Where the jack Toft?

I assume J Toft will do a proper thread tomorrow yeah.

Jack had too much pudding and Pav.... he is shot.

Steindl out... baby

People treating Moller like he is Kevin Garnett boggles my mind.

Sooooo... is Moller playing?

"Will Bogut start the mind games by telling Hunt he's never going to make it to the NBA?"

More likely a crack about not being NBL standard.

No Didi either, expected to miss 2-3 weeks with a calf injury.

Lot's a stake today and Sydney this time of year is known for its fireworks. And that's what we will get today.

At home, Perth Pussycats are either lions or kittens. They double dacked Sydney in Perth last time they met, but Sydney at home are another level. Maybe they like their mums tucking them into bed at night. Didi is out this game so his fast paced play will be missed.

The only real question today is how many flops can the Flopstaff get away with?

Sydney by 5

So Didi and Steindl out? Do they balance eachother out?

Impossible to predict this game. Hopefully its a cracker whatever the result, but could just as easily be a blowout either way.

Injuries starting to pile up for Sydney. Perth to get this one.

Sydney are at a disadvantage tonight.... They'll only have 3 imports

Perf to win.

Only one finger left for that tenth ring. Where will we wear our eleventh? Time for a Red Army brainstorming session to figure this one out.

96-77 last time around. Let's make it a 20+ margin tonight.

A 20+ margin would not surprise me at all

Let's go Wildcats let's go.
96-77 last time round.
70 in the first half.

Wani Swaka Lo Buluk with first quarter minutes.

24-22 Perth.

@QT.

Andrew Bogut with first quarter dunk shot

Nitpicking but dunno how Wagstaff keeps getting away with such BS every game. If you were a ref surely you'd think twice before whistling a foul against him.

Sydney holding up well with just the three imports and hoops forum favourite Moller not playing.

Game on moles

So did Sydney manage to bring in another import in time to replace Didi or Lisch?

Louise Ransome :)

"So did Sydney manage to bring in another import in time to replace Didi or Lisch?"

That was what the Xavier Cooks signing was for

Brad Dalton aging well

Who could have predicted that the guy who goes down with an ankle sprain would be the guy wearing Delly 1's

Terrible refereeing - bad call on one end followed up by make up call on the other, repeat as nauseum.

Reffing has been shit both ways this last quarter.

Props to Perth. Amazing shooting 2 games in a row against Sydney.

Kings can't contain Cotton

Gaze wants hand checking off the ball just because "context" ,

Not exactly 20+ but I'll take it.

We the kings.

Dwayne Russell has to tear up his 'Casper is Amazing' speech. Cotton is unbelievable.

Enjoyable enough game I suppose
:)

Cotton best player on the court and on fire, that was the difference. Kings did a really poor job taking advantage of the foul count in the 4th too I thought, just looked for Ware when we should have been force feeding Tate against Wagstaff.

#wethekings.

Yeah, the refs really favoured the kings tonight. #eyeroll

They were awful all round. The shaved head ref who's name I don't know was particularly terrible.

Probably the same percentage of them that were bad calls that went the other way. As I said, refs were awful. I don't think they favoured one team over the other overall or changed the end result, just another embarassing performance from the guys in green.

Bogut was far from the only one.

I didn't think the Kings were getting favoured. Maybe some each way that didn't need to be called but nothing particularly unusual or influential.

This is intolerable.

The league needs to allow the Kings to have a 5th import just in case Didi is injured (even the Sydney commentators called Didi the Brazilian Import).

Furthermore the fifth import's salary must not count on the soft cap so Bogut can still say they aren't that much over the cap.

I was impressed by the calmness of Trevor Gleeson today.

Those three fouls on the development player and a couple on hunt were farcical calls to get the kings back into it. That was a typical home cooking officiating

I must confess that I haven't kept up to date with Sydney's injuries.
so, no Moller, Lisch, or Didi?
I won't claim it would have changed my lack of prediction, but that certainly made things tougher.

I didn't mind the idea of his starting 5 at first, but it just plainly didn't work.

Sydney have a huge problem when they try to rely too heavily on Ware to score. He'll shoulder the load, but at the expense of dishing it up for others.

Once again, Weaver has been outcoached, and been unable to recover when things don't go his way.

Just watched the replay of this game and one thing I can say is Andrew Gaze just never stops talking!!!! Drives me insane with all the dribble. Shows they are in a studio and not at the game. Also every foul called is incorrect according to him He used to squeal at the slightest contact when he played

It might say a lot about where the commentary bar is set, but for most of the game all I felt was joy that Corey wasn't in the hub. Gaze wasn't bothering me at all.

No Homicide made the game easier to watch.

What a game. Cotton is just.. other-worldly. The Kings couldn't buy a bucket after a very entertaining 1st half. Refs were better this game, although I think the continual moving screen violations bear looking at.

Never going to beat a team that shoots 52% from behind the arc. Never...ever.

"Am I the only one that noticed that Ware was NEVER going to pass the ball in the last quarter unless he had absolutely no alternative."

No, you weren't the only one,
but their is the matter of cause and effect.
he's not normally so selfish and was either under instructions, or was trying to carry his team to victory having observed the rest of the kings tossing bricks all game.

that's rich. Calling somebody a coward who states the obvious while hiding behind the name anonymous. You got to hand it to the Perth fans though. At least they're consistent in their low IQ posts.

Weaver usually has a dig at the refs in the press conference with things haven't gone his team's way. IMO part of that is campaigning for the next time they play that team, but part of it is also frustration and looking to apportion blame.

In reality, Sydney haven't found a solution to stopping Perth's ability to hit pull-ups and floaters. Initially yesterday they sent their PF to defend the screen and leaving Bogut in the paint, but once Perth went with Kay and Wagstaff that didn't work.

They didn't find a solution to SE Melbourne either, they just outscored them. The Kings went through a similar thing last season with their drops defence, Gaze wasn't able to find a solution. Weaver is a much better coach, will be interesting to see what they come up with. I suspect we'll see more of the Cooks/Tate frontcourt in those situations.

Confirms what i have been saying. COTTON IS TOO GOOD. Limit his options of touching and shooting the ball. Ware is the best on ball defender in the league. Can't be done 1 on 1. Double team him and make someone else beat you. Bogut protects the hoop the other 4 need to focus on stopping Cotton. Perth have options with Kay, Wagstaff, Steindl and White, but when Cotton gets going he is unstoppable.

In reality, Sydney haven't found a solution to stopping Perth's ability to hit pull-ups and floaters. Initially yesterday they sent their PF to defend the screen and leaving Bogut in the paint, but once Perth went with Kay and Wagstaff that didn't work.

They didn't find a solution to SE Melbourne either, they just outscored them. The Kings went through a similar thing last season with their drops defence, Gaze wasn't able to find a solution. Weaver is a much better coach, will be interesting to see what they come up with. I suspect we'll see more of the Cooks/Tate frontcourt in those situations.

Does anyone think the sky is falling in for the Kings? What is concerning for them is Bryce Cotton has produced three big games where he has exploited their defensive strategy and Terrico White has now done it twice in a row.

If that's the most likely grand final match-up, they need to find answers or Perth will shoot a very high clip from three against them in the playoffs.

They couldn't find the solutions last season when Melbourne used similar offensive strategies, let's see if they can this year. They have a better coach and personnel to do so, but at this point their D hasn't been great of late.

Both teams jerseys looked like their regular uniforms.
Can't imagine any of their fans reaching into their pockets to purchase these.
NZ and SEM are clearly visible along with the Hawks but the rest suck with silhouettes that don’t even show up on tv.

"Initially yesterday they sent their PF to defend the screen and leaving Bogut in the paint, but once Perth went with Kay and Wagstaff that didn't work."

Do you have any examples (the time of game) when they used the PF. I just want to watch on the replay for my own learning

Excuses for losing.
Sydney were at home still have Ware, Newley, Tate, Cooks, Bogut, Bruce and Kickert.

Perth get little from point guard and centre position.

Where is LV and his continued analysis that Perth are not in the same tier as Sydney and Melbourne?

Lol Sydney and Perth are in their own tier.
United are in the pack.

Top spot no longer a foregone conclusion.
Perth finish with 5 of last 6 at home.

"If anything Perth were better when Martin went down. He gave them nothing at either end. Norton was very effective."

Martin has been playing injured. Hard to tell what. Trev keeps foxing in the pressers. Looking at his lack of mobility, I would guess at a lower-back, or maybe something in the abdominal area.

From the outset, they had Cotton guarding Ware, which is a risky move.

Be interesting to see what the strategy is against Adelaide. Obviously Norton will have to play more minutes, and I'm guessing Cotton will cover the balance at the point.

Does anyone think the sky is falling in for the Kings?

What is concerning for them is Bryce Cotton has produced three big games where he has exploited their defensive strategy and Terrico White has now done it twice in a row.

I seem to recall Perth DP got 3 fouls in 45 seconds. The next Perth foul Sydney went to the line. The 5th and 6th Perth fouls, Sydney took side ball.

Flopstaff is not a pretty sight, but refs like him.

Refs were frightened of Goorjian. They take notice of what Gleeson says, now.

Attention to all nbl coaches. Simply have your team shoot over 50% threes and have your best guy ring up 39 points. You'll beat that silly Weaver fellow who still leads the league. Brilliant.

Yes Moller has played for the Boomers....the NBL version.

Still big outs but people need to move on Sydney weren't without talent on the day.

Don't really get the beeyatching to be honest.

Weaver’s press conference was fine ...he said exactly the correct thing - Perth are physical, best screen setters in the league and we want to aspire to be that. He also stated they knew what they had to do – keep Perth off the O Boards (lost count 14-7).

On the injuries – you can only play the team that fronts up and both Sydney and Perth have the depth to cover. Steindel out obviously focussed Cotton and White on what they had to do and martin missing the 2nd half allowed Norton to re-show that he is a pretty good defender (also thank the Lord he stopped driving at Bogut as he has done last couple of Kings games).

Gleeson is probably my least favourite Cats coach – his constant whinging (like Weaver, Vickerman & Wright) is poor and I don’t know why the refs don’t just T them up from round 1. However he is also the best coach we’ve had – he has built a team that everyone knows their role, everyone works and the chemistry is strong. Perth get the ball in scorers hands – runs the pick & whatever variation.

Sydney still deserve to be title favourites – just think Bogut will switch on and they’ll get all their pieces back.

"Both teams jerseys looked like their regular uniforms.
Can't imagine any of their fans reaching into their pockets to purchase these."

And thank God for that!
Last thing we want is a bunch of idiots rocking up to games in cartoon tops.

WTF is next? Muppets? Super-Heroes? Star Wars?

Maybe we should just have a boozer round, so all the SEM fans can wear their VB singlets, and Cats fans can dig out their old Swan Gold uniforms.

If whinging and moaning is your main gripe of a head coach, he is probably doing a good job.

Dazz calm down fella.

Might suggest sydney are the Collingwood. With that issue called collywobbles. Sydney have own version sydneecrumbles. Makes appearance and isolates self within kingdom of purple Muppets.
Finals aren't won in first half of a season. Comes econd half the crumblies are shattered.
Shit sinks and cream rises. Wildcats rule.

Written like a true Wildcats fan.

I think we all want to see Sydney lose grand final to Perth.

Kings are arrogant.... Sydney you running on memories. Cairns v Perth be justice. Underdogs v the big dawgs.

"And they won one of those games by 20. Not exactly panic stations."

Is anyone, apart from Homicide, suggesting it's panic stations? However, given they've also lost two to Perth by double figures, they need to find better answers before the playoffs because a 1/3 winning ratio won't get them where they want to go.

For me, it's less Kickert at back-up C and more Cooks, which they can do once Moller is back. The fact they defend the same way with Bogut and Kickert allows Perth to get into a rhythm. They need to be able to change it up when Bogut goes to the bench.

"For me, it's less Kickert at back-up C and more Cooks, which they can do once Moller is back. The fact they defend the same way with Bogut and Kickert allows Perth to get into a rhythm. They need to be able to change it up when Bogut goes to the bench."

I think you're onto something there. A decent backup centre who can hustle and stretch on D would definitely help.

In terms of recruiting, you’d probably need another import though. What cheaper Australian would fit the role?

Miller probably hides this a lot when playing because he’s so mobile and active.

How will they cover Kickitties rebounding?

""For me, it's less Kickert at back-up C and more Cooks, which they can do once Moller is back. The fact they defend the same way with Bogut and Kickert allows Perth to get into a rhythm. They need to be able to change it up when Bogut goes to the bench."

I think you're onto something there. A decent backup centre who can hustle and stretch on D would definitely help.

In terms of recruiting, you'd probably need another import though. What cheaper Australian would fit the role?"

It's true that Perth out rebounded Sydney, and their work at the offensive end garnered 19 2nd-chance points. 11 extra points right there. And yes, that is particularly damming given Bogut's presence and role.

Kickett is the league's tallest shooting guard.