I have a feeling NZ will get up in this one I think they're better than their 4-8 record suggests. No doubt Perth are the comps form team but even good teams lose on the road. Hope my prediction is wrong. NZ by 5.

My issue with tipping Breakers is that I can't see the Breakers coming up with a big margin, but at the same time the Breakers have had a very hard time winning close games, whereas the Wildcats have performed very well in late-game pressure situations, bar the late stuff-up in Adelaide.

Its funny, normally its "heart says Wildcats, head says other mob", but at the moment its "heart says Breakers, head says Wildcats"!.

Think there's a danger the Wildcats are already in Christmas break mode.

Have a feeling that a big game is coming...#BREAKERNATION by 6

so if the Breakers drop this, go 3-4 at home, 1-5 on the road, 4-9 overall, would Vickerman be expecting the tap on the shoulder before the end of the break?

Vickerman isn't getting fired.

Yeah, I can't say that I could see anything good coming out of a move like that. After all, results or no, the team is on the improve and either the rules are relaxing or NZ is finally making some adjustments.

I suppose the obvious thing I keep forgetting when looking at NZ's late close game performances is that they have mostly happened without the benefit of players like Vukona and some others. Tricky to be clutch with key players warming pine. Of course, that last play against the Tigers was just good ol' fashioned self-destruction.

So far I've seen Pick & Roll tip NZ (by 2), The Post Up is tipping NZ (no margin), and Boti Nagy is tipping Perth (no margin).

Im going NZ by 1 but it's hard to see it being anything but another see-sawing game. Let's hope so anyway.

NZ are improving each week and have been impressive in stages but aren't putting 40 minutes together. In saying that, the cats have relinquished a couple of big leads at times this year so they also have some improvement left in them.
Every wildcats presser if heard this week they keep mentioning sore bodies and looking forward to the break.
Breakers will be far more desperate and at home..

Breakers by 8

Fair call anon^. I guess I have high expectations because I've seen him dominate games but he just doesn't seem to be himself.

Here's an interesting one- do the Breakers look at promoting G to the starting 5 and dropping Mika to the bench, for the reason that Mika is getting into foul trouble (not always but most games) and this way he can't pick up any cheapies early on????????????????

^ Robbing Peter to pay Paul, surely?

Vukona sets the tempo, he starts...

Why players like Vukona never get mentiond for mvp? He is a gun!! I don't like him when we play against him but i love watching him play! I take him over g any time!! Colleto is the key, he gets goin then the cats gona have it tough and cj to turn it on, on his bthday! Hope it's a good game like last wk with the same result. Still perth will be happy with a 11-2 record and don't have to travel to nz again unless the meet play off time.

And I think its been long enough with the <3 New Zealand name, so back to normal. No more silly business from me for a while.

Props for being a man of your word, if Nz crash out of the playoff race I'll support the Cats.

Casey Frank's voice kinda sounds like how a non-American putting on a mock American accent would sound ... maybe it's just me

Ennis has been ridiculous, huge 3 with a hand in his face to end the half.

Ennis MVP done deal!!!! No bubbles no nothing or Ervin!!!

@Mystro,

I may not always have both eyes open, but I do try not to hide when I've been a goof :)

When was the last time NZ ever shot the 3 this poorly?

11pts up, 2min to go, just keep your heads Wildcats.

Dammit Beal!

Breakers are done for the season IMO .
Wildcats Vs Adelaide with Perth sweep

Well, hmm, in the end that was ... an odd game.

Winning in Vector always great, enormous relief, winning the series split against NZ had already become extremely unlikely to become relevant, but always welcome.

Good signs for the team, was wondering if they would mentally go fishing and drop this one.

Way better defensively- keeping the cats to 71 but that's after 19 offensive boards and 17 second chance points EFFIN EMBARASSING

That one will be important for the confidence of the old guard Wildcats.

12-1... yeah, I got to be honest, I had high hopes at the start of the year but not 12-1 high hopes. This has been a phenomenal ride so far.

Only 51 points were scored in the entire second half tonight at Vector.

The quarter by quarter breakdown is:

1st - Perth 18, NZ 8
2nd - Perth 31, NZ 25
3rd - Perth 10, NZ 13
4th - Perth 12, NZ 16

Perth shot 26/63 (41%) while NZ hit 23/63 (37%).

Top scorers were James Ennis and Mika Vukona with 16 each. Matty Knight and Alex Pledger grabbed 9 boards each. Jermaine Beal led the assists with 9 for the Wildcats, NZ's best was Kerron Johnson with 4 assists.

A good win by the Wildcats, but this years Breakers are still looking a shadow of their triple championship winning selves.

And thank god Beal was making assists because I don't know what happened to his shooting. Mind you, I don't know what happened to NZ's shooting either. That game on friday must have knocked lumps out of both teams or something.

That 2nd half was really one to just wipe off the slate and drop down the memory hole for us, the Breakers, the refs, the NBL and all fans.

^ If you're a Wildcats fan, its worth remembering there are 7 teams of supporters out there that also can't wait to watch us suck :)

Correction to my above. Beal dished out 6 assists, not 9.

Swap Jervis for knight and yes that is one of the best starting line ups the league has seen.

History may prove differently, but it is waaay to early to call this the best starting 5 of all time. People have very short memories.

^^ yes its true people have very short memories. This starting five is very exciting to watch but i think the wildcats team with grace, crawford, vlahov and fisher is still far superior to the current starting five.

Good professional effort for to nights win. It wasn't spectacular but they got the job done when they could have easily dropped this game without any ramifications.
Good to see damo hitting a few threes and blocking shots and continuing his great form

While this is a good wildcats team it's only half way through season so alot could happen. I also remember those 90s squads with grace Crawford etc and agree that was probably our best team

One way or the other, its a very strong starting unit by recent NBL standards, and will improve as Knight works back to his rightful spot as starting centre.

Jervis may or may not be average, but he has done more than we could have ever asked of him and the way he is holding the line for Knight is such a boon for the team.

I like what Jervis has done for us so far and if it wasn't for knights injury he could well be riding the pine with Burdon and U'u.

Lolwut.

We're on the same cap as everyone else, the only area we're outspending people is off-court stuff like training facilities.

Great win for the cats, Road warriors!

Yeah let's lower the salary cap and piss of all the good imports, that would be fantastic...

Inhibiting the good teams from showing the way with points cap and tighter salary cap isn't going to improve the league. It should be more about how do we help the struggling teams improve?
If the wildcats didn't have ennis would the kings feel the need to improve their team with sam young? Would the tigers have brought in Farrakhan?
Having exciting imports in the league can help promote the game and generate more interest

A win is a win but the Cats should be concerned about the offensive droughts.

The saving grace is the league leading 72.8 points against / game.

Looking at the full ladder the Wildcats are the ONLY team right now with a positive points for / against differential.

In fact their for/against differential / game is +12.1. The next closest is Cairns with -0.3.

Whenever Matt Knight falls, I just cringe. It always looks bad. I keep fearing concussion or shoulder or worse.

Matt's injury at season's start gave Tom Jervis a great chance, and Tom has proven he belongs in this league. His Defensive Rebounding and shot blocking certainly helped fill that gap for the time Knight was out.

"be great to see perth with a lower cap bring them back to the pack" good one fool. perth has the same salary cap as everyone else. It's not our fault teams like Townsville and woolongong cant afford to spend the cap, tough luck.

I would say Adelaide would be the closest to a cap breach if anyone.
Perth have just hit the Jackpot on the Import Lottery this season and their other players are playing well also.

Perth are fully fit, that is the differnce and having two imports instead of just having one in the past 3 seasons.

I disagree with the above call about the breakers with cedric jackson still losing to the cats, jackson would tear the wildcats a new one whereas johnsom just hasn't been as effective, yet

I just don't think us Breakers are that good.

Like we've being saying "they're improving..they are close to finding the formula etc."

But maybe, this is the maximum you"ll get out of the team. Maybe they have reached their ceiling.

It makes sense.

I mean, I don't know where the extra kick is going to come from?

At the start, they could use the excuse "Oh we're adjusting to the referee, once we do that we will be fine"

But now, there's no real excuse.

They don't have any more to give really.

Think martin would contain jackson enough to upset the tempo. Should've kept hudson at least, wilko is a shadow ove what he was couple seasons ago. If vukona was'nt there breakers would be finished. He is a machine

Wilkinson isn't a shadow of what he was in his first NBL stint. It's just that everything he did looked fantastic because they were winning every game.

I think this current Breaker's ceiling is the performance you put on in Perth Arena; that was the team playing out of their skins and hitting a multitude of shots. If they can hit that level more consistently, they'll win more than they lose, but it doesn't seem to be something they can just pull out at the drop of a hat.

If anything that performance took something out of them, their last two games was well down on that performance.

It's effort stuff. The whole team isn't putting the effort in, Vukona is, Abercrombie is, the rest of the guys it's there for periods but not 40mins.

Winning 3 in a row hasn't helped with complacency either.

Offensively NZ are pretty ok with some room for improvement but defensive lapses are what is killing them like switching on everything until they have Kerron Johnson on Matty Knight under the hoop?

Finally getting a chance to settle in and watch the game rather than the box-score play-by-play. Phew! Also, Casey Frank, what a beard...

In the past the Breakers were always the best team at playing the full 40 mins/game.

Part of that was because we had bench guys like Boucher, a healthy Bruton, Hudson and Henry (limited offensively but his length defensively was really handy).


This season we are a bit patchy. Part of it, as i alluded to last werk, is the fact that we dont have the same diversity coming from the bench.

Bruton, Webster and Wilkinson are scorers.

Its why our offense is going nicely (2nd top in the league as of last week IIRC).

But its why we are so patchy defensively.

That 1Q was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen.

The interesting thing about the Wildcats, that showed in these home & away matchups with the Breakers the last two fridays, is how it showcased how strong they are on either end of the ball. Where the Perth Arena game was determined by the offensive contest, here all the focus, especially in the second half, was with the defensive contest. However, as shown in the results and in the O-rating/D-rating statistics, thus far the Wildcats have proven to be able to match either strategy head on. They can take you on in a shoot out, they can take you on in a stand-up knock out drag out defensive contest.

^Yes i was a bit skeptical about their defense early on this season but they have gradually improved their D each game. It helps that most of them lead by martin love playing D and are always hungry defensively. Would like to see how they defend adelaide now.. ervins penetration carved them up a few weeks back

just checked the highlights on the nbl website... no ennis dunk over wilko? no damian martin reject? wtf