Perth has had plenty of rest for this game. Should be good to go.Expect Perth's huge frontline to dominate the boards and the United to try to stretch out that big line with guys like Kickert shooting a lot of threes.

warrick should start IMO

BOM forecast is only 20 degrees - 30% chance of a shower. Bit tough considering how good the weather has been for this sort of concept the last fortnight and what is on the way for the new year - but that is the gamble with outdoor games.

Roof is open and the stadium is sold out.

Someone's getting fired if Melbourne don't win.

Roof open in Melbourne...where it swings from rain to sunshine in 2 minutes

Lighting looks real weird on TV... hopefully gets better as the sun goes down.

Can someone at fox please get rid of Dwayne Russel, could not commentate his name out of a paper bag

chris flopping

perth finally woke up

floppers better take advantage of all these bogus home town calls

Dwayne Russell gets pretty excited when Melbourne do...well......anything really.

Hang on, is Tommy Greer putting on a slight American accent?

Floppers living by the 3.

Perth's defence is terrible at the minute

So we got Goulding his groove back in the 1St, and then Warrick in the 2nd.
Not impressed at all with the Cats giving up 55 in the half. We're not switched on at either end apparently.

Breakers and the Hawks are the best two teams right now on form. Perth's defence is hillarious

Breakers haven't been playing flash of late but just getting over the line apart from the hiding the hawks dished out so can't agree with you there Melbourne Floppers.

Not sure if anyone is aware of it, but apparently Nate Jawai is quite large.

Has everyone been pronouncing Prather wrong all season or have the commentators decided to change it today?

Well that was quick :-)

lol call Knight for 3 seconds the very next play after Majok spent 3 minutes in the key.

floppers getting every bogus call helping them.

The bullshit one sidede reefing is incridible

Whatever happens in the last 2 minutes, this has been a heck of a game

Not sure why Damo launched the medium range J then. Low percentage option.

These refs are beyond a joke

look AT THE FLOPPER

Speaking of unusual options, subbing Beal out for Hire with 1:22 left in the game?

that martin strip was all ball and everyone knew it except the ump. melb cheating again holt also flopped on rebound

ENJOY YOU'RE CHRISTMAS PRESENT FROM THE OFFICIATING MORONS FLOPPERS

Classic ref expecting a foul to come. He blow it before even Martin went for the ball.

Fun game, but that referee crew... Two of my least favourite guys on tonight, and it showed....

Without doubt that ump that made the foul call on Martin at the end, don't know his name, is the worst ump in the league by far, And with the standard of umpiring in the league that's saying something. I cringe every time I see him umpiring a Sixers game

Don't worry so much about the refs and more about martins lack of shot making ability. That won't win titles.

I had $50 on the cats and I'm pissed at the cats inability to make shots down the stretch not the reffing. Every NBL game has poor reffing it's just the way it is for now.

Perth fans so salty

That was one of United's best games of the season. Easily more impressive than a few of their early wins

Goulding shot well but I was most impressed with Warrick's hustle. He was a big part of the reason United competed so well on the boards against the Powerful Cats.

First time Melbourne has put together two halves in a row that were both better than mediocre in... Perhaps 7 or 8 weeks. That's an encouraging sign.

Speaking of unusual options, subbing Beal out for Hire with 1:22 left in the game?

I didn't get Gleeson's rotations last night.

Jawai was dominating with buckets and passing it like a PG.

He scored 4 points and had say two assists in the last 4 plays then coach takes him out only playing 5 minutes.

Is it conditioning or is it because he doesn't see the game?

Jawai was injured last night, had a bad back that seemed to be going into spasms, didn't sit on the bench when subbed off, if he'd been able to play his full role, result may have been different, they couldn't stop him under the basket.

Once again the Wildcats made some poor decisions at times in Melbourne, every time we seemed to make a run we'd take a poor option or make a dumb foul.Outscored 30-11 in the 2nd didn't help either.

In saying that i don't fear United, twice we've lost to them in Melbourne and both times IMO we've played poorly and only just lost.

Super game last night, you couldn't script it better, full house, roof open, lots of momentum swings, tight finish, the home team wins and their golden boy is the match winner. Great atmosphere too.

The result itself shouldn't worry Perth, but with each loss the race for top spot gets harder for them. Melbourne now not far off securing a playoff spot, if they can win Weds in Sydney they'll probably only need a couple more.

Not to worried as a Perth fan, our run home from now is not to bad, only two away games and they are against Cairns on Wednesday and Sydney, and six at home. Should be able to get a good ladder posi out of that.

Coach, with Jawai it is a fitness thing. You can see once he gets winded he starts committing silly reaching in fouls and starts travelling. By the playoffs expect him to be in better shape and even more dominante. He could be the X factor that wins Perth the title.

There is no one in the NBL that can defend him one n one when he is rolling. He is a beast. Once he gets in better shape and can sustain a longer period of dominance he could tear the leaue apart.

Meh, you can't give up 30 points in a quarter and 55 in the first half. Perth's famous D just seems to go missing some times. As has been said before, when Damo shoots well, they win championships, otherwise they're effectively an offensive player short. Beal again inconsistent had another quiet night by his standards, had he connected with a few more 3's it would have been a different story.

On the whole, it just shows that the comp is still close, especially amongst the top 4, and finals series are likely to go with home court advantage.
Perth's inability to win on the road is now becoming a worry. Breakers are now pretty much level pegging, and if the Cats go down to Cairns next week its going to make things tough.

Perth didn't dominate at all last night. Twice they've lost to united in Melbourne. Those untied guys keep playing 'fluke' basketball against Perth there haha

Yeah I thought Melbourne was the better side for most of the night and deserved to win. When Goulding shoots 6/8 from outside they're not going to lose to many.

Perth outplayed Melbourne for 5 seconds at the end of the 1st quarter, and 5 minutes at the start of the 2nd half. We spent the rest of the game either breaking even or being outplayed.

Oops, sorry, what I actually meant to say is that we were by far the better team on the night but were cheated out of the victory by corrupt refs and floppers!!!

Daz says Perth inability to win on the road is a concern. Well hello, 6-6 is a very good road record. 2 wins in Adelaide, 2 wins at Hawks and a win at Cairns always tough and Sydney. 2 close loses in Melbourne, 1 close and one blowout in NZ and bogy team crocs lost both up there. NZ, Melbourne and hawks are 3-5 on road, Adelaide 2-6, I would be worried about those teams on the road

Yes, so we have lost BOTH road games against Melbourne, and BOTH against NZ. The two teams most likely to present challenges in the finals. That means for Perth to have a chance they need to finish on top, and a game clear of NZ.

Perth did beat the hawks at home twice, they're the team in the top 4 that no one wants a part come the pointy end of the season

I understand Jawai's back spasms and fitness etc. traveling and fouls when fatigued is a concern if that's right especially traveling.

Surprised he is not match fit half way through the year.

My point I was trying to raise was when he was hot with his scoring and assists why not milk it while you can be it another few minutes or so rather than take out what is working then to maybe sub him as a premeditated move. I was just surprised they took him out that early. I thought they could have built a larger buffer than maybe look to go to their press to change it up.

But I Would like to think an athlete in his country's highest level of play could play 30-40 mins a night without needing to reach for the oxygen tank.

"Oops, sorry, what I actually meant to say is that we were by far the better team on the night but were cheated out of the victory by corrupt refs and floppers!!!"

I'm glad you've finally come to your senses Luuuc. I was worried about you for a while there.

Jawai does not look at all fit for this stage of the season. I have said it before if he does not get on top of his weight now he will not live a long life as ts to much pressure on his heart and he will even less motivation to lose the excess weight which he doesnt even need to dominate at the top level.

Dropping kilos super fast isn't really compatible with playing pro sport, but even without losing a heap of weight his conditioning should be steadily improving.
He does seem a bit better than at the start of the season in terms of how quickly he goes from fresh to buggered. Not a lot though. In fairness, it's a pretty compact schedule of games and he still needs to be able to train and play useful minutes so he can't just spend every day killing himself in the gym.

Wildcats need to get him married to a nutritionist who will be with him 24/7.

I cain't go on..So, I go on.

You set Ross on a path where he was bound to get ill.
Making him lose a lotta weight quickly.

Hawks will definitely be there in the finals, and I'm sure they'll put up a good fight. Cats would be confident going against them, assuming they avoid the obligatory injuries at the end of the season.
From here, I can't see them earning a HCA against the Cats, but MU or NZ could, easily, and that would be a worry.

Interesting games ahead.