The Perth Wildcats, led ably by guards Damien Martin and Kevin Lisch and forward Shaun Redhage, put on a basketball clinic at the home of the Sydney Kings on Sunday (24 February 2013).
The Kings, coached by Olympic veteran Shane Heal and having lost seven in a row, needed to win to keep their finals chances alive.
They needed desperation and intensity to defeat a team that is clinical in its offence and with a defence that is as difficult to penetrate as a Crusader’s Castle.
Unfortunately the Kings came out flat-footed, disorganised and lacked any genuine intensity.
Rob Beveridge sent out his Wildcats with a simple plan of a 2-3 Zone defence and a rapid-fire passing offence designed to find open perimeter players.
The plan worked. The Wildcats got off to a quick-fire start as they piled on basket after basket at one end with the Kings left scoreless at the other.
In the third minute Heal called a time-out in an attempt to steady his already shaky ship.
It wasn’t until the fifth minute that the Kings finally troubled the scorers, but were already 20 points in arrears.
The Kings, disorganised in defence, let the Wildcats have their way inside the paint as well as at the arc and at quarter time the score had blown out 25 to 11.
Amazingly the Kings did not change their offensive structure for the second quarter. This allowed the Wildcats to retain their zone defence and with so many outside shots from the Kings falling short, the Wildcats scooped up several turnovers and played clinical transition basketball to great effect.
The Kings continued to be unsettled by the rapid-fire passing display put on by the Wildcats and their defence at the arc resembled an empty car park.
Lisch, normally the go-to guy outside for Perth, was able to delegate the shooting duties to his teammates, Redhage and Jesse Wagstaff, who responded with accuracy.
The half time numbers said it all with the Wildcats shooting at 60% from the field and 50 % from the arc. Sydney however could only manage 40% and 20 % respectively.
The home crowd were given a boost in the second half as the Kings threw offensive caution to the wind. By accident or design the Kings decided to make up their offensive structure as they went along.
They started to penetrate the rock-like defence and got the score back to within nine points late in the third quarter courtesy of a 7-0 run by Ben Madgen. James Harvey and Darnell Lazare for the Kings also made forays into the paint with some success.
However the league’s best defensive guard, Damien Martin, got his hands on the ball and steadied the Wildcats by delivering an inside pass that exhibited the precision required for brain surgery to inside man Jeremiah Truman who scored an easy layup.
Martin then followed up with his own layup after a turnover to get the lead back out to 13 points.
In the last quarter the Kings even tried a full court press but it was so disorganised it failed to achieve any turnovers and the Wildcats simply threw long passes to unguarded players in the paint for painfully easy buckets.
In the end the 26 point victory to Perth was down to a solid, well drilled defence, accurate outside shooting and by showing the ability and attitude needed to exploit weaknesses and turnover opportunities as they arise.
Standouts for Perth were Redhage (23 points), Martin (13 points and 9 assists) and Lisch (19 points including 4 three pointers).
For the Kings the ever faithful Ben Madgen was the game high scorer with 28 points. James Harvey, shooting only three-from-14 from the field and missing all five of his three point attempts, was the biggest disappointment of the afternoon.
It’s difficult to imagine Shane Heal’s undermanned Kings making the finals this year.
The Wildcats however will be there for their umpteenth finals campaign under coach Rob Beveridge.
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