Hoops

Taipans @ Wildcats 14/11/13

Well said statsheet stuffer re: Wilson and the quicker he is used as a spark off the bench the better as he let's the game pass him by too much and needs to come out all fired up like he did against Townsville in the 1st game of the season.

I was at the game and I was highly impressed with Cairns, they are so talented but their kids (young, steindl, Gliddon) made a few errors that a more experienced player wouldn't have made and yet their experienced players weren't demanding enough of the ball in the clutch and to have what 3 players in double figures and none play 3/4 of the game (I was highly impressed with the talent always sitting on the bench for Cairns at any one time) and Loughton was looking good ending the 3/4 and yet say down too long in the 4th...

I went there tonight thinking this was a preview of the grand final and left thinking if found my second favourite team and I can't wait to see Cairns click and I hope it's against them pesky Breakers (whenever they play).

Jervis looked quality and I wonder if anyone would take ANY point guard in the NBL over Damien Martin right now? I have Rotnei in my dream team ahead of him but I think he will be more a 2 when Rhys gets better match fitness.

Wildcats 7-0... Great start and honouring the incredible Alabama Slammer next home game vs. Violet crumbles (Sunday 24 November) so I hope it's a sell out

Close of quarters was definitely terrible. Not happy about letting a double-digit lead slip like that. Was definitely hoping for a better performance. If Burston hadn't choked his free throws we'd have been in a whole world of trouble.

Hopefully that's got them back up to match speed, although I'm now feeling nervous about our next bye...

Well that's a chalk-it-up-and-move-on win if ever I saw one. Brr. Terrible return from the bye. What the hell happened to Wagstaff's 3pt shot...

Personally I'd like to see Knight coming off the bench and getting a thunderous (Thursday crowd) ovation after 3-4 minutes.

To me this should be the grand final review (Melbourne are the only team that could spoil that) so it should be a ripping game but Cairns certainly need an identity and maybe they need some more emotion from their players as Loughton is great when he is fired up but we either don't see it often enough or he sits on this deep bench shortly after.

Wildcats by around 11 points but I expect Cairns to come away feeling better or time to give Fearne and his horrendous voice the flick

Yeah, if Cairns let themselves be caught out of position looking for second chance baskets, they will get stung on the counter more often than not. Could quickly become a very bad exchange rate, since getting those O-boards isn't likely to be that easy to begin with.

Is it too late for Cairns to send an SOS to Grabau to play some D??

at the start of every season Fearne tends to over coach,the players can feel how tense he is and it has a reverse effect on them....every year!

Every team gets up for a game in perth!

"Last time they met: Perth 70 (Wagstaff 13, Carter 12, Redhage 12) d Cairns 53 (Tragardh 13, Grabau 12), Round 23, 2012/13, Perth Arena"

*shudder*

Knight gives us a huge extra piece of flexibility and inside threat. Perfect for putting other teams on the horns of a dilemma: do you defend inside against Ennis and Knight's scoring prowess, or do you defend the arc after that display against Wollongong. Very good line-up for keeping the D honest.

With knight back, got to think perth's front court is a tad more potent. Cairns imports got to have big games for them but still perth will be 7-0 and with the hawks struggling it could be 8-0 by the end ove the round.

No excuses for the Wildcats (more generally, any loss at home should be considered unacceptable).

Wildcats by 8, Perth Arena to go off celebrating the return of Matty Knight.

More ominously, I think walk-up ticket sales have been very slow, despite a price drop for the Thursday night game. Will be close to that sub-10k figure.