Checkmate: Knight proving worth the wait

In the space of just over 10 seconds, Brandon Knight showed he was worth the wait for the Perth Wildcats during their win over Melbourne United.

The Red Army was getting restless early in the season awaiting the signing of their import guard, but three games later (including two at RAC Arena), the wait for the 451-game NBA veteran Knight has certainly been worth it.

He made his first start on Friday night against Melbourne and was having a solid performance up until the game was on the line.

That’s when he made his real mark and ingratiated himself with the 12,808 Red Army fans in attendance for good.

With 19 seconds on the clock, Knight made the defensive play of the game by taking a charge on Cole Anthony, denying him the chance to put Melbourne three points up.

Then with the ball in hand, Knight pulled up for a long two up the other end and shot it over Luke Travers. It was all net with 8.4 seconds to go and ended up being the bucket that secured Perth the 103-102 win.

While it was just his second home game for the 5-2 Wildcats, Knight explained what it meant to make those plays for their loyal fans.

“I would like to say no [makes you feel more part of it] and that you already feel part of it and not even just about the game winner or the charge, but when you get a game like that where everybody contributes it means even more,” Knight said.

“You get to see bench guys playing their role, you get to see Doo [Kristian Doolittle] doing what he does, Dylan [Windler] doing what he does, and everybody contributing, and you being able to be a part of that, it’s less about the game winner and more about the collective fight.

“When we do that once, twice and three times after doing it in practice daily and continuing to build upon it, and have success, game winners don’t hurt, but it’s more about the collective fight and being a part of it.”

Even though United never led by more than seven points in Friday night’s game, they did feel to have at least a degree of control for a lot of the contest, but the Wildcats did well to stay within touch.

They were even down six inside the last two minutes after a Joe Ingles triple, but Doolittle then hit the next five points, followed by two clutch free throws from Elijah Pepper and Knight making a hero of himself.

The American guard believes it was a character-building result.

“We are trending in the right direction, but we still have a lot to work on, and of course, it feels good to win those games because it builds character and brings us closer together as teammates,” he added.

“Especially with me just getting here, to have that with the guys and being in the fight with the guys, and coming out to see what we can accomplish as a good team, all of those things are super important with how we build this over the long haul.”

Perth next hosts Sydney on Wednesday in an Ignite Cup fixture from 9.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.

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