So What, are we waiting for the cricket to finish now?

Only broadcast on Foxtel in Perth... way to screw over you largest fan base NBL! Keep succeeding in those telecast contracts

Pay the $5 a month and watch it on NBL TV

Nelson Larkins lost a tooth in training lol

Been on FTA all year but not for final

So who fouled childress? Lomg night for the cats i think

Bless my Cotton socks!

One thing about my cotton socks and Bryce... They're both soft. 1 shot in the opening 6 mins

Timberball nominate perth as your team and watch for free on nbl.tv not ideal but a hdmi cable and youre done. In anu case you dont want to watch this. Perth is not playing hard enough, adelaide is still getting soft calls, frankly even if they didnt make a call for adelaide we may lose with how we are playing

Drives straight into the defender, another foul....

Adelaode shoots 20ft and they win. Looks like they will shoot 30 at this rate

Who's the third commentator? Balls or Redhage or someone else?

Shorter finally scores

Then flexes. Highlighting the push out to get the tip in...

Is brandt allowed to play d? He is straight up, stop calling bs and gifting adelaide fts

Redhage doing OK IMO. Much better than his early bland games. Either that or it's just nice to hear after a game of Homicide on the first semi.

Drives straight at the body, gets another call and more freethrows.

Shithouse call

Bad calls everywhere, but if youre callijg crap at one end, i guess do it at both

Another drive, jump in the body and foul. Every time

Oh yay we have the look at me refs today, soft fouls all round

Perth even getting home cooking on the road!

I think every cats fan will take the unsportsmanlike and retract the 8 non existent freethrows

Unsportsmanlike foul every day of the week as Heal said!

So brandt was moving sideways then too was he? This will be there 15th ft in the first half...

Brandt being reffed out of the game. Refs killing a good contest here

Adelaide 17 ft in a half, perth getting homecooking.... yep sure buddy

Ramone!

J you are an absolute idiot, every post you have ever made is about your wildcats getting hard done by the refs. Hoops could do without you.

I'd be telling tokoto to man up, stop settling for mid range , get inside and take some hits. Then rotate Kenny in and have him do the same.

I would almost have been satisfied with that half until the last 10 seconds.
Lucas Walker really is a mental midget though. What happened to the guy from the first month of the season who STFU, hustled his arse off, and forced his way into the starting 5?

Yeah. J is pretty predictable and makes LV in a United game look like an unbiased poster.

As a neutral the reffing is the usual average quality with the occasional howler (the USF) and the 6ers are getting to the line because they are challenging the D by attacking the rim.

Uncle phil, my issue is with consistently inconsistent interpretation, its not hard to make the same call both ways. Do you really want to see 40fta in a game for one team? The offence is consistently iniating the contact, defence has position, yet it is a foul. Im fucking frustrated, and im pretty sure most teams fans are when they are on the wrong end of this many fta for not much at all. Now before you say cats have had it before, im not saying that was ever right either. But thanks for making a personal attack over my oponion on some horrid officiating, you sir are clearly an upstanding citizen.

Fstos can you explain how going into the defender is a foul? When perth attack the rim they dont seem to be getting the same calls, can you explain why? Clearly i need enlightenment

I don't see any inconsistent interpretation out there. Maybe they're calling things a little soft, but Adelaide are smart enough to attack and take advantage of it, and Perth are not, and are settling for weaker options that don't put the refs under any pressure to make a call.

Wagstaff wasnt hit in the head?

The last one you whinged about on Brandt he was clearly moving forward when he jumped. I am enjoying the game and have better things to do than examine every call.

It's just the volume of your foul complaints over multiple games and only the ones called on Perth that demonstrates your bias.

How's that ref meant to see that from the other end of the court??

Cotton drove, marginal contact, sobey drives, less contact, foul. Please explain. Cause i am an absolite idiot?

Fstos please see me referencing the horrid call against hodgson earlier. I just really dislike crap calls

20-1 references. We aren't that stupid to fall for your attempt to show impartiality.

Blatant elbow to the face

23-8...

Why do i complain? Brandt elbow to the face, no call, then push out. Cotton drove no foul, sobey does foul. Seriously what is the difference?

15 point lead

Hodgson challenging Walker for biggest idiot in this game.

Refs made it clear early. Adelaide drive and miss foul, Perth drive and miss it's fair. Cats should of adjusted.

Unsportsmanlike by the standard a couple weeks ago

This is such a great thread, guys.

South Aussies and West Aussies at their finest

Don't worry Anons, your teams mite be good one day, lol. It makes me smile how your fans rely on a free cheese burger to feed the family.

https://youtu.be/MP6SlDSfcLE

The other SF gets 33 comments, we're up to 100 and counting with the Adelaide v Devilcats games

Some observations:

1) Perth aren't athletic enough. Adelaide's athletic advantage permeates nearly every aspect of the game against Perth;

2) Perth's lack of athleticism hurts them most defensively - they simply can't defend the superior athleticism of the likes of Sobey, Creek, Shorter, Childress and Moore;

3) Perth look better with Kenny. He gives them more energy.

4) Adelaide should continue to play up-tempo; when they slow down, it suits Perth the most.

5) Perth can be better defensively by employing the zone (and it has slowed ADL down a few occasions this game). It balances out the athletic mismatches by preventing the 1on1 matchups;

6) Perth need to invent new ways of scoring if they are to stay in this series - hustle points and Cotton three's won't nearly be enough;

7) Perth have long-benefited from a much slower tempo and have been successful for a long time with that; BUT I don't think we've seen a team as fast and athletic as this and they're essentially trying to go into battle with a sword (whereas ADL have guns).

Do think it's funny the amount of salt anonymous comments from salty Devilcats fans. Pretty consistent.

Cats just dont have the offence if you can keep Cotton quiet or if he's off his game.

Been pretty obvious since early in the year when it was temporarily masked by Walker's body being occupied with the spirit of a decent basketball player.

Adelaide waaaaay better...didn't need the help they got.

Adelaide were better, wasnt really in doubt. They didnt need the gifts

Childress is a star

Better than a sad anonotroll. Your team is either not good enough to make it or you're to cheap to buy a ticket.

I have only seen about 3 quarters of the game; but from a neutral's perspective, I think the refereeing has been great tonight.

"Perth would have won if it wasn't for those lousy refs"

That's complete shit .
Not all us Pussycat fans are salty.

Someone start a fight

that the cats done for the year. shouldnt have replaced matty knight with a guard.

Im a cats fan.

Were Perth actually trying this evening?

"Clint Steindl is the worst player in the NBL"

No, he's not even the worst player on the Cats roster

Regarding JP Tokoto; I'd say teams such as ADL have done heaps of scouting on him having had the benefit of watching him for the entire season, are able to defend him a lot better.

Interestingly, whilst JP did go to a big College, his numbers from Sophomore to Junior year actually dropped even though he was playing more minutes;

Personally I think they are two types of players/scorers; (1) players who can bust any offense and can adapt anytime to new defensive strategies (i.e. scouting is not effective); and (2) players who have a much more set offensive style and who can be rendered much less effective with good scouting (i.e. once you take them away from their modes of scoring, they struggle to adapt).

Tokoto is more of the second type IMO.

Surely Perth's biggest ever loss in the playoffs?

Tokoto plays soft, won't be back next season. Has been afraid to take it inside for the second half of the season.

Sack Gleeson thread appearing in 3... 2.... 1....

Fkn OUCH!

Remember back when the Cats were a good defensive team? Ahh... good times they were.
That was a title-worthy team I just watched. GF series could be a good one.

Zodiac: Lost to North Melbourne 165-110 in game three of the 1989 semi finals.

I'm with Btown. I don't think Tokoto lacks ability at all. His issues are all upstairs.

1 down, 3 to go

1 down, 3 to go

Lost to North Melbourne 165-110 in game three of the 1989 semi finals.

1 down, 3 to go

For me, Tokoto's game is 80% physical ability and 20% skill. I think that's been consistent with him since his freshman year of college.

Time to go L.Walker, Cooke, Hire, Tokoto and DKD. Cotton ??.

Joey press conference, I saw a smile!

Great game by Adelaide. You cannot say the refs had an influence on the result and be of sane mind. Adelaide have an excellent gamestyle, go very deep on the bench and never stop coming at the opposition. I can't see Perth winning the series, even if they get game 2 they have to backup less than 48hrs later in Adelaide and don’t have the depth or the run to pull it off.
Stating the obvious but Adelaide will win this series, the only question is whether it’s in 2 or 3 games.

I've been saying it all year and I won't change my tune... Adelaide isn't as impressive as they look. They just dominate matchups.

In my opinion, the only team with an offence well balanced enough -- and frugal enough -- to slow Adelaide is Melbourne. United has an offence so balanced that they can't really be taken out of what they want to do. They'll score on you from almost any angle, so if they want to slow Adelaide they'll gear their offence to do so.

Once it gets to half-court, it's Adelaide on the ropes. All they get in the half-court is Johnson post-ups, basket cuts and offensive rebounds. Melbourne is super adept at covering cuts and cleaning the defensive glass, and their defence is underpinned by loading (from what I've seen when I've actually paid attention) so there will be help for Johnson's man.

Shaping up as a fun grand final series

Plus, Melbourne did a good job of hawking the NZ defensive rebounders to slow the outlet pass. In saying that, obviously Adelaide have the likes of Creek, Sobey, Childress who can rebound and run the break

So you're saying you think the #1 team in the league are better than the #2 team in the league? Big call that.

Melb have had our number this season beating us 4-0 but 3 of those 4 wins were pretty early in the season when we were playing crappy. The last one we almost snatched in Melb but got some dodgy calls right at the end.

Why get rid of Cotton? You just need to get him more help.

Zodiac, surely you're not that simple.

Did you actually read what I said? It's more of a preview based on things we know now. I didn't talk about the 4-0 or the 1 seed, I talked about styles

Perth will get more from a teenage import than Cooke.

Cotton is a weird one... he's most dominant when he's most ball-dominant. Hard to say this with absolute conviction, and it's a sweeping generalisation, but imo as the game of basketball develops over time, it is becoming more team-oriented. Defences are more able than ever to shut down a team with just one or two studs, so ball-dominant guys are less likely to single-handedly win games. Is Cotton the kind of guy (a one-dimensional, ball-dominant guy) to spearhead a dynasty? I don't know.

I see those like Casper, Creek, Lisch as better players because they're jack-of-all-trades kinda guys

*Jack-of-all-trades kinda guys who keep the ball moving and the team humming with everyone engaged and happy

Cotton may get assists, but that doesn't automatically mean he moves the ball and keeps everyone engaged and happy

Cotton is fine. He's not selfish, he's just not good enough to win games on his own (basically because no one is) and he doesn't have enough help on the court. Those rare times we have other guys contributing and we look like a functional unit, Cotton is a pretty efficient player.
As KR mentioned though, if he's earning so much that we can't afford quality pieces to put around him then it's hard to justify him.
We've lost a lot of alpha scoring types in the last couple of seasons (Jawai, Knight, Redhage, Prather) and simply have not replaced them with enough.
Our strength was always our local talent. Today we rely almost completely on 2 imports, one of whom apparently checked out a while ago.

Tokoto Played like a man offered a big pay day contract if only he is free in 2 weeks time.

Perth got their pants pulled down tonight. Be interested to see how they perform at home now.

Lots of a deserved questions about Tokotos mental toughness.

Not enough questions about how terrible Brandt has been.

BAN about a third of the way through the season and nothing has changed

Ramome Moore's shot on half time buzzer .. a spark...
although we couldn't score against a zone ...then sobey got three threes in a minute and deng got six rebounds in 7 mins.... besides the starters all got big scores..

.. just copy and paste ....perth loose every game due to refs...

It was a great game to be at as an Adelaide fan last night. It was an electric atmosphere and a big crowd which was good to see for a semi final, especially considering it was competing with the fringe, Adelaide 500 and in the past few seasons, semi finals have often seen a dip in crowd numbers. I took a mate along to the game and he absolutely loved it so congrats to the 6ers on a good game night presentation also.

It was obviously a great team performance by the Sixers with numerous players stepping up at different points throughout the game. The team was in the right mindset and in attack mode from the opening tip and never let up for the whole game.

Perth played a reasonable first half though with Damien Martin and Cotton making some huge plays to keep their team in the game. It was interesting to watch Tokoto, he has shown he can be a good player in this league but he was taken off the court quite early in the first quarter - it seemed as though Gleeson was frustrated at him as on a few possessions he took quick shots which led to the Sixers getting easy buckets on the break. After this point, he just never got back into the game. It seems as though Gleeson's coaching and Perth’s lineup isn’t quite the right set up for his skill set. I was actually surprised Perth weren’t able to slow the pace down a lot more and make it into a half court slugfest. Part of this was poor coaching on Gleeson’s part where he tried to run a full court press multiple times which failed and led to more fast break points for the Sixers and the crowd becoming more enthused. Heal also thought this was a terrible tactic as he mentioned on the telecast.

Hopefully the Sixers can get this done in two and avoid a repeat of last year. It would be very satisfying to wave goodbye to the Cats on their home floor.

Read articles on Tokoto when he was in college.

Even his pop's highlighted "mental toughness" as an area he would have to work on at a pro level.

How much were the tickets?

Perth have done reasonably well with Tokoto considering they had to find someone at the 11th hour after Devondrick Walker went down injured in the pre-season.

And frankly if they limited themselves to players without weaknesses they'd never sign anyone.

Wildcats fans complaining of Sixers getting soft fouls need to notice the terrible defensive techniques from Perth players. Tokoto might have hardly touched Sobey, but Tokoto has his arms down in a bad position and from view of ref it looks like he pushes him so the ref calls it. Too many times the Perth players are beaten by the speed and athleticism of Sixers and come from the side in poor defensive positions so the refs call the soft fouls.

Yep. Force them to play defense and keep up. Great game style to watch. No boring slow down tactics.

I'll be interested to see how the refs go in the next game. Will the home crowd be able to coax them around enough to benefit their cause? Keep making the calls and don't put your wistles away because the fans (and Gleeson) are whining! Really keen to see another fast paced, exciting game rather than a slow, low scoring slog.

I just have this sneaky feeling the Cats might get away with a bit. But even so Adelaide will be good enough if they give it their best.