Breakers in a bit of hot water with their social media sledge on Corey Webster: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2022/12/basketball-nz-breakers-take-aim-at-former-star-corey-webster-with-social-media-taunt.amp.html

I didn't see it and appears to have been taken down. Does anyone know what was said?

There was a billboard with a picture of Corey and a cartoon cat face/emoji. Trying to say he is a weak cat or something. I am not sure I would have been offended, looked like a bit of harmless banter but today everyone is a bit over sensitive.

The cats are weak and pathetic though , there's no denying that based off their results and the way they lose.

Ah, so they basically called him a pussy.

Webster has been horrible, doesn't look fit but can light up with a bit luck. Perth have a few like him, Blanchfield, Manek as well. If they shoot the daylight out of the ball, they are a chance, certainly not winning it defensively.
NZ just got keep switched on, play smart and should win this comfortably. Breakers by 22.

This could get ugly. Rillie needs to try something different. Maybe Majok and Thomas both start for added paint protection, and play Harris instead of Wagstaff for some added energy.
I know it's unbalanced but they need more energy instead of Blanchfield and Wagstaff plodding up and down.

Coach Rillie has not wielded too many changes to his line up. if it was Vickerman you would see Blanchfield coming off the bench. Feels like he keeps hoping the good wildcats will turn up and to be only let down with the poor wildcats show up.

Defence and intensity are either things the coach is not instilling or getting player buy-in or your players are just poor defenders as a collective group. Looking more like the latter as last season their defence was poor as well.

League has a lot of faster and athletic players, the cats dont have any and as such they train against each other (as slower players) and get easily beaten in the real game when a speedier line up presents itself.

Its all on Danny Mills ultimately - he recruited Manek who is too one dimensional , slow and cant defend smaller NBL players. Recruited Webster when they probably needed more an elite point/defender/hybrid style guard. Recruited Thomas who is severely undersized, lacks rim protection and rebounding skills.

So they recruited a team that neeeds everything to go right to win. At least last year they had Law who had many monster scoring/rebounding efforts. If they had instead Manek or Thomas last year instead of Law they would not have been close to 16/12.

In a sense the cats downgraded this year in almost every category, some of the downgrade by keeping an ageing squad mostly intact another year.

Thomas doesn't lack rebounding skills, was a decent rebounder in good comps in Europe, but he's not delivering it for Perth just yet.

I think Manek is a fine option. Should never have signed Blanchfield for 3 yrs and Wagstaff, while a leader, needs a tap on the shoulder with Norton not far behind.
Thomas can't get rebounds coz he's constantly outnumbered 3-1 in the paint.

Massive list overhaul required and Danny Mills is clearly NOT the bloke to do it.

Manek can play, but he certainly isn't what Perth need at the moment. They need an experienced big man to anchor their defence, set great screens and clean the glass.

Doesn't seem to be any urgency to try and turn the season around by the Cats.
Another L coming up and too reliant on Cotton as usual.

Billboard image is here: https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/12/02/corey-websters-claws-come-out-over-breakers-cheeky-billboard/

Storm in a teacup, if anything shows how fragile Webster is. I'm sure he’ll come out now to prove a point and may have his best game yet as a Wildcat.

A bit tacky IMO for a club to do that in an official capacity.

It might push Corey to play better, it might push him to do too much and play worse, or it might not affect him. I don't know.
What I do know is that he could have his best game as a Wildcat, or as an NBL player for that matter, and still be on the losing end today by a points margin that is preceded by the word "whopping" in the headlines.
I haven't been this confident in a loss since the past AFL season.

I think Izayah Le'afa criticising his own club for it probably shows it wasn't in great taste. Hopefully it fires Webster up because this game needs it.

Agree that they need a rebounding defensive big man that can play alongside Manek or slide to the 4 spot when Majok is on. Then hope that Blanchfield and Webster find some form the second half of the season.

Danny Mills has no idea what he's doing constructing these teams. Even Rillie keeps saying they have the right pieces but their style of play living or dying from the 3 point line and iso ball isn't going to win you anything. They need to be able to score and defend inside and rebound better.

Start of the season they were generating lots of points from their defence, that's dried up and the containment side of things is very inconsistent, which puts heaps of pressure on the O.

Massacre .. this could in all honesty by a 30 points walloping

Start of the season they were generating lots of points from their defence, that's dried up and the containment side of things is very inconsistent, which puts heaps of pressure on the O.

If the cats play as they have last few games it will be a well deserved ass whooping of cataclysmic proportions. Hoping for the best but prepared for the worst

Cats starting 5

In: Webster, Travers, Manek

Out: Norton, Blanchfield, Wagstaff

Much better by Rillie. This starting 5 is more athletic and far better offensively

If you can't defend 'em (which we can't seem to do, regardless of which lineup we try), then try to outscore 'em instead.

I'm just glad that we're mixing it up and trying something else. No point going back to the same old well when it's staying empty.

You should get better floor spacing with this lineup if Webster performs. Manek is now becoming a pretty reliable shooter. Plus travers will give you more defense and playmaking then Norton or Wagstaff. You also get better at around the rim as travers and Mank are better finishers

What was the point of blowing the timeout if your not dragging them?

Rillie giving an absolute spray!

Did anyone pick up what Rillie sprayed at them in his first timeout?

Looks like Rillie sending message to Blanchfield, Norton with starting 5 change.

Did Rillie just call a time out after 26 seconds, yelled at his players and sent them back in.

Brown not only great offensively, very good defensively as well. NZ got the three imports for team balance. Perth need a quality point guard, to much left for Cotton. Perth are certainly trying but you can't make a silk purse out off sow’s ear, to many past or average or past it players and Travers just not doing it.

Breakers are just to good. They are an elite team on both ends

Nice to see cats having a go, Manek getting better each outing. Blanchfield D is non existent.

Thomas absolutely marked last two possessions!! Wtf are these ref's doing??

Thomas needs to bleed to get a foul call

Good fight back by Perth. It looked like for a little while the breakers were running over them.

Cottons shooting needs to comeback

All the experts. Yeh a massacre by Breakers. 56-53 Wildcats. 5.49 in 3rd. We'll see what happens

A side by side, over the back call. Nice

Home town officiating

Webster 15. More to come. Giving them a lesson

Manek foul fucking joke

Breakers suck. Webster!!!!!!!!

Cats by 10

Webster can't keep that up surely.

Webster 22. The story continues

Vintage Webster

Rillie should have realised a lot earlier in season to make changes and not mediocrity.

Wagstaff shouldn't be playing.

2 incorrect no calls don't make a right... crap officiating as usual.

3/4 time. Cats 73- Breakers 66. It's Over.....

Problem with Webster he's only good for these sort games a few times a year. Norton playing much better as well.

Getting vote of approval as a starter maybe a help for the confidence as well. The key question though can they push on

Nothing wrong with Corey being a important game player. That bodes for the playoffs then

Breakers nowhere on the boards. Cats D great. Breakers in transition & shooting options poor

Now Manek draining 3's.

MANEK!

Manek is manic

Brady manek shooting is damn money

86-74 Cats. A reverse massacre.

That was a charge, should be Brantleys 5th!! Absolutely blatant no call as to not foul him out. How can a professional league not call that!

Upset of the season coming up.

Charge, lol flop.

I haven't been this confident in a loss since the past AFL season.

Surely we can find a better shot than a Norton pull up long 2

Really character filled old Wildcats grit and grind we saw under Gleeson for close to a decade

Far from over. Tired, poor shots going up now. They deserve to win this, they have worked their arses off today.

Perth need to finish it off. More poise

Who else by Corey with the dagger

Player of the game Webster for sure.

Great gutsy win!!

No wagstaff no blanchfield seems to have worked.

Manek's three 3s iced the game.

Cats 92- Breakers 84.
A 2nd half smashing from Wildcats.
Breakers showing what the reality is.

Against all odds Perth knock off the league leaders who had been dismantling teams. What a famous win for Perth. Season defining. Now they have to back it up against the Sixers in Adelaide Friday evening. This starting 5 is far more better offensively

Yep Blanchfield and Wagstaff less than 10 minutes each. Well done to coach Rillie, it takes time to adapt at the high level. Webster was great, can he continue it, I'm not certain. Travers showed a bit of grunt as well, Manek also.

Breakers just a little off, they will be back. Thought most 55/50 calls favoured cats, that’s basketball at times.

Very good game all round.

Interesting that Rillie gave the old boys enough rope in previous games to prove themselves. Now the cynic in me says that's it for Wildcats, however the dreamer says Rillie been playing us all for fools. He even played Cotton less than normal. Great game and if they have turned the corner then going to be interesting back half of the season

I still don't see Perth defending fast pace teams like Sydney and Cairns, Sixers next game should be a good test for both teams.

Fantastic win. I'm with Luuuc, I was certain that was a significant loss coming up today, based on the garbage dished up against Adelaide and Brisbane. Add that to the Breakers recent dominance and execution and I just could not see how a win was possible. You'd think I'd learn after 36 years but noooooo.

No one saw this coming apart from the one after timer acting all knowledgeable.

Well done to the Wildcats. There was a point early in the second the Breakers could have easily extended their lead to one that couldn't be chased down. Instead, the Breakers got complacent, offence was stagnant, and by the time they upped the intensity Webster then Manek were making plays. Manek’s 3 triples in a row iced the game though. Interesting that Wildcats did better when they didn’t just rely on Cotton play after play.

The major concern I had about Perth was watching Travers play PG and bring the ball up. He wasn’t up to it.

NZ won 6 in a row, bound to drop one at some point, just happened to take a huge night from webster...

Never in doubt!

Corey a deserving POTG winner. Him catching fire was obviously a huge factor, but even before that the overall effort level was noticeably above what we've dished up lately. The switching and help was more proactive and aggressive. Finally we saw some resemblance to the "Wildcats basketball" of seasons past that allowed us to stay in games even when the offence is not in top gear.

That's the level this team needs to maintain just to be competitive in this league.

I have to also give kudos to Mody Maor for the way he handled the social media question in the press conference. He and the team may well have been fuming about the added motivation that had been handed to a team that was desperate for a spark, but you wouldn't know it from his classy response.

"This starting 5 is far more better offensively."

More importantly, it gives them a chance on the boards. Good to see Rillie recognise he had to make changes to improve the rebounding.

What a stunning performance. Amongst all the hot shooting, it shouldn't be overlooked how good Norton was off the bench. Like Ili in Melbourne, Perth are a different team when he is making those small but important plays.

Props to the Wildcats for sticking it to the Breakers on their home court.

Very strange game. I thought Breakers would go into Pardon and Brantley all night, but played Perth at there own game. Breakers shot 32 threes and Pardon only 6 shots.. 5 of 6. Webster was great but I wonder why he can't get up for every game. Manek was on fire. I think the Breakers reputation as a good defensive team is impacting the refs. They seem to get called for a lot of soft fouls where as other teams are allowed to be physical. The falling over of Norton and Wagstaff is embarrassing. Why do refs fall for it so often. I thought Travers would really kick on this year but he just cannot shoot. Teams not even picking him up when he isn't close to the hoop.

The fact the Breakers are the most physical team in the league is also probably impacting the refs!! They need to adjust better to the fact the refereeing has changed in the past 2-3 rounds.

I don't think the refs have changed their approach in the last 5 years. They consistently make sure that the competition is a close run to the end of the season. Not sure why folks are surprised when under dogs win as often as they do.

I complained about the refs during the game, it was a physical game and the refs let a lot go. I personally thought they were reasonably consistent with it though.