Lack of Sarr tips the balance slightly in NZ's favour.
I'm still expecting a good one though. Cats have shown some toughness on the road lately.

Let's see if Keanu can keep his hands to himself today. 30+ minutes from him will probably be needed.
Cotton should log his standard amount in the 39:59-40:00 range.

Cotton v PJC, now that is worth the entry fee on its own, imo, the two best in the league. I'm leaning to home court advantage here, Sarr big loss, Mathiang v Pinder should be good as well, hopefully Pineau gets his time as well, to good to warm the bench. As above should be the best game this round, hopefully get a cracker, nz by eight

Expecting a lot of small ball lineups, Cheatham at the 5 for New Zealand and Wagstaff/Okwera for Perth.

Not sure if Mathiang can handle Pinder

Hopefully, we get a great game. NZ vs JJs was exciting.

Sarr out tips the game in favour of the Breakers. You need that rim protection to slow down PJC and WMW.

Hoping to see more progress from Rubstavicius. The kid is really underrated in the role he has played in the Breakers resurgence.

inb4 Wagstaff BEAST MODE (not).

One way whistle already ruining this one

That show was way after the whistle!!! This is absoultley pathetic.

Doolittle had position, lamb throes his head back gets the call. Again a brutally pathetic call that went nz way. If that was a foul on doolittle then he should have been shooting freethrows.

Major home cooking early, Perth got problems with H. Harris and Doolittle both on 2 fouls.

35 in a quarter. NZ doing as they please so far.

Almost like Nz didn't need blatant home cooking early. Deflections and a few rebounds also just falling oerfectly for NZ. But Usher will put his hero cape on so....

The problem for Perth is Usher.

Two words.

Cracking game.

LOL Perth with 3 defensive rebounds in the qtr.
4 offensive rebounds.

NZ have 5 offensive boards.

This proves one thing. Perth are ONLY interested on side of the court.

Its funny how motivated and energetic they are for offensive boards and couldn't give a crap about the defensive side.

They are all just a bunch of stat whores.

Perth are not winning anything this season.

Wildcats losing, Anon all over the men in green. Nearly as big of a troll as jackass! Oh sorry jacket

Dunkman, why is it a cracking game?

If i wanted to watch basketball where defense was banned, i would watch the All star game.

It shows what kind of society we have become when we find this entertainment.

Its become Kim Kardashian entertainment

LOL Breakers getting o boards off FT misses.

Wildcats players only thinking about there offense. How they are going to get next there shot up.

Maybe a scout is watching. Why bother wasting energy on defense or rebounding.

Its all about points.

I love defence, two of my favourite players are defenders, sometimes great offensive talent and passing as nz has done today beats defence.

As I said cracking game.

Why haven't Perth cut Usher yet?

I don't think commentators need to have a sook about the schedule... the fact nz is closer to the east coast then perth.... no mention

Nothing worse than excessive sooking, is there!

Oh pwrth should be down, but hey probably should have had a buffer early. Non existent fouls sending Harris and doolittle to the bench is massive, anything that brings usher on the court....

Lamb in place of Jessup is win, win.

Another bail out call for nz, all ball all day...

A forum is not a telecast. But i see what you did there. I don't like it lol

Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul, Foul, foul, foul, foul,

So many wet floor issues this season, do we know why? Seems the thing holding the league back aside from the ref's of course is the bloody venues and the floor/decals specifically

So that's a foul on pinder but there was not a foul at the other end in Webster ir cottons drive??? Okay... sure

Great response by the Cats. That - other than Pinder's dumb late foul - is the composure we didn't have early in the season. Lock them down and then attack that rim.
Game on.

The lengthy and constant stoppages are painful to watch. It's never a fluid moving game. Those in charge have to do better at making quicker decisions and get back on with the game.

Not just this game, happens a lot.

Anyone complaining about the quality of the game had better get back to their lawn bowls, there is nothing basketball is doing for you.

Very, very enjoyable game with great offence and defence with refs allowing a flowing game and not calling rubbish.

Game stoppages, mate the nba are chucking an add at you every two minutes, time outs left right and centre.

Leafa is a poor defender for someone who is supposed to be good.

What is Webster meant to do? He drops a shoulder into Webster, then gets the call???

Anon, look at the foul count and stop whinging. It was the right call. Lawn bowls is your calling.

NZ defence seems to have the approach that the poor bunny guarding Cotton is on his own. Some very poor help side defence out there.

Otherwise, a cracker of a game.

How can you think the NBL isn't rigged after this absolute garbage?

Usher pushes Cotton, where are you Anon?

Usher just taking out Cottons space.... that's an awful call. That is the crap that makes people question the calls cotton gets. He cops so much shit that doesn't get called. Then one call like that and the bitching starts.

The American ref is so f'n bad how did he get a job.

Apparently it was the hand on cotton before the clash that was the call.

Maor getting a lesson from Rillie, his subbing as usual is panicking, loves Leafa and over plays him, Pineau just 55 seconds.

I owe Rillie an apology, I didn't like his coaching but it’s clearly working.

Yeah ticky tack foul on Lamb's hand, but at least they fixed it from the phantom push call on WMW before. Tough call still

Screeningnick finally someone said it

No three seconds then a gift and 1

Had lamb gotten called for a charge all game does that injury to pinder happen???

Usher is just not clutch... he is the anti clutch

Sloppy ending Perth, but hung on well

Tuff tutties bro

Good game, clearly the best team won. I know I'm the only punter here that thinks Maor can’t coach but today clearly found out, just in how he subs.

Cats are the real deal, United better look out.

You cant have T Webster and Usher on the court at the same time. Too much hero ball and flexing going on. Seems to be a common theme with the cats in the fourth quarter. They go away from what works and too much iso and not getting the ball to Bryce enough.

In saying that the cats impressive turning up the defense after the first quarter and playing smarter offense. Hopefully Pinder will be fit for next game otherwise both centers out too hard to cover.

Another shaky last quarter but at least we came away with the win. Hope Pinder is fine.

Anon, whether they call the charge or not Webster still falls onto Pinder. The whistle being blown does not change the physics of the fall. Talk about stupid

Exactly. The issue was Webster's flop onto Pinder's ankle, which was a secondary movement after the contact. Had NBL refs not been calling crappy flops as charges forever and a day then Webster would have kept his feet. At least the refs are trying to change that in the past month or so.

Jacket, how do you suppose you defend when everything gets called a foul, as you've pointed out.

Also, if a team shoots a high fg%, there are less defensive rebounds available. Reb% better indicator or rebounding.

Granted, Perth aren’t an elite rebounding team at all.

Cotton getting to the stripe 17 times, and only missing once. God damn.

Who was it in the 90s who shot 90% from the stripe? I think there were a few, they seemed to be more consistent back then.

Cotton getting to the stripe 17 times, and only missing once. God damn.

Okay one is Gaze.

Scott Fisher was very good FT back in the day.

Luuuc totally agree. It looks like Webster and Pinder especially have been working on their FT shooting.

Steamrolled, and pretty to watch. Bryce taking the piss at this point what a specimen.

Creek A1, Sauce bottle is only half full this season, the rest of the Phoenix were NBL1 tonight. Dont bring that $hit over here again please.