Is there any way the Cats win this?

My only hope is based on this season's habit of randomly taking sentences like the above and flipping the script. But based on health and form, the $1.61 being offered for an Adelaide win feels about as safe a way to earn 61 cents as you'll find if you don't live within convenient distance to the Pooraka Bottle & Can Recycling Depot.

005, can we phone Petrie?

‏@PerthWildcats · 2 minutes ago

WILDCATS ALERT

Matt Knight has been ruled out of tonight's game against the Adelaide 36ers.

Just checking my pending bets ... I can't believe the 36ers price has gone *up* 5c since Thursday night.

There aren't going to be too many games where the 36ers are viewed as a sure thing but catching Perth right at this point in time with how well the 36ers are playing I think we're almost certainties. But in saying that we've been very disappointing at home so far this season.

Sixers by 12

Good Knight Cats

The Wildcats defence needs to be shored up for tonight's game - not just for one qtr.

Players' commitment will be reviewed and failing to pass will endanger them being selected for next year.

The most notable match up will be between the coaches.

My money is on gleeson for the first tech foul. If it comes to blows then its joey by TKO!

Liking Sixers 11+ now.

Barely no one on the Cats can create their own offence outside of Prather and Knight.

So faker Knight is out.That's music to the ears.Prather only one that can put big points on the board.Can't see Perth putting enough points on the board.Goodbye to Perth

As much as I respect Faker Knight's total commitment to the art of faking, staying in Perth when he's actually fine to play is probably taking it too far IMO.

Yeah Knight must be totally faking it by not playing tonight.

How's this for a starting 5 to strike fear into any opponent

Jarrod Kenny
Greg Hire
Casey Prather
Jesse Wagstaff
Jameel McKay

I hope everyone loaded up on Adelaide

Prather goes off then two turnovers......wroe needs to sit on the end of the bench and stay there. Get Bragg on!

I don't think Wroe vs Bragg is a decision to get too excited about. They both have their deficiencies, and I get why Wroe is the default option right now.

Great foul Wagstaff

Cats getting ripped off by the refs again. NBL refs are so bias. How dare they give a unsportsmanlike to Wagstaff. Deserved the abuse from Gleeson!

With all the abuse Gleeson dishes out every game, I'm surprised the refs ever call in their favour.

This is just emabarrasing basketball from Perth.

Prather needs to be more aggressive. He's playing really passive tonight.

Refs are a joke. Johnson sets moving screens and they do nothing. So bias

Wildcats have this just where we wanted it...

Half time deficit < 20

Tees sucks!

P.S. Perth clearly the better team that half and would be in front if it's wasn't for OMG so much bias reffing

Kenny is pure shit.
He wouldn't start on any other roster in the league.

Lol @ Gleeson. Sometimes Flog isn't a strong enough word for that guy.

Perth will be making the playoffs believe you me

Randle travels every time never gets called refs are so bias against Perth

Heal's back commentating. Wow.

No don't right off the wildcats believe you me they are a quality club. What would Shane Heal know cats will succeed when refs arent this bias against them in everything.

Lets go wildcats

get out of my face chemist warehouse not interested in anything you are selling

Do they call camping in the paint anymore?

Rude to call johnson non-existent. Commentators are very bias too

11 straight for Randle.

Randle is different gravy!

Randle's feelin' it!

JEROME RANDLE HEAT CHECK!!

Too early to talk about Randle in the same company as Grace and Rucker as an NBL player, though he is extremely exciting.

Illegal defense from Adelaide

Sorry to be a little off topic, but why is Nelson Larkins on Adelaide's roster (still!). Is there not somebody local and better who could take the training spot? Reminds me of the Zac Delaney fiasco.

Drmic is still a rubbish shooter.

that foul call on Wroe is a complete disgrace. I am going to complain to the league the refs are wrecking this game with their garbage

Flophage making a few big shots to give the cats a sniff.

Hire is a genuine bum

Redhage dominating the game now. Watch out Adelaide

Games on the line and Joey has Teys handling the ball

STOP LEAVING THAT CORNER OPEN!!!!

What defense were Adelaide supposed to be playing there? Jeezus. Teys seemed to be switching from zone to man.

Aww disgusting call there. Perth robbed again

home cooking

Refs getting involved!!!

JJ BOOM!!!

looks like we got our swagger back! :)

That wasn't a travel.

Dumb arsed stupid dickhead ref.

Didn't look like a travel to me.

The refs trying their hardest to ruin another Adelaide/Perth game.

Looks like they counted the step he was halfway through when catching the pass...

Overtime baby!!

It's either a travel or a charge.

Awwwww that travel call was disgusting bias.

Yeah good point, it was probably a charge call if not the travel.

Overtime it is

Phantom call on that Kenny drive..wow. Kenny was simply out of control.

Can we maybe run something other than Randle bouncing around for 23 seconds, then jacking up contested rubbish?

I dont like the way Sobi dribbles

We're going way too Randle centric

Yep, and Randle is looking fatigued.

Wow, as a a neutral this is a really entertaining game!

Was that a pass from Hodgson? Looked like an awful shot.

Sobey!

Randle is a bit too turnover-prone for my liking. I was just saying I'd like to see Sobey get some ball earlier in the shot clock...and he delivers there big time. He's had a quiet game but a really quality season.

Get off court tees you idiot

Yep good time to stop working NBL TV!

robbed

disgusting!!

Wildcats were totally robbed by home cooking....having said that.....suck shit.

Gleeson is a flog.

refs were biased and the crowd was disgusting

these refs aint loyal. Not good enough to be in the professional game

yeh the refs were a joke just terrible calls what about that travel on mckay, joke. Illegal screens from Johnson all night and they do nothing

Some of you Perth fans don't know the meaning of robbed. You weren't robbed the better team won yes you got some iffy calls but if you want to see robbed go back and watch the last game we played in Perth. I'll never forget that Matty Knight call, that is the definition of robbed.

I hate Perth and I cant believe the amount of nonsense calls Adelaide got. I would say Perth got the short end of the deal.

I feel pretty happy with the way we fought that one out. Worthless on the ladder since we ultimately lost, but the heart shown was encouraging.

Oh and ffs we were not robbed. There was a borderline or two but that's unavoidable.

Weird game overall, but great to see the Cats fight back and tie it up.

Some guys really stepped up tonight, JJ, McKay, Kenny, and Redhage all good. Even Hire got a couple of points and some boards, and even Wroes managed to score. Any other night that probably would have won it for us, but without Knight, and with Prather having an off night, it wasn't to be.

Randle had what Imagine by his standards was a quiet night, but still managed 23 points. Yeah, he's well worth $300k. If the 6's don't want to pay him, there will be other teams lining up.

Without Knight DJ was able to dominate too easily. Brandt just continues to disappoint. With Jervis I actually thought that for once we had a good succession plan in place, now we've got bupkis.

You cain't get the calls your way when not in perth

strange how gleeson argues with refs but doesn't know all the rules...

That's what happens when you don't doubt yourself, if only Johnson can play that way consistently.

Prather needs to step up on the road, if we and big if knight and damo could've stayed injury free, the would be on the right track.

Congrats to 36ers, sobey hit the clutch shot and we had our chance. Just saying, imagine Perth had a Randal in our team.

Oh gee fuckwit, did you read my post???

Or is putting comments in the correct thread more than your pea brain can handle?

I don't ever remember watching a game where I got so into it in the first half, and then so disappointment in the second.

The first half all the players on the floor were really going hard, and seemed to be working well together. Great to watch

Second half it seemed both coaches had no idea of how they had gotten to where they were ( 14+ up on Joey's side, and finally down to single figures on Gleeson's side)and were determined to just keep throwing in random players hoping something would happen, without any clear plan.

However I thought hodgeson mostly played well, I just wish that the 36ers had shown some knowledge of set plays in the second half like they had in the first.

Massive moving screen by Wroe to give Redhage the open 3 to end the 3rd quarter. Haven't seen any Perth fans mention that one yet. Wroe would have got praised in the NFL for that type of blocking.

Sobey the unsung hero in this game keeping Prather out of the game!

Teys still stinking it up in defense which almost cost us the game. Forgot to box out Kenny from the foul shot. Then leaves Johnson open for 3 twice. Lucky he missed one of them. At least Teys hit a couple of shots.

Still hating the useless trap we play which usually ends in a score for the other team or giving us mismatch problems.

Good effort by DJ to show leadership to finish the game off.

Geez...the quality of discussion has diminished of late on here.

I agree Very Old, the second half the 36ers were a little impotent on offence - they were way too slow just dribbling it around not really doing all that much, they were trying to run sets but weren't getting far with it.

Jacobsen needs to be locked in the gym until he learns how to hit a freethrow.

I've never seen so many "perth fans" lose the plot as the last week or so. They're one loss below first and there's half a season to go. They might not be playing great but it's not the apocalypse!

I appreciate it's not great for refs to be getting anything wrong and we'd all like consistency across the board, but Perth fans complaining they're screwed over is like Hawthorn fans complaining they don't get free kicks.

The 36ers and United in the space of a week just made this league the tightest I have seen any league ever. 1st-6th all on 6 losses, 7th and 8th with 7 losses. Last is just one loss below first. Absolutely stunning. Phenomenal.

Then leaves Johnson open for 3 twice.

"Sobey the unsung hero in this game keeping Prather out of the game!"

That's a good call. He was very well contained. We do a poor job of freeing him up, and if you make our other guys beat you they usually won't.

Prather is first class when he's got a bit of space to work with, but he's not enough of a perimeter threat to be effective when you can pack the paint.

As for JJ, yes it was pleasing to see him play well, but I still mostly cringe when he puts the ball on the floor because once he puts his head down he seems to only have one speed and one direction, which makes him pretty easy to block or take a charge against if you can get to the spot in time. Anyway, baby steps. Major credit to him for playing a valuable role with so much pressure on him. The headline on the back page of today's paper was "Cat-Astrophe" with a half page photo of JJ, and the opening sentence was "The Perth Wildcats need to sack underwhelming import Jaron Johnson for the second time this season if they are to salvage their championship defence, according to Shane Heal"

Wagstaff and Brandt disappointing

"The Perth Wildcats need to sack underwhelming import Jaron Johnson for the second time this season if they are to salvage their championship defence, according to Shane Heal"

was that expert advice in the sports or the financial section of the paper ?

Anon 611262's NBL team has won < 7 championships :D

Good to see the Wildcats on the wrong end of 'home town' calls because lord knows that many MANY teams copped that playing in Perth (its hard enough playing them over there at the best of times, they don't kneed the refs help).

"Jacobsen needs to be locked in the gym until he learns how to hit a freethrow." - @KET, is he as bad as Diamon Simpson....or Dean Brogan?

Anon #611274 Nobody is doing that, cool your heals.

Haha HoldenV8 Oh man Simpson should be locked in there as well. Brogan made the right call heading to the AFL lol

Dazz my man, you start posting about players faking injuries, you lose any credibility.

I don't think that cats kissing the playoffs is a bad reflection on the organisation I think it's more a vent on here towards there arrogant fan base

I get it, and totally agree that supporting one's chosen team is not a bad thing. Even if it is often a substitute for an incapacity to have a meaningful and supportive relationship in real life - at least that person has something - even if its imaginary ( what isnt?).

But it seems really unhealthy IMHO when an individual becomes so dependent upon the performances of "their" team to find support their own feeling of self worth that it becomes more than a little dysfunctional.

I don't "hate" perth, I do admit to disliking the disrespect some of their players seem to display for the game that feeds them by some of their actions on the court, but that has happened often over the years with all teams ( Grant Kruger ETc).

I actually enjoyed the performances from both teams' players in the first half, but I do think some people here need to have a other attempt at getting a life, just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it never will. And the rest of us possibly need to stop poking them with a stick just to see them react.