Looking forward to this, could be a real dogfight. From a Taipans POV would like to see Perth get the win, bringing second spot closer for us. So please get it done, Perth, don't let us down :)

Should be a great game. Hopefully we get to see Tai Webster get some minutes in this one.

Breakers by 7.

Perth probably need three wins to play finals, a loss today probably doesn't make impossible.

Breakers are a very well organised team, well coached who really enjoys winning. WMW being back makes a lot difference to breakers chances. Strong in all positions on the floor including bench.

Perth are not with out chance but a lot will have to go with them. Can Manek score a lot points to make up for average D and rebounding, if so will help greatly. Perths back court is fine, Thomas is good, but lack depth or out form players really hurts.

Breakers by 15.

The remaining games schedule would normally be a lock for finals with six of those games at home. But in recent times they've looked more vulnerable at home than away. They've definitely lost that aura of invincibility on home court

Manek plays well against the Breakers. And Thomas matches up well against Pardon too. If the Breakers can keep their numbers down - let's face it Cotton and Corey gonna get buckets - then the Breakers can win.

Something else for both teams to consider is that Abercrombie, although usually an elite defender, can no longer keep up with Cotton's foot speed and no one on the Cats could stay in front of Brown. Given the way the two teams have split their last two, it will be interesting to see what adjustments coaches make.

Tai Webster is the X factor for Perth the rest of the season. He needs to fire to take the load off of Corey and Bryce

Travers fitness is critical to Cats chances in this one. If he doesn't play, Norton gets more minutes.

Not to begrudge the Breakers after what they went through last few years, but this game was meant to be a Friday night, in a quiet part of Perths schedule and at a time were fortunately for Perth the Breakers were under strength, instead it is after a ridiculous road trip with a full strength Breakers team...

When you are not elite you need little things to go your way, if this ends up been an L rather than a highly likely W, could be a difference between finals or not.... Sets a very interesting future precedent as I would have thought teams would be required to bring in NBL 1 players or forfeit...

Again see point one, Breakers deserve some slack for sure, but makes for an interesting future scenario if say an Aussie team can not field 8 from non covid related injuries... precedent would now be reschedule.

That's what happens when NBL teams don't have junior squads.

but makes for an interesting future scenario if say an Aussie team can not field 8 from non covid related injuries... precedent would now be reschedule.

Why wouldn't it be?

Breakers uniforms are atrocious

Perth challenge awaits... the bench

Cats good early. Too fast in offence.

Cooks would have got a call at the end there....

Westlake boys representing.

Players must be embarrassed wearing this crap. Second best league in the world wearing second rate garbage.

Refs wanting a Perth win

Fouls on Breakers. Too many refs involved in rubbish fouls. Let the players decide the game

Yes home cooking helping. Uniform is NZ indigenous jersey, because not worn due to Covid. Something to do with Māori.

That uniform is hideous

4 minutes in 2nd 1/4. Both teams over the limit on fouls. Farcical

10 fouls in 5 minutes. What a shit show

So same play, one a flop warning, ine a charge... why wasn't Barry brown jrs dive a flop warning? His head flail worked too... also Bryce end if quarter one dropped on a layup no foul, Barry Brown Jr straight into a pretty upright Norton and foul??? In full fairness from my seat the offensive on bbjr was a defensive foul all day, doesn't change the bs though

Cats looking the business tonight

Can Hire be any more bias, where is damo.

Greg Hire is useless

Norton and Wagstaff will never be able to play in any league that doesn't have Aussie refs.

So hire like every other ex player then?

Greg Hire is like Brady Manec on rough night

Bonehead turnovers and no interior defense in this second quarter for the cats. NZ doing well to exploit their weaknesses

Greg Captain Obvious Hire

Cotton can't chuck it in the ocean, other than Travers cats not using bench. Breakers just keep at you. Refs should let them play a bit many nit picking decisions to both sides. Hopefully Travers starts 2nd half and Tia on bench, better balance.

Has Blanchfeild had any court time yet? Coach sending a message

Oh yeah hone cooking for sure...

Genius level stuff from Rillie to make absolutely no adjustment on the Pardon PNR.

7 tob1 foul quarter, a heap of missed violations on nz, but no one cares cause it's perth, this is a disgrace.

I'd never thought I’d see a coach as bad as Morrison but Rillie is starting to make me question that. In what world should Corey Webster be running point as much as he does.

Every play NZ just need to drive to the basket. The keyway is wide open

Ta Shawn and Cwebb keeping the cats in it with great individual plays

Rupert the third best next star after Ball and Giddey?

If Cotton who has played well could make a shot cats are in this. WMW is excellent all round player.

Cotton with two air balls from 10 feet

Greg Hire is useless

Norton and Wagstaff will never be able to play in any league that doesn't have Aussie refs.

Breakers stinking it up in the 4th

Is that Homicide AND Damon Lowery on the mic with John Casey?

Plus Greg Hire on the sideline.

What a shitshow.

John you deserve better.

Cats in the bonus. Over 5 mins to go. Yep. Gotta love the refs

Missed travel on Pardon, huge miss, so blatant. Cotton can get hand checked I see...

Okay so it's just Lowery alternating between his own original material and Homicide's lines.

Jatz, 7 tob1 last quarter! Are you calling homecoming on the missed pardon travel?

Good game happen here.

11,668.

@Anon. Only about how many fouls are called.... On both teams. Way too many

Barry Brown jnr down the stretch. Hopeless. Poor decision making didn't help the Breakers.
Well done Cats

Greg Hire

Greg Hire

Breakers should have won. Refs helped Perth with free throws, but could have overcome that if Brown didn't have a shocker at the crucial time. First 5 minutes of the 4th quarter was super home cooking at its best.

Yes well done cats, short roster certainly helped. Brown hogged it hurt breakers. Cats got nucleons of good team. Manek not to bad today certainly helped, Travers was good.

Good win. Good to see Rillie allocating minutes on performance rather than reputation..paid off

Scoring will not be an issue for Perth with that team. They are loaded but defence is going to be an issue long term. Overall good win for Perth. Next game against Adelaide is huge because of the tie breaker might decide who wins a play in spot between the two

Good fighting win by the cats the evened up the rebounding count. Pardon and Thomas were beasts. Brown and Cotton poor games by their standards. No minutes for Blanchfield or majook and not many for Norton.

What's going on with brown and Mody ?

Greg hire had the same stats as blanchfield tonight

The ladder continues to get tighter.

Are Perth letting other clubs no Blanchfield is available next season, you would think Blanchfield would want out or it's a long couple seasons on the bench.

Why wouldn't it be?

Home crowd was deafening good to see for a tuesday night.

It blows my mind to see a 4/5 man pile on at the end, arms and legs flailing everywhere, no calls, then Thomas emerges to bring the ball up for a Travers dunk. Earlier in the game breathing on Brown when going for a layup was a foul. Another example wagstaffs flop call was followed by a worse flop that was called a charge.

Refs can swing a game through sheer incompetence and inconsistency far too easily. Next year they need a review panel to scrutinise the worst offenders. Give someone else a go if they cant do the job objectively.

Is Corey Webster low key the best recruiting move for the Cats since John Mooney? He has been the only good move Mills has committed for a few years.

Dunkman no one wants blanchfield if he and the cats decided to somehow settle on a amicable move to part ways. Gleeson has historical been the only guy to tap into his potential and Trevor is not walking through the door anytime soon

Congrats to Perth on the W.
Breakers need to learn from the L and quickly move on as United will be waiting in Christchurch and then face the Taipans in Auckland on Sunday.
Neither side will be easy.

Excellent press conference by Maor, asked about refs, said he's not complaining but went on to say that other coaches are trying to swing results by going to press conferences and complaining about breakers playing tough. Point out the foul count and also how his bigs don’t get fouls that are called at the other end.
Buford went to press conference calling them to all blacks. Refs got call evenly and let game flow instead of blowing the whistle every second

The Breakers get away with more fouls than any other team in the competition, they know they push the line.

Perth have consistently defended without fouling all season, Maor was just trying to buy a few calls for Thursday while trying to sound virtuous.

22 - 15 sounds about right. 22 for a physical team like NZ is probably below average. They use the old Goorjian Magic approach. We will play Uber physical and you wont call them all. Perth are soft defensively so the numbers hardly scream home cooking.

Yeah but there were some non-calls in the paint for the Breakers. Pardon and Brantley are so strong that many players in this league can't defend them without fouling in certain situations. There were also some dubious calls against the Breakers boxing out and off the ball - sure, call the hand checks straight away, but some of the other stuff was tedious.

At the end of the day, however, the Breakers were their worst enemy in the last four minutes. For most of the game, they played very well, but the last few minutes were horrible. Possibly the MVP talk getting to Brown’s head.

Is Corey Webster low key the best recruiting move for the Cats since John Mooney? He has been the only good move Mills has committed for a few years.

- sure, call the hand checks straight away, but some of the other stuff was tedious.

@ EssenX, Exactly, plus some of the charge block calls are so 50-50 just play on and players won't leave their feet so easy.

Just play on when calls are 50/50 doesn't work with the administration. Referees are calling what they are instructed to call. You can’t smash the referees for doing as they are told. Just like players (Blanchfield last night is a good example). The NBL is a performance league, no different with referees. If you don’t perform or you don’t follow the coach’s direction you sit. It’s a simple concept.

Well hopefully the administration are listening to local punters, we want to basketball not whistle blowing and guessing calls. Two call s and just Wagstaff last night were mind boggling both probably wrong, let them play D by staying on your feet and soon the Wagstaff of the world won't be flopping.

You can't criticise wagstaff and not throw the same shade at Brown Jr, his head throw and then his off ball flop/dive were just as bad if not worse. Wagstaff in last few years has probably gotten the short straw based on reputation when he clearly has not flopped.also can't say players aren't strong enough to guard brantley and pardon, then say wagstaff is flopping, which one is it?

I was using Wagstaff as an example, there heaps of offenders, they do because they think they are going to get the call. Only call what is obviously a charge, block, let the rest go and see how coaches start to tell players to stay on their feet.

Wagstaff, like CG43, is a renowned flopper. There are others.

I'm sure the administrators are listening to the mostly uneducated local punters who don’t actually know the rules or the interpretations. Might as well just be Brisbane and let the lunatics run the asylum

The mostly uneducated local punters don't frequent message boards.

The view that the NBL has improved significantly year-on-year but refereeing remains inconsistent (both in terms of quality and also the consistency of play style allowed) is a consensus I believe.

It’s something the NBL needs to get right to take its on court product to the next level. The amount we talk about refereeing is well above other leagues, basketball or other sports, and reflects real problems rather than just the pissing and moaning of uneducated aggrieved fanbois.

A few seasons back contentious calls would be replayed on the big screen at RAC arena in slo-mo (not just highlights), some would be valid some blatantly terrible calls. The latter would obviously result in long loud boos for the refs and crowd discontent would drag on a bit. Is this the case for the other arenas? To see replays you need to be watching kayo on your mobile phone at the game.

You obviously don't read NBA boards EssenX. Until the NBL actually spend considerable dollars to make its referee panel full time you are stuck with what you have. Some referees earn several hundred thousand dollars in their professional careers, similar to the AFL. The NBL can’t and won’t fork out that cash. Booing in stadiums has long been held as the louder the boo the more correct the call is as most of the 11,000 crowd have absolutely no clue about the rules or the interpretations. And on replays, at major events, FIBA do not show any replays at all. It’s also easy to be critical of referee calls sitting in your seat with a beer watching a replay in slow mo on the jumbo tron. Referees don’t get that luxury in real time in any sport

Greg hire for chief of referees?

The refereeing panel is inexperienced and as such inconsistent. There are very few senior refs, and even fewer who are world class. It's going to take time with most being part-time and the league being at such a high level.

That said, at the start of this year the NBL was on track for the fewest fouls in league history, had the lowest foul rate of any of the top FIBA league and the product was an ugly grind.

Credit where it's due, the league recognised this and the officiating style changed in early November. While they are no doubt over-calling contact at the rim, the product has become fast and free-flowing again - which is a great feature of the NBL IMO - and star players are putting on a show that's great to watch.

Strong defence doesn't get enough rewards, especially for new players. Crap defenders like Norton, Wagstaff, Goulding,get by with flopping.
Then on offense I feel the referees call a lot on reputation. They always give fouls when certain players drive
Almost like... I didn't see anything but its... so they must have been fouled.

Norton is a crap defender? Lol what?