Hoops

Perth Wildcats vs Cairns Taipans - SF Game 2

@kingjames, I feel it was inconsistent both ways.
A few times players going to the basket were clobbered with no foul, then next play someone would drive, get slightly touched and get foul shots. This happened to both Perth and Cairns.
I get that umpiring is a tough gig, especially at that level. But surely the fact there are three umpires you would hope that they could get it right.

This is not a biased view, it has been inconsistent the whole semi-final series for all teams. Look at how bad at times the umpiring was in game 2 of breakers and 36ers. I hate that the umpires buy into home court advantage. All I want is decent umpiring that protects the players in the paint, allows entertaining play and doesn't make the officiating the talking point of games.

Jesse is, however, a better flopper than Redhage. In that one area Jesse has definitely surpassed his mentor.

Sixers147 : I'm Curious to know. Did you attend the Semi Final game on Sat Night ? How many games did you attend during the Marty Clarke regime ?

8703 : Still bigger than any crowd in Adelaide . Also Future Music Festival was on and that would of taken a good chunk of supporters.

Bringing Bevo back won't help the offensive game, he was more of a defensive coach than Gleeson.

Cairns home court advantage will prove very valuable.

As a Breaker fan I was hoping to see Perth get through.

Cairns match up really well with NZ.

I thought it was going to be very hard for perth to get up, but at home I gave them a chance. Cairns proved good enough when it mattered, perth missed some quite easy makes that they don't usually miss, but in the end the bigs for the Snakes got enough of the ball to make the difference...

Now for the final, if Cairns get home court over the Breakers, I give them every chance to take this competition, but NZ will be very hard to break (pun intended)!

Was comparable to last year's grand final in the fourth, IMO. Anyone who reckons that was a bad atmosphere needs to get their ears checked.

It didn't perk up "a bit" in the 4th, it went mental in the 4th.

At one stage the courtside announcer was trying to get people to sit back down and they crowd just wouldn't sit! The noise 8,000 made when we were hitting shots after Wagstaff's injury was probably the loudest the Arena has been all year.

Small crowd but they stuck with the team, and somehow ... I still don't quite understand how ... the Cats stuck with the Taipans.
Cairns had better bring better than that to the GF series if they plan to compete with the Breakers.

We were always going to need a few little things to go our way to have a chance in that game. Maybe Beal getting loose, DeAndre having one of his good shooting nights, Jervis getting under their guard .. something like that. Drake & Damo hit a few shots, but nothing much else went right. Poor Jesse couldn't buy a basket and he's normally as reliable a shooter as we've got.

Super gutsy effort to hang around and even threaten a little towards the end. It never really felt likely though.
I still think that with a full team we would have given Cairns a real shake, but probably not NZ. They've had our number this season.

Hoping the grand final series is a good contest and goes the distance.
Call me a massive optimist but hopefully it will even feature functional live stats, functional NBL.TV and functional graphics for the tv broadcast, all at the same time! :O

Oh, and thanks to all those many optimistic Perth punters who caused the odds to be arse-backwards today ;)

Cats need to replace a Daniels with a gun recruit who can light it up, create his own shot and finish strongly. The rest of the team struggled to pick up the offensive void left by Ennis.

Just back from game.
Firstly congrats to the Taipans. Well played, well coached. Good luck in the grand final.

To my fellow Red Army- great effort with trying to get the boys over the line. It's just such a shame that ticket pricing really effected the amount of spectators there today.
Anyone who says the wildcats didn't play there hearts out tonight are just mental. All the team tried hard and for a little while in that fourth quarter, I reckon all in red in the arena dared to dream. Unfortunately it just wasn't to be.

The umpiring- well that just sucked both ways. Would love to see a game called consistently in the finals- maybe it is time for Referees from overseas as the nbl umpires just suck. I wanna see a game where players don't get clobbered one minute with no foul, then a slight touch gets called one. Now before anyone says I'm another whining Wildcats fan, I said it sucked both ways!

Now waiting for some positive moves in the off-season.
New coach- bring back Bevo! If not- someone else... Please!!
Bye bye Daniels, Luke Martin, move Redhage to the bench. Think everyone else signed multi-year contracts, but Beal is on an option. In two minds- depends on who the other import is. Can't be Daniels. And Martin needs to develop more of an offensive game.

Congrats again to the Breakers and Taipans. Should be a cracker of a series.
My tip- Breakers sweep. I look at how the taipans played against an undermanned and injured Wildcats, and then look at what the breakers did to 36ers. Can't see Cairns doing it. Cedric for MVP of finals series.

Damn :C

@ballwatcher yeah I think that's how it works. Great lil payout mwahaha

Good to see the umpires trying their best to keep Perth in the game. Some of the most biased decisions going down the stretch grossly favoured Perth. I don't think there has ever been another nbl team that has gotten such a fafavourable run at home. Some of tonight's decisions were embarrassing

Congrats to the Taipans, best team won. Just wasn't the cats year. And thank you Sportsbet :P

Now I'm pissed off. One just replayed a three minute half time segment then switched to half way through the third. I am the only one watching this tripe coverage?

wilbekin flops under the ring, no call.
basically no contact and legs go under him.
refs are shit

Watching the coverage on one in Adelaide - hilarious - they have forgotten to put on adverts group hour halftime.

They really care so little about the advertising revenue from basketball that they have no adds to run?

wagstaff gone, good night cats. cant see it happening

This is the smallest crowd I've ever seen at the Arena .

No one but Knight looking remotely dangerous as a scorer for the cats. One guy ain't gonna be enough. Beal well covered. Playoff performer DeAndre doing SFA.

Injuries aside, our offense has been ordinary all year, tonight is no difference.

Offence sucks, is also a contributing factor

So refs call Cairns ball, Gleeson complains and he refs reverse the call.

Just have a gut feeling refereeing will decide the outcome of this game.

Props to Bruce. I love his defensive effort and he looks so comfortable in the rotation.

no nbl.tv here...

8 vs 5?

Wortho as sideline reporter. Wow.

Luke Martin to go full beast mode

Those odds are ridiculous . Throwing some coin in Cairns to win

Yeah, it scares me how ugly game 3 could potentially be if we do somehow get up tonight.
Hopefully we get to find out ;)


It's time! Unleash it! (our devastating secret weapon, Luke Martin)

if Perth doesn't run out of steam in this one.....it'll be the next one.

We have virtually no bench now.
Our best hope is that our home court starting 8 plays to their absolute best ;)

Let's go refs, let's go! *clap clap*

What the ... ?? Sportsbet now have Cairns out to $2.44???

http://www.eurobasket.com/Turkey/basketball.asp?NewsID=166224

Former team of Brett Maher.

OFFS! I was afraid of this ...

"The Perth Wildcats horror run of injuries has continued, with vice-captain Greg Hire ruled out of the semi-finals series against the Cairns Taipans."

Come on, test of every away finals series, have to at least defend your home court game. Let's do this, Wildcats! :D

I want to edit that previous post to add that he will also light them up

Yes, if Cairns can't win this game then Corey Webster will personally roll them and then smoke them in the GF

Drake to decide that it's comeback season, say "thank me later" to his teammates in the pre-game meeting, and take care of Wilbekin when he checks in late in the first quarter.

I think Perth might run out of steam in this one. Especially with Redhage out and Hire doubtful. Everybody needs to step up in this game, not just Beal and Daniels.

I certainly couldn't resist a healthy bet on the Taipans. If I lose that money I'll be a very happy and somewhat surprised Cats fan tonight.

Forgot to mention.... Sportsbet odds:
Wildcats $1.66
Taipans $2.25
Line: -2.5 points