.....it'll be the next one.

Yeah, it scares me how ugly game 3 could potentially be if we do somehow get up tonight.
Hopefully we get to find out ;)


It's time! Unleash it! (our devastating secret weapon, Luke Martin)

Those odds are ridiculous . Throwing some coin in Cairns to win

Luke Martin to go full beast mode

nbl.tv not working for you guys?

No Hire? Damn, thats rough, hate the cats but no team should get the injury bug this time of year! Loaded up on cairns now, bench too short for Perth... surely.

Wortho as sideline reporter. Wow.

Not working for me either.

Displays an unusual front page with a splash screen to sign up (on PC). Despite being already logged in.

No go on the mobile app either (Android).

I'm in the crowd and it'a a barren wasteland with no atmosphere.

What. The. Hell.

NBL saying the usual crap about 'Technical issues and we're working on it'. ONE supplies the feed etc, hope we get to see it live in an hour or so.

8 vs 5?

no nbl.tv here...

I am almost tempted to register on Sportsbet to watch it live.
http://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/basketball-aus-other/australian-nbl/Perth-Wildcats-v-Cairns-Taipans-1846541.html

But I am no gambler and would hate to farm out my details to a betting site.

At least there is live score

Perth 11
Cairns 14

Try this link for live scores

http://www.sportsbet.com.au/betting/basketball-aus-other/australian-nbl/Perth-Wildcats-v-Cairns-Taipans-1846541.html

Sign up if you are game to watch. :P

Just have a gut feeling refereeing will decide the outcome of this game.

Props to Bruce. I love his defensive effort and he looks so comfortable in the rotation.

?Time out

No change in score P11 C14

1/4 time? Anyone?

Ah. Q2

Perth basket

P13 C14

P13
C19

Timeout ?Perth judging from score

Well that didn't work, P13 C22

So refs call Cairns ball, Gleeson complains and he refs reverse the call.

Must be pretty intense defence ?Damo

P15 C24 with cairns score flashing green ?free throws

Now Perth flashing green P16 C24

Pretty low scoring as expected.

Defence rules

Offence sucks, is also a contributing factor

Now who says that the hardest thing is putting that little white ball into the whole?

Those air filled moltens are not easy too!

Closing in P18 C24

Injuries aside, our offense has been ordinary all year, tonight is no difference.

Spoke too soon. 3 pointer to Cairns ?who
P20 (2 free throws)
C27

P22
C31

More free throws to Perth ..Kaching
P24
C31

More free throws to Perth ..Kaching
P24
C31

Cairns missing their free throws, like in Game 1
P24
C32

Is that half time already?

Those with eyes on moving bodies ... give us some crumbs please ....

Apparently not
P24
C24

Someone oiled the rims

P26
C34

Definitely more slippery rims now

P26
C36

Matt Knight 12p 4/8
Rest of Wildcats 14p 4/23

This is hands down the saddest Wildcats game I've ever been to.

Just found out Fiba live scores working
http://www.fibalivestats.com/u/NBL/91205/pbp.html
Bye guys :D

No one but Knight looking remotely dangerous as a scorer for the cats. One guy ain't gonna be enough. Beal well covered. Playoff performer DeAndre doing SFA.

The flex principles just aren't getting it done with this group, and Gleeson has never really had a great repertoire offensively.

This is the smallest crowd I've ever seen at the Arena .

What may be telling is that Wagstaff, Knight, Daniels and Jervis are all sitting on 2 fouls each. There isn't any depth to the bench for aggressive balling unless the refs help out.

Loughton, Burston, Craig and Tragardh all on 2 (as well as Gliddon) but there is the luxury of having Young and Weigh with no fouls.

The decimation of the troops will be telling in the 2nd half.

Cairns just equalled their 3rd quarter effort of Game 1 :P

Monkey off Cairns back for the 3rd quarter fadeaway.
Triple to Gliddon

Ohh U'u on but not Craig.

Loughton back on with 3 fouls.

And he only makes one of 3 free throws.

And that's his fourth foul. Off to cool his heels till Q4.

Free Throws
P 13-15 87%
C 11-18 61%

Might come back to bite the snakes

Wlbekin 0-5 3 pointers

And finally Craig nails one (3 points)

wagstaff gone, good night cats. cant see it happening

Watching the coverage on one in Adelaide - hilarious - they have forgotten to put on adverts group hour halftime.

They really care so little about the advertising revenue from basketball that they have no adds to run?

wilbekin flops under the ring, no call.
basically no contact and legs go under him.
refs are shit

What happened to Wagstaff?

Now I'm pissed off. One just replayed a three minute half time segment then switched to half way through the third. I am the only one watching this tripe coverage?

What a shame, all level at 61 apiece and another mini run from the Snakes
P61
C67

Cairns 10-0 run to put it beyond doubt, not thats what legit teams do! Gonna be a great GF, best 2 teams made it, sadly lol

Sportsbet just closed the live feed. It was a minute or so ahead of fiba live stats.

Still open for me, thats weird. But not as weird as Wortho being given a mic and asked to say things.... on purpose!

Looks like for all the infighting, both Perth and 36ers knocked out in straight sets.

Not over till the fat lady signs.

1:17 is an eternity.

It is a three ball game still.

@Kobe24

I am a nonpaying browser :D

Maybe it timed out my session.

Well P64 C76

It has to be a miracle to come back from that with 46s left.

Martin and Wagstaff with 1 foul to give.

Beal should do the honours or else once Damo goes, it is goodbye Irene.

I mean Goodnight Irene.

Preservation mode.

Starters benched.

Congrats to the Taipans, best team won. Just wasn't the cats year. And thank you Sportsbet :P

Congrats Snakes.

Congrats Wildcats for sticking out right to the end.
No shame in battling it out with a depleted roster.

Damo is certainly worth his dime.

Train, how the hell were the Taipans so long a odds! I cleaned up too, was on them before I heard about Hire, then again after... crazy!

I doubled my usual bet (took me to a miserable $20 :) ) but also added in $10 for a sweep. I'll be able to buy the whole team a bottle of water each at this rate :)

@Train

I wonder whether they work on the basis that Perth's following is greater and hence more bets on a Wildcats win. If Wildcats won, it would be a huge loss for Sportsbet.
If Taipans won it will be a smaller payout to fewer (including those in the know following the teams form/injuries/etc).
I bet you Sportsbet still made money. :P

Well done to cairns! Will be hoping for them to win the GF but from what ive seen i cant see NZ getting beaten.. Again!!!

Wildcats fitness staff need to look into players training loads for next season.

Surely its not just bad luck that 4 seasons out of the past 5 have been ruined by injuries to key players.

Good to see the umpires trying their best to keep Perth in the game. Some of the most biased decisions going down the stretch grossly favoured Perth. I don't think there has ever been another nbl team that has gotten such a fafavourable run at home. Some of tonight's decisions were embarrassing

@ballwatcher yeah I think that's how it works. Great lil payout mwahaha

Beal isn't garbage, thats a garbage comment. He had no other guy who truly absorbed extra attention on the defensive end, that would allow him open shots all season. He was the perfect compliment to Ennis last season. To say he is garbage just wow!

Damn :C

Just moved to London all I want to do is watch the game and NBL TV let's me down again. Please guys do something so I can follow the league next year properly please.

Just back from game.
Firstly congrats to the Taipans. Well played, well coached. Good luck in the grand final.

To my fellow Red Army- great effort with trying to get the boys over the line. It's just such a shame that ticket pricing really effected the amount of spectators there today.
Anyone who says the wildcats didn't play there hearts out tonight are just mental. All the team tried hard and for a little while in that fourth quarter, I reckon all in red in the arena dared to dream. Unfortunately it just wasn't to be.

The umpiring- well that just sucked both ways. Would love to see a game called consistently in the finals- maybe it is time for Referees from overseas as the nbl umpires just suck. I wanna see a game where players don't get clobbered one minute with no foul, then a slight touch gets called one. Now before anyone says I'm another whining Wildcats fan, I said it sucked both ways!

Now waiting for some positive moves in the off-season.
New coach- bring back Bevo! If not- someone else... Please!!
Bye bye Daniels, Luke Martin, move Redhage to the bench. Think everyone else signed multi-year contracts, but Beal is on an option. In two minds- depends on who the other import is. Can't be Daniels. And Martin needs to develop more of an offensive game.

Congrats again to the Breakers and Taipans. Should be a cracker of a series.
My tip- Breakers sweep. I look at how the taipans played against an undermanned and injured Wildcats, and then look at what the breakers did to 36ers. Can't see Cairns doing it. Cedric for MVP of finals series.

Cats need to replace a Daniels with a gun recruit who can light it up, create his own shot and finish strongly. The rest of the team struggled to pick up the offensive void left by Ennis.

Worst atmosphere ever tonight.

I expect winning fatigue has something to do with it.

I thought it was louder than when we have 10k +, never going to get many peeps to a Sunday game of a long weekend would have been better on a Monday night. Funniest thing was Marvin getting up and down twice to tell the court side announcer to get his shit together and get the crowd involved.

Wildcats are really going to miss Redhage'a ability to manufacture shots when he retires.

I thought Jesse was the heir apparent but now I think he's too limited offensively.

Small crowd but they stuck with the team, and somehow ... I still don't quite understand how ... the Cats stuck with the Taipans.
Cairns had better bring better than that to the GF series if they plan to compete with the Breakers.

We were always going to need a few little things to go our way to have a chance in that game. Maybe Beal getting loose, DeAndre having one of his good shooting nights, Jervis getting under their guard .. something like that. Drake & Damo hit a few shots, but nothing much else went right. Poor Jesse couldn't buy a basket and he's normally as reliable a shooter as we've got.

Super gutsy effort to hang around and even threaten a little towards the end. It never really felt likely though.
I still think that with a full team we would have given Cairns a real shake, but probably not NZ. They've had our number this season.

Hoping the grand final series is a good contest and goes the distance.
Call me a massive optimist but hopefully it will even feature functional live stats, functional NBL.TV and functional graphics for the tv broadcast, all at the same time! :O

Oh, and thanks to all those many optimistic Perth punters who caused the odds to be arse-backwards today ;)

@Blitz

I've rarely heard the Arena quieter.

Perked up a bit in the last quarter but it was still very disappointing.

It didn't perk up "a bit" in the 4th, it went mental in the 4th.

At one stage the courtside announcer was trying to get people to sit back down and they crowd just wouldn't sit! The noise 8,000 made when we were hitting shots after Wagstaff's injury was probably the loudest the Arena has been all year.

Was comparable to last year's grand final in the fourth, IMO. Anyone who reckons that was a bad atmosphere needs to get their ears checked.

Was nothing like the GF tonight.

I've heard more mental regular season crowds like that game where Ennis banked that three near the end.

Ennis brought the crowd to another level of excitement.

8,703 - The only time since it opened that there has not been a 10,000+ crowd for a Wildcats game at the Perth Arena.

In commentary Lachy Reid kinda blamed it on the long weekend and the Sunday evening time slot.

I thought it was going to be very hard for perth to get up, but at home I gave them a chance. Cairns proved good enough when it mattered, perth missed some quite easy makes that they don't usually miss, but in the end the bigs for the Snakes got enough of the ball to make the difference...

Now for the final, if Cairns get home court over the Breakers, I give them every chance to take this competition, but NZ will be very hard to break (pun intended)!

Cairns home court advantage will prove very valuable.

As a Breaker fan I was hoping to see Perth get through.

Cairns match up really well with NZ.

The atmosphere was unbelievable through the TV, and it sounded like genuine atmosphere generated by the fans, I was on the edge of my seat.

What a great game, tough, physical, big plays made, and that enormous home team run in the fourth - loved it. I agree with DD, as hard as they tried (and boy did they try) Perth just didn't seem to be able to cross that bridge and Cairns always had the dagger.

In the end it was probably the Taipans' (and especially Wilbekin's) offensive rebounding that was the difference. Had the Wildcats cleaned their defensive glass in the final quarter they would have gone very close to pinching it.

That's why Cairns have been so good all year though, they do the little things more consistently than any other team.

GF should be great, both teams facing very different challenges to the SFs, and those possession plays will probably win it for one team or the other.

Amazing that since the switch to 40-minute games three teams have filled 10 of the 12 grand final places.

HOME TEAM
J. Beal: -10
D. Daniels: -14
M. Knight: -9
J. Wagstaff: -11
D. Martin: -11
D. UU: 8
T. Jervis: -10
L. Martin: -3
A. Fisher: 0

ROAD TEAM
C. Gliddon: 15
S. Wilbekin: 11
S. Weigh: 7
M. Burston: 9
A. Loughton: 10
C. Tragardh: 1
S. BRUCE: 0
T. Craig: 8
M. Young: 1
N. Sobey: -2

Bringing Bevo back won't help the offensive game, he was more of a defensive coach than Gleeson.

A crowd of 8703, wow all the bandwagon supporters sure have dropped off. All this rubbish of 12000 supporters being behind them, and 8703 turn up.

What a crock

8703 : Still bigger than any crowd in Adelaide . Also Future Music Festival was on and that would of taken a good chunk of supporters.

Sixers147 : I'm Curious to know. Did you attend the Semi Final game on Sat Night ? How many games did you attend during the Marty Clarke regime ?

sixers147, don't be a dick. Semi finals always underdraw, and 8k+ is still a great crowd.

Hopefully now people will see that Wagstaff is not the option to replace Redhage.

I agree Redhage is slowing down but I think he is still a better starting option than Jesse.

Jesse is a solid role player off the bench but no more than that

Jesse is, however, a better flopper than Redhage. In that one area Jesse has definitely surpassed his mentor.

Agree with Anon. I have never thought jesse should be a starter. Hes a good catch and shoot player and a great defender but doesn't have the mobility or the ability to create his own shot like redhage has. I still back redhage to start next season but gleeson needs to manage his minutes better throughout the year. He was looking like playing into some good form until the stress fractures ended his year.
Will be a difficult time in the next couple of years for the cats to turn over their ageing players. Do they stay loyal to their older players and get the benefit of points discount. Or is it better bringing new talent that can play higher quality minutes?

Well done Cairns - you deserved the win and the scoreboard was flattering to us.

SW's skill set and energy well basically I felt privileged to watch him, he's just a wonderful player.

Really hope we have a great series between the 2 best teams in the comp.

8,703 - The only time since it opened that there has not been a 10,000+ crowd for a Wildcats game at the Perth Arena.

In commentary Lachy Reid kinda blamed it on the long weekend and the Sunday evening time slot.

@Perth fan how were the refs bad to Perth?

@kingjames, I feel it was inconsistent both ways.
A few times players going to the basket were clobbered with no foul, then next play someone would drive, get slightly touched and get foul shots. This happened to both Perth and Cairns.
I get that umpiring is a tough gig, especially at that level. But surely the fact there are three umpires you would hope that they could get it right.

This is not a biased view, it has been inconsistent the whole semi-final series for all teams. Look at how bad at times the umpiring was in game 2 of breakers and 36ers. I hate that the umpires buy into home court advantage. All I want is decent umpiring that protects the players in the paint, allows entertaining play and doesn't make the officiating the talking point of games.