Statsheet Stuffer
Years ago

Taipans @ Wildcats 14/11/13

This will prove as more of a contest than some expect. Cairns have Gliddon returning, while Perth have Mop-in-the-middle Matt Knight coming back after a big injury that came at the most inopportune time; you would expect him to be a little hungry in this one. Perth are off a bye--one sure way to hault a team's momentum.

Bookies give Cairns no chance at $7, but I legitimately feel something brewing here. This club generally seems to overachieve against the Wildcats and that $7 tantalises. Look for McCamey and/or Loughton to have big ones.

Thoughts?

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Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

No excuses for the Wildcats (more generally, any loss at home should be considered unacceptable).

Wildcats by 8, Perth Arena to go off celebrating the return of Matty Knight.

More ominously, I think walk-up ticket sales have been very slow, despite a price drop for the Thursday night game. Will be close to that sub-10k figure.

Reply #444448 | Report this post


Steven  
Years ago

Both teams welcome back great players, that much they have in common but can't see Cairns getting close in this one. Knight can be eased in for maybe 15 min. Perth by 13.

Reply #444454 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Interesting to see how Weigh goes against another of his former teams. Hopefully better than when he played the Sixers....

Reply #444458 | Report this post


Cats 4 life  
Years ago

With knight back, got to think perth's front court is a tad more potent. Cairns imports got to have big games for them but still perth will be 7-0 and with the hawks struggling it could be 8-0 by the end ove the round.

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Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

Knight gives us a huge extra piece of flexibility and inside threat. Perfect for putting other teams on the horns of a dilemma: do you defend inside against Ennis and Knight's scoring prowess, or do you defend the arc after that display against Wollongong. Very good line-up for keeping the D honest.

Reply #444464 | Report this post


Andy  
Years ago

No contest, Perth has Ennis!

Reply #444466 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Wildcats should win but knowing cairns they'll get up for this. Fearnes coaching has been terrible so far

Reply #444467 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Reading the game's preview, I can't help but wonder if Fearne reads my informative postings on this site...proactive defenders vs reactive defenders. It's really good stuff.

Or am I actually Aaron Fearne himself?

Reply #444468 | Report this post


Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

"Last time they met: Perth 70 (Wagstaff 13, Carter 12, Redhage 12) d Cairns 53 (Tragardh 13, Grabau 12), Round 23, 2012/13, Perth Arena"

*shudder*

Reply #444469 | Report this post


Cats 4 life  
Years ago

Every team gets up for a game in perth!

Reply #444473 | Report this post


Rick  
Years ago

Prepare for a blowout! Somethings not right in Cairns.

Reply #444485 | Report this post


skull  
Years ago

at the start of every season Fearne tends to over coach,the players can feel how tense he is and it has a reverse effect on them....every year!

Reply #444495 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

This Cairns team needs an identity. They went from being the best defensive team in the league a couple of years ago to one of the worst last year, but their offense never improved enough in the meantime. - despite the addition of some offensive firepower.

Now they have the personnel to play well on both ends but they lack an identity. What is this team? Do they just jack threes as their mandate or is there more to them?

Fearne has some work to do. Can't fault the recruiting.

Reply #444502 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

You're right, it's disappointing. In fairness, with Gliddon at full health we would've taken at least two of the three he sat out and your comment probably wouldn't exist.

The problem started when Crosswhite left. If we had him instead of Trigger, I honestly think we win the championship this year.

Reply #444508 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

You're right Trigger is a black hole.

Reply #444525 | Report this post


Mick  
Years ago

Crosswhite was very underrated indeed. a defensive anchor that you dont see that often in the nbl any more. Cairns shouldn't have let him walk.

Reply #444554 | Report this post


Northern Brew  
Years ago

Rubbish, replacing Trigger with Crosswhite in the end changes almost nothing in terms of the Championship this year. Perth will still be Perth with their lineup and Crosswhite doesn't fix the fact that all our shuffle offense does is run around in circles for 10-15 seconds before we jack up a 3 pointer that will go down 35% of the time, completely negating one of our best offensive threats (yes Trigger). Crosswhite was a very good interior defender sure, but our biggest problem atm is perimeter and transition D and poor decision making on offense. Loughton/Burston/Young should be able to handle the middle but nobody is hounding the guy with the ball like Grabau used to do.

Crosswhite at times was underrated but even during the year the team made the Grand Final he often looked disinterested and unmotivated on the court and most people knew he had one eye on returning to Sydney to be closer to his farm and eventual retirement. I was happy to see him go.

Taipans are playing terribly atm since Gliddon went down, but people tend to forget we essentially switched out half our team from last year if you include Shaun Bruce, all of whom play pretty significant roles now. In saying that time is ticking for Fearne to turn this around quickly and if things don't improve from the Sydney game this is going to be a slaughter.

Reply #444575 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Northern, I wholeheartedly disagree re: Crosswhite. This team has enough offence, defence is the problem. Defence wins championships. Crosswhite fixes defensive problems simple as that. Our offence has actually changed since last year, you are just remembering the last few games in which we lost without Gliddon. We now play quicker sets with added wrinkles and are a first option team. We haven't displayed that the last few outings but for every preseason and regular season game up until the Gliddon injury, we have.

Although, yes I did see that Crosswhite's head wasn't fully in it. But his production was, and that's all I care about. I want that championship baby.

Reply #444587 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Also, I want Fearne to just let the offensive boards go and simply bust a gut back down the other end of the floor in order to stop defensive trans. Without looking at the stats, I can pretty much guarantee that we give up more fast break points per game than we get second chance points. It's embarrassing.

Reply #444588 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

In order to stop offensive trans*

Reply #444589 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

If cairns dont turn that around soon ennis will kill em on transition

Reply #444610 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

^give up offensive boards^ ..Perth are already one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the league. Thats just asking for a thrashing

Reply #444612 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Have a second read of what I said, anon^

Reply #444613 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Let go of crashing the offensive boards so the team can get back on defence and not leak so many transition points.

Reply #444614 | Report this post


Andrew  
Years ago

Is it too late for Cairns to send an SOS to Grabau to play some D??

Reply #444714 | Report this post


Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

Yeah, if Cairns let themselves be caught out of position looking for second chance baskets, they will get stung on the counter more often than not. Could quickly become a very bad exchange rate, since getting those O-boards isn't likely to be that easy to begin with.

Reply #444729 | Report this post


Proud  
Years ago

Personally I'd like to see Knight coming off the bench and getting a thunderous (Thursday crowd) ovation after 3-4 minutes.

To me this should be the grand final review (Melbourne are the only team that could spoil that) so it should be a ripping game but Cairns certainly need an identity and maybe they need some more emotion from their players as Loughton is great when he is fired up but we either don't see it often enough or he sits on this deep bench shortly after.

Wildcats by around 11 points but I expect Cairns to come away feeling better or time to give Fearne and his horrendous voice the flick

Reply #444867 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Either McCamey is out or is the NBL TV production team up to its old tricks again?

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Anonymous  
Years ago

NBL website why aren't the live scores working again you useless website.

Reply #444885 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Is this a professional comp or not. Nbl website live stats hardly ever work

Reply #444886 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

This is disgusting.

Reply #444887 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Just checked the live stats, and they seem to be working ok for me?

Reply #444891 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Wow, Cairns have tied it up in the 4th. Good game.

Reply #444893 | Report this post


Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

Well that's a chalk-it-up-and-move-on win if ever I saw one. Brr. Terrible return from the bye. What the hell happened to Wagstaff's 3pt shot...

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Anonymous  
Years ago

Wildcats win 75-68. Cairns did very well to make it a game right to the end when the cats threatened to blow them away in the third quarter

Reply #444895 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Yes it seemed the bye came at the wrong time and halted their momentum. Seemed to lack a little energy at times closing out each quarter. Hopefully they will be in the groove again next game

Reply #444896 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

McCamey sorta kinda needs to get fired if he doesn't pick up pretty soon.

Reply #444897 | Report this post


Nathan of Perth  
Years ago

Close of quarters was definitely terrible. Not happy about letting a double-digit lead slip like that. Was definitely hoping for a better performance. If Burston hadn't choked his free throws we'd have been in a whole world of trouble.

Hopefully that's got them back up to match speed, although I'm now feeling nervous about our next bye...

Reply #444898 | Report this post


Anonymous  
Years ago

Anyone at the game.. Does any credit goes to cairns for almost pinching it or were the cats just off their game? Judging by the closeness its surprising cairns have dropped four in a row

Reply #444900 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Taips were okay, but they are simply a headcase. Both teams had lapses in concentration; Cairns' were worse. Cairns made some shots early fourth quarter, Perth made shots late fourth quarter. I honestly think we will get up in Melbourne though. Nothing to back up my theory though, it's just a hunch.

As Gleeson said pregame, Cairns were in his top two before the season started. If they get their heads right, the championship is a definite possibility. Conversely, if they don't get over whatever is weighing them down, they will probably miss the playoffs altogether.

Fun fact: for as good a player and 'leader' Jamar Wilson has been in his NBL career, he hasn't even seen playoffs yet...

Reply #444901 | Report this post


Proud  
Years ago

Well said statsheet stuffer re: Wilson and the quicker he is used as a spark off the bench the better as he let's the game pass him by too much and needs to come out all fired up like he did against Townsville in the 1st game of the season.

I was at the game and I was highly impressed with Cairns, they are so talented but their kids (young, steindl, Gliddon) made a few errors that a more experienced player wouldn't have made and yet their experienced players weren't demanding enough of the ball in the clutch and to have what 3 players in double figures and none play 3/4 of the game (I was highly impressed with the talent always sitting on the bench for Cairns at any one time) and Loughton was looking good ending the 3/4 and yet say down too long in the 4th...

I went there tonight thinking this was a preview of the grand final and left thinking if found my second favourite team and I can't wait to see Cairns click and I hope it's against them pesky Breakers (whenever they play).

Jervis looked quality and I wonder if anyone would take ANY point guard in the NBL over Damien Martin right now? I have Rotnei in my dream team ahead of him but I think he will be more a 2 when Rhys gets better match fitness.

Wildcats 7-0... Great start and honouring the incredible Alabama Slammer next home game vs. Violet crumbles (Sunday 24 November) so I hope it's a sell out

Reply #444904 | Report this post


paul  
Years ago

JC in the house to watch Ennis v Young? Couldnt script it any better!

Reply #444908 | Report this post


Statsheet Stuffer  
Years ago

Jesus Christ?

Reply #444910 | Report this post




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