Hoops

Wildcats vs Hawks pre-series thread

As has been discussed elsewhere, Oscar presents problems at one end of the court, Knight can't guard him on the perimeter.
But on the boards, especially when they go small, the Hawks are trying to rely almost solely on AJ and he gets pummelled by the Cats battery of big men.
They give up a massive disparity in rebounds, and they hurt. Especially when Jawai/ Knight/ and Jervis get on song with their put-backs. That disparity amounts to a significant score difference.

Hawks try to pull it back from outside, but a 3 is still only 1 extra point, and the Cats do have plenty of guys that CAN guard the perimeter.
(Besides, whilst Knight may be slow, he's hard to shoot over without enough space.)

I think the United /Breakers series will go 3 but not the Wildcats/ Hawks. in 2.

Perth have been all over Illawarra this season like a cheap suit on a life insurance salesman.

R3 Hawks 99 Cats 106. Basically game blown away in Q4. Penney & Jawai both fouled out. Beal and Knight all over the Hawks, but 43 to 25 rebounds with 15 OR's to the Cats. 22 3PM for the game.

R4 Cats 91 Hawks 62. Close at half time, but Hawks brains left in change rooms and Q3 blowout. Once again, they were smashed on the boards, with Olgilvy fouled out.

R6 Hawks 96 Cats 99. Once again, smashed on the boards giving up 22 OR to the Cats.

R16 Cats 95 Hawks 72. +7 to the Cats on OR's, second half fade away by the Hawks.

The Cats have been dominating the boards, and in particular the OR's, which always give a team a second chance of scoring. The Cats can take a chance by bombing it in from downtown and then hoping for an OR to finish off. For the Hawks to be a threat, they really need to stop the static game around the key. Perhaps the faster paced game would suit the Hawks better.

I would like to challenge Larry the Lounge Lizard to lift this finals series. Average 3.2 RB is not enough in 13 mpg. 2.6 on the road and 3.7 at home. But not just Larry, Oscar needs to lift as well and I also challenge him to go berserk like a Moonta miner looking for copper.

Hawks rebounding is: (H v A)

Ogilvy 8.9 v 8.0
Forman 4.3 v 2.7
Davidson 3.7 v 2.6
Lisch 3.5 v 3.6
Coenraad 3.4 v 3.8
Penney 2.9 v 3.0
Ellis 2.8 v 2.4
Martin 2.4 v 4.1
White 2.1 v 2.8
Weeks 1.1 v 1.4

Cats
Knight 7.5 v 8.6
Jervis 4.9 v 5.4
Jawai 4.0 v 4.5
Wagstaff 3.9 v 4.3
Martin 4.0 v 4.3
Redhage 2.9 v 3.9

The series will be won and lost around the boards. Win the boards and win the game. Stop the Cats from getting OR's and the game is already half won.

(but the Hawks have a number of players who can pile on points in a hurry, so I certainly don't mean to take them lightly)
All 5 guys need to be on their toes defensively against Illawarra. Which makes me wonder how many minutes Nate will be seeing. He should be able to dominate one end to compensate with being a liability at the other, but recent form tells me it might not work out that way.
I'm expecting plenty of Jervis minutes through the playoffs.

Ogilvy does his best to hold his own. The Cats, like many other teams, target Forman inside. In a couple of our games this season we've been able to get him in foul trouble very quickly trying to guard Knight. How he & Cody cope will be pretty critical to the outcome. Ogilvy can't do it alone against the combo of Jawai, Knight & Jervis.

Lisch has only got loose against us once this season. No surprise that it was a game Damo was missing. He'll get his fair share whoever is on him, but it is Penney I'm more worried about in terms of someone exploding.

How could you look at Jawai and say he is fit? ;)

Ritz all the way.