Even without 3 players Perth are so drilled defensively that they remain competitive. Rotations spot on, one step ahead of the offense. Means anyone- United included- needs to be at their best, hitting shots, moving the ball at pace in order to combat that elite defense. Instead, United fell into iso ball and got sloppy.

The optimistic way to look at it from a United perspective, is United will regroup and be better, and then blow them off the court tomorrow.

United didn't play well last night yet still won. Usually in playoffs, if you don't play well you lose.

But again, the good news from a United perspective is that a good game will be coming at some stage. That was Perth's best chance last night.

Perth played with heart in Game 1 but they needed a career night from Blanchfield just to be competitive and even then they still never looked like winning. Mooney has really dropped off without Cotton soaking up all the attention. Think we might've seen Perth give their best punch last night.

United by 12

Not looking good for the Wildcats.
Injuries hit all teams we have just copped them at worst time of year.

Regardless of how the series plays out ( likely predictable United win) I hope Perth put up a fight in what is our last home game...

Injuries happens, that's part of sport. Many teams have had their seasons derailed.
Still, No Cotton, No Travers, Norton on one leg, and no Clint in the 2nd half, and still came within a bucket of O/T.

But, with games less than 48 hours apart, its going to come down to recovery, and I suspect that MU may have the better legs.
If we could get Travers, Norton, and Steindl all available and semi-healthy, then we'd be a great chance, but not sure that's possible.

I'd really love to see a Perth win, not just for pride, but to keep the series interesting

The cats were looking pretty dangerous in the first half with both blanch and steindl shooting well. Its a tough break to have lost steindl as well now so i cant see how the cats are going to be able to score enough points to state the obvious. If United can lock down on Blanchfield this could get really ugly.

Perth lack firepower.
United would be Muppets to drop this game.

Everyone's assuming Magnay isn’t good enough to cause United grief?

I find it interesting that United are longer odds today than they were for Friday. I would have thought that the fatigue/injury factor would have pushed them even shorter.

Not sure if it's been mentioned on Hoops yet but the rest of the GF schedule is now set: Friday, Sunday, Wednesday. All at John Cain.
Fingers crossed for the best possible result for crowd allowance.

We require beast mode out of Magnay's upper body today.

Yeah, I mentioned at the end of the Game 1 thread how surprised I was how the odds for Game 2 are very similar to those of Game 1. Handicap is -4.5, could be huge value on United.

Travers and Steindl are confirmed out.

Steindl? Well now that changes things entirely.

United by 14

More plausible joke if you changed to United by 10!

If they're serious, United should win by 20+.
Perth are down to about 6.5 fit players.

United with the most amazing luck in NBL history re: an opponent's injuries.

Shervill gets the start

United are heartless money spenders. Due to the latter and our injuries they'll still probably win the series but seriously if you can't get up for a Grand Final game then I don't know what will. In saying that it's great for Perth.

Here we go, will call it early. High foul count, no sweeps.

Then golden rule is a good officiating crew should go unnoticed.

Whereas Aylen and Mayberry have to be at the forefront of everything.

Ref ruined the game call to many fouls..

Baba the cold blooded killa

Shades of Prather

That really hurts.

Agreed about the commentators. Heveran is a good play-by-play while Santa and Hooley work well together.

Are video Vaughan and that short fat guy really the best refs we have.

I think we need to fire up the stove and get some home cooking going if we are going to win this one

Wagstaff and layups continue to not see eye to eye.

Norton is something else

" I'll never understand why Aussie fans need to question ever call like the ref's have some deep down bias"

This is the answer to the all important question “what is it to be Australian” that goes around January each year

Kevin White what a sharpshooter.

Did Kev catfish Adelaide last year? Wtf did this come from

they are some of the best ref's in international basketball

Adelaide and Melbourne fans should be excited, Perth look like losing this one.

just leave the refs out, the game is to good to be worried about refs

Just think if Blanchfield could make a shot tonight what could have been. 3-18 from the field.
Pathetic shooting g from a professional

I think some Adelaide fans are the worst.
Perth won't win this year but shit happens...it's not like we haven't won since 2002.

Two single digit losses with half of our squad injured. Amazing performances considering the situation.

@Perthworld.
Good call there. Wildcats down with injury & to keep it close all credit to them. Norton now injured & probably won't travel. Bad injuries at the wrong part of the season

You have to admire the tenacity and discipline of Perth, competing like this with so many injuries

" Where are the salty comments? #855020"

Very clearly by Perth fan. That wasn't obvious haha

Perth are the Collingwood of the NBL - all fan bases not named Perth want to see Perth lose, that’s inherent in the club being the Collingwood of the NBL.

Liam Santamaria not prepared to call it how it is on Blanchfield.

"He had a really tough night"

Are you kidding? It wasn't a tough night. It was a sh!t night.

Does he manage Blanchfield or something?

Wouldn't bother booking tickets for Game 4...

I'm glad Game 3 is on Friday rather than Wednesday. The more time we have the less uglier it will be in theory.

The ring chaser comment about Magnay clearly comes from a butthurt individual.

Respect to LV with his most recent post, showing respect to the opposition is something anyone should do regardless of outcome.

Perth coach said stop flopping on Goulding..now I believe Goulding really flopping...

Gutsy performance from Perth. Certainly shows what a great system they have to keep the game close. Managed to speak with Martin briefly after game one. He mentioned Norton would definitely not normally be playing at all with the hip injury. What a leader.

Great to see Baba step up, very impressive defence and quality shooting. I thought Peatling really struggled, Barlow much more consistent defending in the post and has a much cleaner handle. Glad to see JLA's knee injury isn’t serious.

Great effort by Perth, full respect to Norton, and I agree Blanchfield had a shit night - probably because he was buggered by the constant tight defence.

Loved Baba's work after a bit of a quiet patch over the last few weeks.

Landale made an impact, but showed me enough signs that he doesn’t have along-term future in the NBA.

On the basis of those two games, Perth are a vastly better team. Melbourne will still sweep this.

Probably less deserving of the title than the 2013 Breakers were.

Perth's now lost 7 of their last 9 against United and Cotton was playing in 6 of those. Not sure we should be talking about Perth being a better team.

Perth definitely fighting hard, playing team first basketball and disciplined defense against an opponent with plenty of weapons though. Respect.

Perth had two starters out and a third playing on one leg, and Melbourne couldn't get it done by double digits. Zero chance they were winning if both sides were healthy.

Well done United and United fans, there's a title coming your way. We're half a team, but you can only play what's in front of you so congrats. I know we'll come out fighting in game 3, maybe things roll our way, but highly doubtful, United know they just have to wear us down and they've done that in the first 2 games.

Most of our guys look completely gassed, with a lot of shots dropping short in that second half. Best I can take away is Jock getting blocked by Jervis. :p

Historically that has always been United's problem - money can buy you talent but not team culture. Nothing has changed even with their impending title win.

United lacks a killer instinct. They don't usually put teams away.

They've won plenty of games by single digits this season where they could've easily won by more, and tonight was no different.

Not taking anything away from Perth, but reality is this: In games this season where United HASN'T been missing multiple players, they've only lost twice.

My observation is that United is a bit hot/cold, a bit on and off, but when the game is there to be won they've consistently got it done.

I have no idea what would've happened if Perth was healthy, but based on the past two regular seasons, United had their measure both years. (2-2 last year and 3-2 this year but looking at margins, player absences, and surrounding circumstances that 5-4 is impressive).

LV, regular season is not post season, incomparable against a team that's there year in year out. The experience is an ultimate x-factor so you can't say a regular season win is equal to a post season win.

True that Senator. Fair point.

I mentioned United's injury luck in Grand Finals earlier. Childress going down was so cruel yet this tops it.

United should have this wrapped up and congratulations to them and their fans. United have spent big and will get there reward and i don't mean that in a negative way.

To be successful in this league you need an owner who will spend big to get players in and to get that owner to invest you need fans buying tickets and putting money in to the team.

hopefully United fans show up on Friday and pack JCA (to what ever capacity limit is allowed) and show LK why he has invested in this team and league and also show other potential owners that this league is worth buying in to.

I do worry though that when Landale is in the NBA next season, if Baba wants a starting role elsewhere or McCarron chases another large contract in the Apple isle and Hopson prefers the land of the long white cloud over the 'heartland' will United's fan additions this weekend splash out for a membership next season? This team may be a one and done. But it's one more than 8 other teams this season.

Lol @ #103

That's called an alternative history

Maybe it's drugs, but it's really hard to understand the mentality of some people.
Your team didn't even make the playoffs, and yet you're on here loudmouthing at the wildcats and their fans. A team widely tipped to miss the playoffs, yet managed finished second. And despite being ravished by injuries, managed to not only make the grand final but put up two very brave performances.

and the joke of it is, that they would in fact be very few Perth fans who are salty.
We extended the streak.
We made our 9th grand final in 12 years.
Resurrected Blanchfield's Career.
Brought Kevin whites career back from the dead
Uncovered a superstar in John Mooney
A couple of future stars in Travers and Shervill.
And now we've put up a couple of extremely brave fights, despite being ravaged by injury.
As a Perth fan, I am completely and utterly chuffed with our performance this season.

Perth have never had a three-peat, and that would have been nice to achieve at some point. But from a fan's perspective, expecting or wanting to win another championship would have felt unbelievably arrogant and greedy.

" Maybe it's drugs"

You needed to stop there before posting your drug fuelled ramblings

Your team didn't even make the playoffs, and yet you're on here loudmouthing at the wildcats and their fans.

Still need to work on your English Comprehension Dan

You need to write words that make sense before blaming people for lack of comprehension.

Perth have never had a three-peat, and that would have been nice to achieve at some point. But from a fan's perspective, expecting or wanting to win another championship would have felt unbelievably arrogant and greedy.