R11 Preview: Sydney Kings v Perth Wildcats

When: 3.00pm (AEDT), Sunday 28 March

Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time

Perth 113 (Mooney 30, Cotton 30, Blanchfield 17) d Sydney 106 (Ware 34, Louzada 19, Vasiljevic 13) – NBL Cup Week 1, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

This was quite the game early in the NBL Cup in Melbourne in what was the first meeting between the teams since last year's Grand Final Series was cut short after three games and the Perth Wildcats were awarded the championship on the back of leading two games to one.

The two teams put up 219 points across the 40 minutes to put on quite the show but it was the Bryce Cotton-Casper Ware show that was what attracted the headlines. Cotton had been in hospital unwell 24 hours earlier, but he came out and delivered a brilliant performance made up of 30 points and nine assists on 9/16 shooting. Ware was superb for Sydney too with 34 points, five rebounds and four assists on 10/19. The trash talk between the two never stopped either.

They virtually cancelled each other out. The difference was what John Mooney delivered for Perth with Jarell Martin absent for Sydney. Mooney delivered 30 points, 18 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots while going 12/13 from the floor and 3/4 from three-point land.

Getting 60 points from Cotton and Mooney allowed Perth to open up a 15-point lead during the second half, but still the Kings never gave in and gave themselves a chance to have a chance down the stretch.

If that's a taste of what's to come on Sunday then we are in for a treat.

The now

The Kings and Wildcats enter Sunday's clash at Qudos Bank Arena as the form teams of the NBL, it's the first Grand Final rematch of the season on one of their home floors and it shapes as a potential statement match for the winners, and potentially the losers.

The Kings closed the NBL Cup with a terrific win over the Brisbane Bullets on the back of putting up 71 points in the second half before scoring 60 in the first half against Melbourne United on the way to a 28-point thumping last Friday. Sydney backed that up with another hard fought home win against the Cairns Taipans on Sunday.

That sees the Kings coming into this clash with the Wildcats on a three-game winning streak and 9-8 record overall, and it's no surprise this winning run has coincided with the return of big man Jarell Martin. His front court combination with Jordan Hunter, Tom Vodanovich, Daniel Kickert and Craig Moller has been impressive along with the backcourt of Casper Ware, Shaun Bruce and DJ Vasiljevic, and wings Didi Louzada and Brad Newley.

Then there's the two-time defending champion Perth Wildcats who are now on a six-game winning streak to sit on top of the NBL with a 12-4 record.

The 'Cats did start the season losing three of the opening four matches, but they've won 10 of 11 since including the last six. That saw them win the NBL Cup by prevailing in seven of eight games in Melbourne, and now they have returned home to RAC Arena since for wins against the Taipans, Adelaide 36ers and Illawarra Hawks.

Bryce Cotton and John Mooney have been the centre piece of everything for this Wildcats team and you could make the case that they are the best two players in the NBL right now. But it's also been form based on the old fundamentals under Trevor Gleeson of collecting the offensive rebounds, winning the possession game and just grinding down the opposition.

With Todd Blanchfield, Jesse Wagstaff, Mitch Norton, Clint Steindl and even development player Corey Shervill in impressive form too, the Wildcats have every reason to be heading over to Sydney feeling good about a sixth straight win to maintain top position.

The stats

- Qudos Bank Arena might be Sydney's home court but Perth holds no fears there having won on their last three visits, and on four of their last five attempts at the venue. That included winnings Game 1 and 3 of last year's Grand Final Series.

- Reigning MVP Bryce Cotton especially enjoys playing at Qudos Bank Arena. In his four games at the Sydney venue last season, he averaged 34.5 points a game for the Wildcats while shooting the three ball at 56 per cent, hitting 19/34.

- Sydney is now the leading three-point percentage team in the league going at 37.9 per cent. Illawarra was leading that category entering Round 11 before the Wildcats held the Hawks to 4/24 on 16.7 per cent in Friday night's win at RAC Arena.

The key men

Jarell Martin – The Sydney Kings have sure looked a more formidable outfit since their import centre has returned to the line-up after a knee injury. In his absence the Kings lost four of seven matches including the one he went down in against Illawarra and was dearly missed. Along the way the Kings were dominated inside by John Mooney last time against Perth and by Nate Jawai in a loss to Cairns. His presence should make life tougher for Mooney to take over the game like he did last time for Perth while Martin's offensive danger is also something the 'Cats are going to have to deal. Over this three-game winning streak, Martin is averaging 17.3 points and 5.3 rebounds a game.

Todd Blanchfield – Not only has his move to join the Perth Wildcats this season appeared to give him the best chance of winning a championship in his NBL career, but at the same time he is in career-best form. He will celebrate his 300th game in the NBL on Sunday having previously played 150 with the Townsville Crocodiles, 56 for the Illawarra Hawks, 52 for Melbourne United and 25 for the Sydney Kings. He played his first game under Trevor Gleeson in Townsville and now celebrates his 300th appearance with Gleeson his coach in Perth, and he's playing the best he ever has. The best indicator of that is that he's the third option behind Bryce Cotton and John Mooney, and he is averaging 14.9 points in the 12 games the 'Cats have won so far in #NBL21.

The quotes

Kings coach Adam Forde won't be short on motivation against a team he helped win multiple championships as assistant coach, and then after being part of the Sydney team last year that lost the Grand Final to Perth.

He knows more than anything that to beat the Wildcats, you can't afford to lose the rebound battle.

"Rebounding against Perth is a great test. Offensively they are a half-court team, they're not a transition team and they like to lower scorelines and to draw out the shot clock, and run Bryce Cotton off screens," Forde said.

"They have the No. 1 offensive rating because they are one of the best second chance points teams. All the things I highlighted about why rebounding is a difference between winning and losing, that's going to be the biggest test against Perth. We have made improvements the last couple of weeks and that's starting to show in games, but this is going to be the ultimate test. We have to win the rebounds to win the game against Perth."

While the rebounding battle is more emphasised against the Wildcats more than anyone else, it is an on-going area of concern for the Kings that Forde knows that must be fixed up if they want to put themselves in the championship hunt.

"Rebounding is our big thing. Statistically we are rolling in a lot of categories in the sense that we are first for effective field goals, we are top three for offensive and defensive rating, and even on the ladder we are second with our points percentage," Forde said. 

"But the reason we sit sixth right now is because our rebounding is not great. We knew that with X going down that was nine rebounds a game right there that we would have to make up for, and we have to do it by committee and it has to be a group effort. 

"The moment we can improve that then the consistent wins will follow. Last time we played Perth we gave up 19 second chance points and we've done something similar with our home loss to Illawarra. We have to clean that up and the moment we can close out a possession by getting a rebound we'll get more wins."

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson was proud of his team's win on Friday at home over the Illawarra Hawks before turning his attention to a full house in Sydney on Sunday where he'll continue to back in young players to step up.

"I heard it was going to be a full house or the capacity will be at 100 per cent so I can't think of anything better than playing Sydney on their court on a Sunday afternoon with a big crowd. Hopefully it's a good one for us," Gleeson said.

"We just have the confidence in the group right now and the trust level for different guys to step up. Luke Travers was really good when he came on and Corey Shervill was excellent coming on at crucial stages. Even though they are development players, our team finds them and passes them the ball at critical times, and they are confident in shooting the ball. That's all part of growing as a team."

Clint Steindl had his best game of the season for Perth on Friday against the Hawks with 17 points and hitting 3/6 from three-point range, and he too is looking forward to the challenge in Sydney on Sunday.

"I guess any away game you play you're going into a hostile environment. They've got a lot of supporters over there and no doubt it will be a tough one, but we'll be ready for it. We will be focused on us and we are playing some really good basketball right now so we will try to continue that without worrying too much about rivalries or whatever from past seasons," Steindl said.

"I come into games feeling confident and probably in the games so far haven’t been able to get a whole lot of confidence out of those, but it's coming through practice and putting in the work outside of practice as well. 

"I had a feeling that a game like this was going to come along soon enough so you just keep working at it, keep trying to find the rhythm and when you do that, you go and find the ball. It's the same mentality and the shots went in, but there's also other areas of the game I'm starting to impact a bit more other than just the shooting."