The Wildcats’ preparation for their last home and away season game against the Adelaide 36ers is in full swing this week ahead of the playoffs.
Their run home has been rather promising, winning four in a row before dropping their last game to now first seed Sydney Kings by 18 points.
SportFM spoke to Wildcats assistant coach Ben Peterson this morning.
“They’re [Kings] the best team in the league right now and we just didn’t bring it the way we needed to early. We had an opportunity to probably separate or at least put our stamp on the game in that first quarter and we failed to capitalise and they made us pay,” he said.
“It came down to our defensive transition and just playing through their physicality, they’re the most physical team in the league.”
“It’s not a huge worry, it was just one night we didn’t bring it. And so now we go back to the drawing board, we watch film this morning, get better on the floor these next two days and then be ready to go for Adelaide.”
South East Melbourne play fifth seed Melbourne United tomorrow and have the chance to secure Perth’s position in fourth given they come away with the victory.
Peterson is adamant the result tomorrow won’t change the side they put out on the court on Friday for their fans in their last regular season home game.
“I would say that if guys are able to play, we’re going to play whoever’s ready to go. That’s an important game for us to build momentum, we’re at home in front of our fans one last time in the regular season and we’re playing our rival. I think we’ll put our best foot forward.”
“We want to make up for what happened last weekend and be playing good basketball like we have been these last two months going into the playoffs.”
The Wildcats will be preparing for anything Adelaide throws at them come Friday and are understanding from previous matchups that their attention cannot be focussed on potential MVP candidate Bryce Cotton.
“They’ll be hungry, they want to win because they’re that two seed and they get the bye. No one wants to play in that play in tournament, it’s a one game elimination and anything can happen.”
“They’ve done a lot of different things, they’ve gone small but they’ve also gone for some random lineups recently where they’ve played both bigs. We’ll be prepared for the different lineups that they’ll throw on the floor and have measures to counter them.”
“The thing that goes under the radar with Bryce is just his gravity creates so much for everyone else and the space that they have to play in because you’re so worried about him, you can’t underestimate what those other guys bring to the table.”
Ben Henshall and Dylan Windler are expected to be gameday decisions on whether they’re fit to play this Friday.
The clash tips off at 6:30pm at RAC Arena.
IMAGE: Perth Wildcats