When was the last time we had a 7:30pm tipoff?

Last week

Withers in for Windler

Webster out no bigger.
Windler significantly shortens depth.
Delly out Melb? That evens it up

Haha, outside of this season.

Since all of last season it's so obvious that Perth need a legit import point guard to help Bryce. So what does Perth do? Absolutely nothing.

It's not the only thing they've done absolutely nothing about.

Or just maybe - they're missing their starting PG tonight? Switch on

Their starting point guard is the objectively the worst staring pg in the league? Switch on

Have all the layups you like, Melbourne. We don't mind.

Mod: Post flagged and awaiting moderation.

Umm why was my post moderated?? I didn't say anything??

Good news coach gets extended contract based off pre-season lol.

No answer to 7ft centres, even slo mo loe is feeding at will pretty pathetic so far from the cats. Hyrum got a rebound though, well done

Mod: Post flagged and awaiting moderation.

Giving up 64 is a half is truly atrocious

With Windler out there are at least 16 rebounds up for grabs if anyone feels the urge, am I asking too much?

My post also got removed, anyway Windler is only rebounder and he's missing. Cats so short on 4-5 men

Mod: Post flagged and awaiting moderation.

Melbourne looking like the globetrotters this evening

I got a great idea. Let's extend Tillie's contract again. In fact, just give him tenure!

Get's real ugly when your team doesn't play defense and can't hit their shots.

As predicted LV, your mob exposing the Cats big time. Not sure how the Kings form reads after this either. Think you can be a little excited about United this year

Mod: Post flagged and awaiting moderation.

Mod: Post flagged and awaiting moderation.

Mod: Post flagged and awaiting moderation.

I think the moderator is getting a little sensitive

Trevs legacy of tough defense and crashing the boards is a distant memory with this cats team. Their home court isn't the fortress it once was and United are making a mockery of it

68pts ain't winning much in the NBL.

What a disappointing performance.

I have no idea why there was a rush to extend Rillie before the season started...surely it could have waited until at least mid season. He has demonstrated yet again that he is incapable of having a team ready to go at the start of the season.

The lack of appetite for rebounding tonight was awful. With Windler out, you would have thought a few others may try and step up.

Lastly, it looks like Pinder is back to the Adelaide version of himself. Error riddled and hangs around on the 3 point line when we desperately needed a big presence on both ends

Perth, awful, no effort, no scheme, they are trapping to speed you up, so take the 1st semi open shot. Also play Doolittle all game....

United, play full court in your face defence, set hard screens and lots of them.

How the team not trying or contesting gave up as many fouls I'll never know. But would have been nice to have a few very obvious ones called so Perth could say miss a ft...

Forde was the only one able to get the best out of KP. Ive never seen a team capitulate so quickly when they're disrupted out of their preferred style of play. There's no plan B or way of grinding out an ugly win. They cant play half court against good defensive teams such as united and tassie. United were very good but didn't really do anything special. They played smart. And they made perth play like a bunch of headless chooks with no system chucking up three balls hoping they go in.

Moving on from the game...I was hoping with new ownership that the game night experience may improve but no sign of it yet.

I'm sure they turned the music up even louder in the 4th quarter.

The announcer had absolutely no feel for the game and shouts at the crowd when ever the music subsides. He is probably the single biggest worst thing about attending a wildcats game. Even at half time today he was shouting out sponsor ads over the top of the incessant music

One day, maybe the basketball will be the focus but I doubt it.

Oh for the days of Lachie Reid on the microphone. It is a totally different experience having an announcer that makes room for the crowd to get involved

Haha, outside of this season.

Rillie talking about how much we missed Webster....who played a grand total of 14 minutes in the Sydney game. He is clutching at straws. They also had Delly out.

Shea Ili- a rebound and an assist away from a triple double, while keeping the reigning MVP to 5 points

Bryce who?

@Jack Knife United has Ili. An underrated gun, one of the best defenders in the NBL who's been getting better every year under Vickerman

But without Webster and Windler, Perth is playing a 20 year-old PG, and the best rebounded in the league (based on first 2 games anyway). Perth at much greater disadvantage

Strange post game conference from Rillie, starting it by blaming the performance on Webster missing goes against general sports phychology. He barely addressed the Wildcats poor energy or inability to execute throughout the night.

Vickerman would be very happy with that performance, White was a force all night and Clark very slick. Loe/Lee dominant inside. Didn't even need a big performance from CG43 which is a nice sign. Note sure they are top 4 quality over the journey though.

It was only earlier this week people were posting that united weren't in the running but cats championship contender! I'm not having a go at the post. Just shows a) how inconsistent most of these teams are and b) how tight the competition is

Still think both teams will end the season in the top four

Kolzee I'm the one who said United not top-tier contender buy, as I said earlier this week, United are a bogey side for Perth and I expect United to start the season well. The query isn't whether they can win regular season games, it's whether they've got the fire-power to get through a playoff series grind

This game makes me reconsider Perths status moreso than Uniteds, but Webster and Windler were big outs and it's only one game

Pinder, I wonder if he's the victim of big expectations. He played half a season of MVP level basketball and since then everyone's wanted him to be this superstar. Maybe he's just not, maybe he just played out of his skin for 3 months

That was Cottons lowest scoring game (5 pts) since 2020 and equal 3rd lowest ever

He scored 3 in a game in 2017, 4 in 2019 and another 5 in May 2020.

Since the eye/face injury has Pinder's game seems to have evolved into having more of an outside focus. I wonder if it's a confidence thing, even when he's scoring well it's more from range. He didn't seem to want to engage with White down low (defensively or offensively). Lack of interior defensive presence wasn't mentioned by Rillie which was somewhat surprising.

Rillie:

The simple answer is that I think everyone saw how valuable Tai Webster is to our team tonight," he said.

"It's the defensive pressure and having another guy who can get into the paint and create a lot of opportunity on offence when you're playing against a team with that level of physicality he has a nice presence.

"Then obviously there's Windler on the glass as well so to have two guys out like that, it's tough. In saying that, we just didn't show up and play very well.


....

That's all 100% correct imo

But it's worrying that he doesn't understand that, as a coach, you need to focus on the last sentence, before even mentioning what precedes it

Both our D and our O got completely bullied (legally) out of what we may have wanted to do.
Tai changes things a little offensively, because one thing we clearly lacked was some movement and penetration.
But to me, as I frustratedly alluded to during the game, by far the bigger issue was the total lack of D. I don't think Tai's presence would have changed much there. And even offensively, how does a high octane style work when you're fishing the ball out of your own net to start nearly every possession? It doesn't.

I don't even think that Windler would have changed that much. He's a fantastic rebounder, but that only comes into play once you can actually make your opponent miss a shot. At no point did the Cats look like achieving that.

If Perth had hit a few more shots and stayed in touch, the only effect that would have had last night is keeping United playing hard instead of taking their foot off the gas - and probably finishing with something closer to 110+ than 97. That would have been more reflective of what was really happening out there.

Cats are a team of mostly finesse players. For better or for worse, that's how this roster was constructed. So if an opponent wants to push us around, there's not much resistance we can call upon. Doolittle & Harris are about it. Keanu just isn't that type of player, either physically or mentally.

We've got guys who will make for some fun basketball when things get rolling, but it's borderline depressing to sit through when it's a boys vs men affair like last night.

Rillie is making it up as he goes. He talks about how important Webster is to the team but last week against Sydney with his team playing catch up all night, and with Adam's dominating, Rillie only played this really important player for 14 minutes, and that was without Henshall in the team.

He sounds like a man searching for excuses which is a concern this early in the season.

Big game for the Cats against Tassie tomorrow with only the single win against SEM so far.

Hopefully Pinder gets his mojo back and remembers he is a centre

Doolittle was looking around, saying where is the help coming from, he's quality at both ends, Windler will help as well. I still think cats will work it out. It is strange that their two best blue collar guys are imports, normally left for locals. Pinieau is wasted at nz, he’d help, what’s Moller doing, cats short of these type players.

Gleeson coaching Chiba on you tube now, quality team he's got. It’s unusual to see him sitting on sideline in a suit and tie. Worth a watch

Thanks Dunkman. Great fightback by the Brex to take it to OT. Atmosphere and game presentation in the B-league looks great.