Self belief and motivation.

Understanding of each other as a team, particularly at the defensive end. You could see them starting to click on the doomsday weekend even though they lost both.

Anthony Petrie went into a bit of detail about the bad run and the turnaround a couple of weeks ago in this article:

http://www.nbl.com.au/article/id/16e6j3paue91214jttvys14blp

Sorry, that should read Sunshine Swing, not doomsday.

No Matty was the difference. We needed a big presence in the middle. Mouth is good but not good enough that he should be allowed 31 points.

Crawford is not hitting his shots, he's missing wide open 3s and shot 2/9 FG last night.

I liked 'Ice' Teys nailing both free throws at the end. (admittedly not as good as 'Jamarvelous' but thought I put it out there)

Motum was outstanding, he was pretty much unstoppable offensively but what I liked most was that he grabbed 13 boards.

Creek makes a lot of poor decisions (I'm sure he had more than 2 TO and his defence was non-existent), I'm not sure he's a great fit for your team as a starter, you need to accept that he's a bench player.

Jamar's finishing was outstanding, I know his FG% was low, but he made the buckets that really counted, plus nailed 8/8 FTs.

All in all, this is the most interest I've had in an ADL or PER game so credit to both teams for putting on a great show. People want entertainment, and the lack of D last night gave the fans what they wanted.

You are right Anon, a guy that signed an NBA contract shouldn't be scoring 31 in the NBL.

Motum fits so well with Adelaide because he's excellent at feeding off other players and getting scores without having plays run for him. James Ennis was very good at that too.

Now that Motum has got his effort levels up he is such a tough guard, and the Petrie-Motum combo really is trademark Joey Wright and fits his style perfectly.

Another big thing for the 36ers is Motum and Wilson are really buying in defensively, and with how hot those two are offensively it makes for a very dangerous team with some very disciplined players around them.

Just my opinion, but BOTH teams should be extremely worried at letting such "average" offence score 100+ points.

As for "the difference" last night, well it was close, but in the run home I think it was the lack of depth on the Perth Bench. Jervis is more than capable of filling the starting Centre role, but Wagstaff was the only real contributor from the bench.
As a 6th man, he's exceptional (he can just as easily start) but whilst U'U and Hire saw some good minutes their overall contribution didn't match the Sixers.

At no point would I say Knight missing had anything to do with the Adelaide win. Fact is 36ers have clicked they're confident and have a nothing to lose mentality. Perth are good aswell this season, but they aren't great.

The difference I think has to be mainly attributed to Joey Wright. He has been working really hard to bring Wilson into being a more cohesive team player and the process has been visible over a period of a couple of months.
I didnt think he would succeed and kudos to him if Wilson keeps this up. Wilson never lacked talent but I would have been happy to see him gone mid season. Joey has done good here. He has obviously worked hard finding the best from Motum as well and now that he has gelled the cohesion in this team seems outstanding. I am really rapt to be able to say this because I have been pretty critical before.

The overall effort from everyone last night was fantastic and it was by far the best game I have seen in years. Watching at home I was exhausted at the end from the tension, excitement and emotion and all I could think was WOW!

Thank you Sixers! Cant wait for tomorrow, hope there's some petrol left in the tank after that massive game.

Kobe24, who knows if the result would have been different if Knight had played, but he has been by far Perth's best player over the past month and would have made things more difficult for Motum....and Perth fans are accused or arrogance!

I suppose if Knight played it wouldn't have made much difference, and if Wilson hadn't played the 36ers would have won by 20?

Knight is the Wildcats' rock at both ends of the floor, I doubt they would have got into such a run and gun contest had he been playing.

The real difference: the last 200 seconds of the game.

Wildcats were up by 5 points.

And then:

field shots: Cats 1 from 6, Sixers 3 from 4
free throws: Cats 1 from 2, Sixers 5 from 6
rebounds: Cats 1, Sixers 3,
fouls: Cats 3, Sixers 2 (1 offensive),
turnovers: Cats 2, Sixers 1.

Hey just my opinion, no big deal.

You can only beat the team that takes the court.

One factor in the 36ers win was Gleeson's match ups ...

Martin on Gibson when we couldn't contain Wilson's penetration,
Subbing in Redhage when he had really been poor offensively when we needed scores and that final play was poor.

I thought the inability early to pick up Creek was ridiculous ....this I pin on the Cats players, once they got on it, he was contained.

Brock is also a fool for that last minute push, nothing in it but really - you're an International player and you risk a tech? Needs to be better than that.

Better team won....well done 6ers.

Didn't call him a fool, called the act foolish.

Actually - I did call him a fool!

Sorry, yes it was a foolish act ....Brock was very good last night.

It was beyond foolish really.
Your team is up by 2 points, with possession and 3 seconds left...
And you commit what could easily have been called a Tech. Cats make 2 frees and at the least you're into extra time, or worse Cats score again in the 3 seconds and you've lost.
Refs were probably right not making a call when the game was effectively over, but at any other time that could easily have been a tech.

Was definitely a silly act, gave the refs the chance to call something, thankfully they handled the situation well.

Not the same thing at all. Redhage was TRYING to foul (not my favourite tactic but every team does it),
the game was lost and so I suppose its worth the gamble.
Motum then picked up the ball and shoved it at Redhage.
Personally, whilst we could have done with the win, I'm glad the refs didn't call anything so late in the game, but you can't deny it was a foolish act. It COULD easily have cost them the game.
Even if Perth had missed the free-throw they would then get possession with with 3 seconds to play.

As for "it was nothing," have a look at the Tech called on Davidson today. Shensy elbowed him in the face, Davidson got called for the foul, objected and was teched.
Point is that players need to keep their heads. How many times have we seen the player REACTING to provocation get called for the foul?