Perth won all 4 games, by a total margin of over 60 points.

Hopefully big Nate is ok. That injury he has, with the symptoms that flare up right after a play doesn't go his way, seemed to bother him at a few stages last night.

"Perth won all 4 games, by a total margin of over 60 points."
And I remember a game against Melbourne earlier this season where Jermaine Beal and I combined for 40 points.

"Perth won all 4 games, by a total margin of over 60 points."
And I remember a game against Melbourne earlier this season where Jermaine Beal and I combined for 40 points.

When you're unstoppable close to the basket, and marginal from the stripe, you have to expect that guys are going to strip the ball underneath. He needs to calm down and concentrate on nailing the frees. If he does that, then the fouls against him become a positive.
Doesn't explain why he was sent to the rooms early at Half-time, nor why he sat on the bench for the entire last quarter.
As I said, possibly just managing him for the game tomorrow, but he has supposedly had back issues in recent weeks.

Perth didn't dominate all four games. They won all four, some with big margins, so they dominated the series. Move on now.

Perth have had a knack of beating the Hawks when they have had a star or two out this season. Just saying. Pity it wasn't a fully fit match up, this could've gone the distance.

Correct. Perth were missing a star or two, in two of the victories. That's some knack. Just saying.

Same as nz, when d Martin didn't play in game 3 of the first great series and tore his Achilles and didn't play at all the following year.

Still, 3rd time lucky if we make the gf and have a full team and hca this time around.

Not luck, bevo always for some reason plays with one import? Then played Nz without hca and without our best team. I prefer to play Nz, speaking to the player's there would nothing better than getting the championship over the tall blacks ;) mystro all fun and games but perth are the best team in Australia that's why it's called the national basketball league they should change it to the ibl international basketball league.

Penney needs to spread the ball.

Unless Penney goes off for 38+ today, Hawks are having mad Monday tomorrow.

"Penney needs to spread the ball."

Penney isn't a guy who can do it on his own. He needs the whole offence to be firing on all cylinders so that he can get good shots out of it. When that happens he can still be lethal. It'll be interesting to see how closely and how frequently Prather tries to guard him today after being in constant foul trouble on Friday. I thought Hire was pretty effective, and I'm sure Redhage will see some tie on him too to help share the load.

Someone else needs to get going. Coenraad was good the other night. Either Oscar or Cody need to find a way to at least break even, because the Hawks guard stocks really do look ordinary with Lisch out. Martin is solid, but guys like White & Weeks who can play useful cameos now need to do more than just that. They become relied upon. Which isn't good.

I have a lot of respect for the Hawks but if Damo stays out of foul trouble the Cats really shouldn't lose this.

Here we go. Pro-Perth reffing. Game over.

Pro Perth feffing usually IN PERTH.

Few make ups now bowtie.

Would love to see play on more.

You can't touch the Perth bigs.

Seriously.

No you can't MACDUB. Physical contact whilst attempting a shot will result in a foul. Nothing new there.

Good disciplined 1st quarter by the Cats. More of that, please.

Hawks so much better with Forman on the court.

Interesting to see how long they can maintain this tempo. The pace is keeping Jawai on the bench.

Thanks Indoorkite. I was referring more to the banging of bodies. Point taken.

Not a bad thing Anon. Perth are much better with Knight/Jervis i think.

Those two can defend the on ball screens a lot better.

Gleeson as fired up as I think I've seen him in a timeout.

There's that tempo myth about Perth again....

Offence is flowing very nicely. It's the D that's letting Perth down atm.

Gee there is some spirit in this game!

"His feet were stationary and he got hit in the middle of the chest"
- LOL! neither of those things are remotely true

That's twice Jawai has forced it where he should have looked for the pass.

Wow, Coenraad flops like a fish, and Redhage gets the warning?

Top game, this.

Jawai can't buy a call, gets hacked every time he gets the ball. Ogilvy can do no wrong in the eyes of the refs.

Perth's normally excellent defence is getting run ragged. Too many Hawks' shooters getting their eye in.

I hope they beat the crap out of each other and it goes to triple overtime and the Hawks send it to game 3 before Perth finally get the win :)

I'd back Perth from here, but there's no writing off the Hawks. Forman and Coenraad have their eye in, and if Penney starts hitting from outside...

Dazz, his lack of control doesn't help his cause unfortunately. He doesn't have that polish in terms of protecting the ball etc. So dangles it out there.

Wouldn't say Ogilvy is protected. He gets his fair share of calls against him. Hopefully it stays that way because he does have some secracy to what he does and glad the refs pick up on it.

Hawks need to post up Coenraad. He can take anyone on the Perth team inside.
Oscar keeping them in it.

The Hawks played NZ while they were at their worst.
They are now back in business and have played themselves back into form but yes, the Hawks did beat them four times this season.
NZ also best Perth twice and Melbourne six times :)

It almost looks as if Jawai is playing drunk. Just looks out of sorts.

Can we just send Jawai to Brisbane now from Illawarra, will be a cheaper flight from Perth.

Wow, Cats getting raped by the refs.

NZ's series record against the Hawks is redundant if the Hawks can't get past Perth and make the final.
I'm sure the Hawks would find comfort watching the final on tv from their living rooms whilst saying "we owned them 4 zip".

I'm enjoying cheering for Perth :)

Coenraad gives Damo a taste of his own medicine with that one

Gleeson really not liking Prather today.

"Perth are rattled right now"

Doesn't feel like it to me. Being out-played, yes. Rattled, no. Still sticking to the plan pretty well.

Most coaches use time-outs to settle their players, Gleeson just yells at them.

Can't leave Jervis out there alone against Ogilvy.

... ok, until that dumb Beal prayer, that is.

They certainly look rattled to me.

Perth must be close to worlds worst at finishing 2 feet from the ring.

I don't understand why Gleeson benches players with 3 fouls late in the 3rd quarter.
We need Prather and Knight out there, and might as well tell Jawai to go at Ogilvy and give up his fouls, he's not helping anyone holding down the bench.

They're playing attacking and unselfish basketball, and Perth's D is unable to keep up with it so far.

Any chance of a rebound, Cats? Either end would be fine thanks.

I'm an optimistic guy, but this one's real close to being over.

OSCAR FORMAN!

Welcome Back!

1 field goal in > 3 minutes to start the quarter.

Congrats Hawks. Well played. That's what a positive mindset can do.

Normally I'd expect Perth to mount a comeback in the final quarter, but they do look rattled, and Gleeson seems to be out of options.

Coach of the Year is coming up empty, yeah.

Big advantage to NZ if Hawks take it to 3.
Will certainly be in better shape for GF no. 1

Not sure if this actually helps NZ.
Had Perth won today I think they would have moved the GF forward.
Now going to a game 3 means NZ have to sit around and wait for a while, which is not necessarily an advantage, since whoever wins game 3 will still have more than enough time to rest up for the GF. Meanwhile NZ have the danger of getting rusty.

Well this is a very pleasant surpiese. There will be a game 3, that's a small win already for the Hawks.

At what point does Gleeson start protecting his players from injury ...

Leave jawai there so he can fly to brizzy quicker

OMG how can Perth be playing so poorly. Hawks too smart to lose from here.

This second half defence has been the worst I've seen all season.

Dammit. Hawks were 8 to 1 for 11 and over!

Cheese-bur-ger :D

Why is Game 3 so long away. Should be on Wednesday..but looks like its on Friday? What the?

Keep beating each other up :)

Perth to close it out at home.

Great win, Hawks.


Cats ... embarrassing. Will see what we are made of on Friday after being thoroughly pantsed today.

R.martin getting a bit narky towards the end with Prather. Perth crowd better give it to him on Friday when they lose heavily

Not that it's of massive consequence, but did R. Martin push the ref away at the end there?

Prather did well to ignore a balding 30 year trying to diss him.

D Ewing on fire tonight!

He didn't push the ref. The ref put his hand on him and RM pushed it away.

Only bad thing about Hawks winning. Still a possibility of another game with EWING.

Oh Dazz... Surely he didn't say that. Great for the league this win

GF games were set on their dates.
No changes were going to happen.
First Advantage... Breakers.

Swear Perth fans find any reason to get after a player..so RM was having a chat with Prather at the end. Big deal?

Think Perth will take Game 3. Too good at home.

I reckon if Lisch wasn't injured, Hawks would have won in Perth, and how they have flogged Perth without him. Bevo has simply out-coached Gleeson.

Gleeson is obviously a coach who prefers to stick to the plan, and play the percentages, but I feel that let him down today. Leaving the B-team on-court whilst the lead blew-out.

Perth are one of the best defensive teams in the league, but today that defence was shredded and left rattled. Rebound count was closer, but Perth built their 4 earlier wins on the back of dominating the boards, and that has been taken away.

Jawai has been a bit slow-moving all season, but the Hawks have figured him out. Whether you "blame" the refs, or Nate himself, or simply "the way the NBL is called," the result is the same. He gets hacked every time he gets the ball close to the basket, and at the other end he gives up way too easy fouls. In a fast paced game, with the calls the way they are, he's a liability.

Wagstaff continued his role as the teams Barometer.

Game 3 will be interesting. Everything says Perth should win, but it will in many ways be a litmus test test for Gleeson's coaching. Can he get the boys back on track, focussed, and negate the advances Bevo made in the first two games.

"GF games were set on their dates.
No changes were going to happen."
According to you, some random guy on the Internet.

On the other hand, the league's GM has said otherwise.

Not sure which to believe...

Hawks played with much more intensity from the outset, and yes they hacked a lot in ways that I think should be called, and possibly in the regular season they would have been. But at the end of the day, the Cats just never matched that intensity, and gave up soft fouls.

Jawai is a perfect example. He gets mugged every time he gets near the basket, and if it were me reffing I would call those fouls. At the defensive end he gives up soft fouls, many that I wouldn't call.
But its being going on all season. It is what it is. He and the Cats should have adapted, but haven't, whilst the Hawks have figured out what they can get away with, AND how to get him in foul trouble at the other end.
Also, as I have said before, if you're a big-guy in that scenario, the solution is to work on hitting your frees, thus making the hacks a riskier proposition. You'd be less inclined to hack say Jervis because he shoots 76% from the stripe, but at 56% Jawai is a good bet.

Simple fact is that had the Cats played their best, they could and should have won. Responsibility for their loss lies squarely with the players & coach.
Whilst at the same time, you have to acknowledge the phenomenal effort of the Hawks. SO many of their players stepped up today.

It's an advantage that the Breakers receive due to their win in 2 games.
Anything else would have been unfair.
I expect Perth to win and still have home court advantage. But this gets interesting.

Perth were flat for the start of game 1, and flat for large parts of game 2. Even if they grind out a win in game 3, it doesn't bode well for a GF series.

Dazz, just have a break, perth Wil do it in 3 just another $100 for Marvin.

More than $100 I reckon.

Just received an email from the club re. ticket arrangements for game 3 and I see that they have raised the price compared to game 1.
Poor form IMO.

Give him time. Emails out tomorrow.

Seriously?

That seriously was about the ticket prices BTW, not the singlet!!

Hard to know these days which one you thought might not be true :p

No probs, I assumed that Paul.
Just a little yoke!

But yes - seriously.
When I posted that I had only checked my own seat price, but checking again now it is an increase across the board - for all categories of $eating, and for both members and non-members.

Isn't obvious what happened. Perth clearly tanked that game so there was a game 3 in Perth and chance to raise more revenue.

By $5 though...

Are Perth doing that AGAIN? I remember the big controversy in 2003(?) when they lost to 36'ers SF game 2 when up by about 25 pts at 3/4 quarter time. Fans and members calling for blood, shedding tears and throwing programmes. Those were the days.

It's actually pretty smart. Nobody goes to game one, so you drop the prices. Game three is more likely to draw a crowd, as a decider and potentially the last game, so prices go up.

I'd like to see more game-to-game variation in prices TBH. Get more people through the doors without giving up revenue on the more marketable games.

Was that 2003? Man ... time flies ...

Think so.
Paul Rogers was playing for Adelaide.

Yes, it was 2003. Adelaide were down 26 at three quarter time, outscored Perth 45-11 in the fourth.

It's probably going to be yet another Perth and NZ Grand Final. Something needs to happen to even the playing field.

@ME - have you even followed the NBL this year?!? There was a 2 win difference between 1st and 4th with 36ers a bees willy away from that. How much closer do you want the league to be ? Top that is the fact that 4th(NZ) knocked out 1st (United) in the first semi and 3rd(Hawks) are one win away from knocking off 2nd(Perth).

Yes, i think the loyalty points deductions don't help. Perth and NZ can keep and maintain their rosters year in year out.

With that being said, other teams need to have more patience building up and maintaining the core of their team as both Perth and NZ have done.

Hawks aren't far off joining the Perth and NZ levels. Should have 1-2 import spots to burn so just a matter of managing the points cap. Gives them some options if anyone leaves.

Great game in Wollongong. Challenge is always that a team can treat that like their "grand final" and then come out lacking intensity in the follow up.

I was expecting the Forman/Ellis swap in Game 1. Seemed to work well in insulating Forman from foul trouble against Knight.

I don't think Bevo could do enough to rev his team up for the rematch. Wouldn't be surprised to see a belting back in Perth with the Wildcats comfortable in front of their home crowd.

For some reason, Oscar looks more like an American to me...

what?

Sorry, I meant Amewican.