lol

Decent idea starting Egwu, simply because the refs are so hit-and-miss that you don't know how they'll see any given game.

Bench Nate for a few minutes to get a feel for the refs, then bring him on.

And for goodness sake... contain the PnR. Quite often the on-ball defender and big did different things defensively last night. They were dribbling getting to the foul line and below untouched. Couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Hawks cannot win even if Dazz sucks.

Back on topic.

Wildcats easily. Cairns were such a disappointment in game 1 and I can't see them recovering...especially with the the Perf home cooking.

Cairns sort out you "on ball" D.
Start Weeks and McCarron. Weeks take Cotton McCarron take Prather. Glidden if he starts has to take Martin and take some shots.
Give Weigh more time.
Go earlier in the shot clock. You have no creative players who can get up a good shot after 20 seconds.
Put Worthington, Loughton in the high post to get it to Jawai.
Still might not be enough but it would be better than what they are doing.

Cairns doing dumb D going over the top of a screen if there is no rotation up to to meet the ball and discourage the pass to the screener.
Perth spread D way out and high because of firepower at range. Let them own beyond the arc, cut out their drives inside, and protect Nate. Might be a different game then.

What can Taipans bring to play on Monday?

It didn't work with Jawai, outfoxed by Cats into foul trouble.

Ok, maybe they will close down on Cotton but that would take a lot of energy, leaving them out of focus on the game. Prather, the other danger, cannot be contained. Do we also try to lock him down too?

Knight would run lose, great to see him hitting the boards in the last two. What about the lesser players (Jesse, Hire and Jameel) who have proven to be able to hurt if not guarded.

And whilst they are working on that, Taipans would have to contend with the irksome Red Army. Don't you hate the noise they make to throw Taipans off their shots.

The last thing you may not realise is that Gleeson can be annoying on the line too....oh yes, he hides it well. He sends negative vibes into the opposite team.

Just on the above, you wonder how Cairns would stand any bloody chance in Monday.

They need to be far more aggressive defending the ball screen (even if that means switching into zones at they come off the pick) and make someone other than Cotton and Prather beat them.

This is the first and last chance this season for the Wildcats to really make a statement on the court.

With such a lack luster season (in the eyes of cats fans), every opportuntity to make a powerful statement has failed.

They limped into the playoffs, but appear to be playing their best Bball at the right time.

A big confident win today to close out the series will send a much needed message to both the Sixers and snakes camps that the cats they are going to face are a different beast to what was seen in the regular season.

A loss today and the seasons theme of limping it through will continue.

Another regular cotton game and a Prather in Adidas Harden 1 performance should seal the victory for the home town cats.

No surprize at all if Cairns win,but equally no surprize if they crap themselves again and lose by 20.

"With such a lack luster season (in the eyes of cats fans), every opportuntity to make a powerful statement has failed."

Interesting viewpoint but for the record I don't view the season that way at all.
This league has been competitive. There is quality on every team, and there's no shame in losing to anyone. Sure we've had our disappointments but so has pretty much everyone. In many cases there have been valid reasons behind plenty of ours. Things have not gone smoothly for this team.

Powerful statements in the regular season really aren't worth much come finals time.
We've had one game and it was a resounding success.
Win tonight and IMO our season looks as lustrous as anyone's.

Of all the "expected" big guns - Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and NZ, we were the only one to make the top 4..

Having been on the bottom and then finding a way to get in, now one win away from the GF.. just amazing..

#thatsmycats

Wildcats will be hoping for the same as Friday even though they know Cairns would be more aggressive today.

Cotton would be sitting back a bit until the aggression is abated when the Cairns guys tire in the fourth. However Prather would be his usual self from start.

Expect Hire and Jesse to wreak some havoc today. Jameel, if recovered from his illness, should be more energetic.

I can't see anything but a Perth win so they can host three final cause Adelaide are going down in the decider on Thursday.

I'm more confident of a Snakes win tonight than coming into Game 1

Not sure, just one of those gut feelings

Great crowd would be looking at 11500.

Jawai wet asf already

Jawai benched for Egwu. Good call.

CG43 in the commentary team.....LOL

Shit, didn't even notice Goulding, too busy looking at something else.

Trice has played in front of big crowds in college? Please, do go on.

Man, Jawai's passing is all over the shop early.

Cairns offense is just awful.

8 points in the first quarter. 8

I have no idea why Cairns chuck it away so often. Trice is a chunk of shit. Delist!

^^ Clearly they are or they wouldn't be playing right now.

Bring on Thursday

Please let's not make this flirtation with Chris Goulding the commentator continue past today.

Wagstaff 9 Cairns 8

Mitchell top 5 worst import ever? Legit garbage.

Mitchell hahahahahahaha

Mitchell been paid about 25K for each of the three good things he has done since he arrived.

As terrible as Cairns are playing right now, still not down as much as they feel like they should be.

There we go. 6 points.

Trice 11 of Cairns 15 points. Seriously.

^^^ Me

Wait a moment, Trice has pulled up.

4 good things now.

Little 5 zip foul count and what looked like a non travel called against brandt. Are we trying to get snakes back in the game? Didn't see replay of travel I could be wrong

This is looking dissapointing

Martin the flopping flog!!!

This is over.

Wow....

You would think jawai would know who he was trying to screen...


This is looking like amateur hour... vs slightly less amateur hour

@roflcopter

Of all the people to call a flopper you say the slightly superior martin.

Get a clue

Enjoying the Damo & Nate show :)

@Fool: Martin flopped. Period.

Worst first half of basketball from any team this season. Trice 14 of 22 points is embarrassing.

Horrid piece of entertainment so far.

1/2 time report:

It would have been a decent quater of basketball. Unfortunately the clock doesn't lie. And this is seriously the half time score.

37 v 22

Perth v x

Perth doing a great job of not playing as badly as Cairns.

Not sure Harvey left on good terms, did he admit this during a 5 zip run of calls to cairns? Hmm

'Night everyone.

See you in the morning

Game from over given the scoring droughts we can go on, and surely Cairns cannot keep shooting this bad.

When the playoff matchups were settled I thought this would be a close ugly series.....I was half right

Goulding is a terrible commentator and looks terrible in an un-tailored suit

I prefer Goulding as a court side reporter

Oh hey look, Cairns actually generated something on offense.

This is embarrassing to watch, as a Taipans fan. Mitchell needs to sit the rest of the game out, hope he's had his highlight play - he won't do anything more. Fearne should have a look at what Perth are doing on the pick and roll, both offensively andd defensively. Gliddon needs to get active at both ends. Wortho? Shoot the open 3, man, don't pass it to Egwu as he's about to get swamped!

In an effort to spark a 60 point second half for the Snakes, I'm going to bed.

Good night, all.

^^^

Suit up!

But do it properly

Cairns have life.

Cairns suddenly trying to make it semi-interesting to see which team gets to lose to the Hawks or Sixers.

^

Doubt either of these teams would lose to the hawks in a final series tbh

If Hawks can beat Adelaide in Adelaide, I like there chances over either of these guys. Do they have homecourt over Perth though?

Not sure the whole "sag off Wagstaff" thing is the best strategy right now.

Chris Reed is F in shit.Trice got hacked by Knight when he was driving to the basket and Reed was 2 metres away and the controlling ref and it took Maybery or Aylan to call foul as i'm not sure who called if i fell of my chair but you can hear Fearne say come on Chris your right there.what do you expect from a shit ref.He will hardly give Cairns a call.The best part of this game is Brad Robbins isn't calling it,maybe foxsports have noticed he is shit.

^

Perth will get the home court i believe.

And also the championship if somehow hawks can win

Jawai got no calls when he was a cst. But people are surpised now????

5 good things

Can someone please turn off that flog Gleesons microphone???

Im not sure either team has played well enough to deserve this margin

Cairns have a chance but the first week minutes of the last is vital.

Two*

Can anyone remember who won the championship with the runner up MVP?

The crazy thing is that if Wagstaff and Knight had one of their normal shooting nights Cairns might even have a lead by now.

Wagstaff is a fraud and always has been. Such an average player who can occasionally have a big night.

Wildcats outchea getting dunked on like they're Steph Curry in an all star game

Remember the thread earlier in the season asking whether Gliddon had taken his game to another level?

So that'd be a No from me...

Sooo many drunk posters tonight

My post are far better when I'm drunk.

@anon quoting me

"Fool"proof strategy

Suck it Jesse haterz

Still 2-3 games to go mike...

The jesse hate will continue

Was an exceptional pass

Cleanest block of the year

Least we can all agree that the refs have had no real control on this game.

Both teams have tried hard to lose it without the help of the officials

The choke is on

Vaughan umpire of the year...

Martin fouled him with the body that time. McKay on the other hand

As usual, Perth do enough to win.

I like Perths strategy of continually standing still while being trapped

Hey, at least Trice didn't get called for a flop.

Im gonna call it early.

Cats will win from here and make it to the finals

Congrats on a great career Wortho.

Lol had a multi with Perf -8.5

1 point away

Goulding is wearing his dads suit

I doubt Adelaide would be afraid of that Perth performance to be honest...

Scared of Perth? LOL please.

Thank you to Perth for the respect for Wortho.

Why would adelaide be scared of perth?

They wont eveb beat the hawks.

And joey will punch an assistant coach while throwing development players out of the way in typical adelaide style

Goulding is actually a pretty good commentator

@gordong

Perth have always respected wortho. Been to many a games over the years. Yes he has been heckled. But always been a highly loved and respected player in the west

At least Perth can still wear their red colours while cheering for the Hawks.

Hehe.

Luckily i have several days to sober up and reflect on my foolishness.

Im not really afraid of randle and "who else plays for adelaide" mostly because i was happy enough keeping the streak alive.

Everything else is a bonus. And if allowing other teams to pretend they are relevant happens. I will be the first to congratulate them

You'd have to back Perth over 5 surely

The nz vs perth cup seems like its gonna have a different layout this year

Knight will be suspended.

Cat's were playing against a much better defensive team than Adelaide tonight.
They move much more freely against Adelaide. Cairns are stifling on defense.

I'd be more worried about Illawarra than Adelaide - except for the home court advantage.

Jason.

Not sure how the cats got gifted that. Was pretty horrid both ways. The play that summed up these refs was trice spin travel, clean block foul.

Amother how did you stuff that up.

Question of you fluke it enough maybe you're not that bad a shot?

Mitchel is a flying flog.

Pretty sure he threw the ball at a back turned ref (probs warranted) and/or prather connecting with both after the final whistle. Poor form from a major sook

After today's game, there's not a thread of doubt that the Wildcats will win another championship.

The Wildcats were really just saving it for the finals. Just awesome...... all the way Cats from here.

Credit where it's due - the Taipans weren't going to lose the same way again and they defended the hell out of Cotton.
Got pretty hairy towards the end there.

NaCl everywhere!

Was it home cookimg when cairns got gifted 5 zip in the second. Refs suck, they are that bad everyone thinks they are getting screwed and they probably are.

Cairns did not deserve to win that, let's face it perth didn't really either, only a slither more

Good call by the anonytrolls who said Perth would get swept... they got it partly right.

And all the people saying 'Perth got gifted' ... we didn't shoot a FT in the first half.

Can we set up a GoFundMe for Scottie Wilbekin?

The community chipped in for team syndicates... maybe we can do it for a player?

Wilbekin's right arm sponsored by the Jones family, his left index finger brought to you by Woolworths Raintrees produce section etc.

Anon 264 Mitchell charged into Prather not martin but knight definitely flopped on the last play. Also Mitchell threw the ball at Mayberry's back after the game, wonder if anything will come of it eg fine of some sort seeing as he is the golden umpire.

And the play before McKay got a clean block on trice after he travelled.., the refs didn't decide this game, Cairns woeful first half did.

Pretty sure individual late calls in isolation decided the game.

Not 35 mins of poor decisions...

You obviously dont understand how the internet works timberball.

L2 basketball

Couldn't agree more timber. Jawai looked very off tonight after killing us a few weeks ago.

Give me your tears gypsies ;)
Well done Perth, bring on the Grand Final.

Reffing was pretty much the same as its been all year, Cairns missed a lot of shots but credit to Perths defence. Good to see they can eek out a win without Cotton firing.

Haha, love it @Fool.

So Wildcats first into the GF.

Been reading this forum all year and ok it looked bleak for the Wildcats for a time but whos laughing now?

Will the extra preparation time give them an advantage over 5 games?

Trice spun in the air, not using his feet. Maybe it shouldn't have been called a foul, but it definitely wasn't a travel.

Poor McKay can never squeeze a travel in without a call but Trice takes a 4 step walk and mckay gets the foul on a clean block haha. was an ugly game but you only have to win, doesn't say how flashy it has to be.

Wilson sting his feet touched the ground 4 times, that is a travel, take your blinkers off!

A very humorous post game press conference with wortho.

Said he was grateful to the adelaide and perth crowds for the recognition he received. And said he was enjoying hearing the "WORTHO" chant from the perth fans that for once didnt end in.. "IS A WANKER"

Is a class act. Always one of my most hated opposition players but a very respected adversary. A nice touch after the game with the guard of honor and even an embrace and warm exchange with redhage.

What did knight do? Was at the game didn't see it.

Seriously trice travelled you are kidding yourself if you think he spun around McKay legally

What did Knight actually do tonight to warrant this suspension talk?

Hmm that's not on.

I was wondering why Trice shoved him under the bucket there. Thought it was unprovoked

Watching live, he was swinging the ball around (like you do when you catch the ball from a rebound) while trying to inbound, which connected to Trice's head...

I have seen no replays though, and it didn't feel like an intentional act to me (but obviously I am biased)

Knight took the rebound and as trice ran past he went to show the ball to him up close and clocked him in the face with the ball instead.

My initial thought was Knight was a bit clumsy but the replay looks worse

Anyone got video?

Knight is actually a prick. I used to not like him because of the Perth thing, yet respect him as a player. I've recently woken up.

The bloke is a flopper extraordinaire and a bit immature.

Didn't even see it at the game, was that the cause of the scuffle between knight and wortho?

But Perth players always flop

I left some extra stuff in the clip just for context of why Trice was upset, but the best angle is right at the end.

Silly from knight, but at full speed it couldn't possibly be worth a suspension even if they are tightening up.

It wasn't hard enough surely, esp after the hire debacle surely the review panel will show restraint this time.

As above though not saying it was a smart or acceptable play, just think it should be left in the silly and petty and grow up the both of you jar.

Trice flopped

Looks bad by Knight, no way a suspension though (not enough force), would not hesitate to fine him though.

Good to see the old blame the ref force is out and about, never mind that your team shot 25% in the first half.

As a lot of Cairns supporters said to Wildcat fans when they last beat us, a lot of salty tears around here :)

It was an ugly win, but i'll take 3 more of those if it gets us another title. However if we play Adelaide we are going to need to score a fair bit more than that to win.

Damo with some big threes lately..

Don't know what others thought but it seemed to me that the refereeing was a lot "looser" in game 2?
Nobody really got in foul trouble, and Mitchell was the only player to pick up 4?