- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
An encounter of epic proportions takes place on Friday night when the Perth Wildcats and the Illawarra Hawks begin their playoff series. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 9:30pm (AEDT).
In what shapes as a phenomenal series on paper, Illawarra will be looking to overcome history if they are to advance to their first grand final since 2010, and just their fourth appearance overall.
Perth has swept Illawarra in the season series, including two dominant wins at home by 23 and 29 points. In both of those matches, Perth used their size to bully Illawarra out of the contest.
The games played between these two in Illawarra have been vastly different though, with it looking likely in both games that the Hawks would prevail. They held leads deep into the fourth, before taking low percentage shots and not maintaining their composure to cost them both games.
It’s no secret that Perth will try and employ their bully tactics again in this one, especially in front of 13,000 vocal home supporters.
They know that on any given day they can come up with a huge rebounding advantage over the Hawks with the likes of Nate Jawai, Matthew Knight, Tom Jervis and Shawn Redhage, whereas the Hawks are reliant on AJ Ogilvy to grab their boards. Illawarra can not afford to let Perth get easy second chance points.
Another key for Perth to coming away with the win here is through their perimeter and transition defence.
Illawarra loves to try and score on the fast-break, as well as shooting from beyond the arc, as they know they have the weapons to hurt Perth. They need to be able to shut down players like Kirk Penney and Kevin Lisch from range.
For Illawarra, they need to stretch the Perth defence in all five positions. Their roster might be considerably smaller than their rivals, but they can exploit that to their advantage. If they can push the pass to create scoring on the counter-attack, they can tire guys like Knight and Jawai.
By their own standards this year, Illawarra has been soft in their two visits to Perth, not muscling up and taking the game to the home side. They need to lay a platform early on that shows the Wildcats that they’ve muscled up and aren’t afraid to match bodies with the bigger players.
It could draw some serious heat from the home fans, but they aren’t there to win a popularity contest, rather, they want to come back to Illawarra on Sunday with a chance to clinch the series.
Illawarra has both a terrible record against Perth, and when playing in the west, having not won against the Wildcats in their last 10 games, and they haven’t recorded a win in the west in over a decade.
Those are some pretty daunting stats, but if there are two people that know Wildcats basketball, it’s Kevin Lisch and Rob Beverdige, responsible for delivering Perth a championship in 2009-10.
This match should be a lot closer than their previous meetings this season at Perth Arena, especially with Lisch buoyed after being named MVP and Ogilvy landing all NBL first team honours. However, the versatility of Perth to adapt to both high and low scoring games might just be too much for the Hawks to handle.
Prediction
The size and strength of the Wildcats, particularly in the paint and on the glass, should see them come away with a vital win.
Perth by 10
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 9:30pm (AEDT).
Build your own ultimate team! Pick your key players and take a shot at big cash prizes every day with Draftstars. For great odds on NBA games every day head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.