R2 Preview: Perth Wildcats vs Brisbane Bullets

When: 5.30pm (AEDT), Sunday 12 December 2021

Where: RAC Arena, Perth

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Sky Sport NZ

Who won last time?
Brisbane 91 (Patterson 23, Cadee 16, Hodgson 16) d Perth 88 (Steindl 25, Mooney 18, Magnay 11) - Round 19, 2021, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

Nathan Sobey and the Bullets held Bryce Cotton to a rare 2/12 night, survived a 6/7 shooting clinic from Clint Steindl and prevailed behind 23 points at 63 per cent from Lamar Patterson, the three-point victory keeping their playoff hopes alive with two rounds to play.

What happened last start?

Brisbane struggled with the physicality allowed in the season-opener in Tassie, and got too focused on officiating miscues as the JackJumpers pipped them in overtime. In their first game under James Duncan, the Bullets couldn’t throw a beach ball into the ocean, couldn’t keep the hosts off the foul line and committed too many turnovers in a rusty display.

Perth owned the ball security battle in their big win over Cairns, Cotton and Vic Law capitalising on the extra opportunities to combine for 45 points and eight assists, the MVP taking the scoring lead after Law had led the way on opening night. The 'Cats continued to bomb at an extraordinary rate, a notable change under Scott Morrison’s watch.

Who’s in form?

Majok Majok & Luke Travers – Of course Cotton and Law are firing, but what makes Perth’s scorers all-the-more dangerous is the extra possessions their committed rebounding crew retrieve, and across the opening two games Majok and Travers have hauled in 16 offensive rebounds and 23 at the defensive end. Robert Franks and Tyrell Harrison combined for 22 caroms in Brisbane’s opener, and this shapes as a critical battle of the boards.

Nathan Sobey – While Sobes’ ejection and colourful spray of referee Vaughan Mayberry got headlines all around the nation, his 24-point, six-rebound, three-assist performance was the real story, with his game-tying triple simply clutch. The Boomers back-up wore all sorts of physicality from the desperate JJs to deliver eight of the Bullets’ 16 final-quarter points, and after he was sent packing in overtime the leaderless Bullets were outscored 12-1.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The shot that sent us to OT ?‍?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BRISBANEBULLETS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BRISBANEBULLETS</a> <a href="https://t.co/0k8IfnVyNV">pic.twitter.com/0k8IfnVyNV</a></p>&mdash; Brisbane Bullets (@BrisbaneBullets) <a href="https://twitter.com/BrisbaneBullets/status/1466940271149477889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who needs to be?

Vic Law – On opening night against Adelaide, Law hoisted 29 shots, six more than the most he’d attempted in his time as a Bullet. The result was a 37-point masterpiece and you can bet the versatile forward will want to make an early statement against his former team. The question for Brisbane is can Patterson or Franks stop him, or will it require double-teams?  

Lamar Patterson – The Bullets won’t win often with Patterson shooting 4/15, 1/7 from long range and only getting to the foul line three times. Lamar fed Sobey thrice for buckets in the final term, but had only one dime up until that point. Coach Duncan needs his import forward attacking the rim to score, draw fouls and create, not settling from the perimeter.

Who’s statting up?

 - Brisbane were +9 with Sobey on the floor in Round 1, compared to -18 in 12 minutes without their superstar

 - The Bullets took 35 three-point attempts against Tasmania, accounting for 44 per cent of their total shots. While Sobey made 4/12, his teammates nailed just 3/23

 - In pre-season, Perth took 48 per cent of their field-goal attempts from outside the arc, and against Cairns last Sunday that increased to 55 per cent

 - Cotton launched 17 three-point attempts against the Taipans. The only time he’s heaved more in a Wildcats uniform was during his 42-point playoff haul against the Snakes in 2020

Who’s matching up?

Bryce Cotton v Nathan Sobey – This has grown into arguably the marquee match-up of the Hungry Jack’s NBL. Cotton bounced back from an off-shooting night to land 31 points on Cairns, while Sobey picked up where he left off last season with his display in Hobart.

Last time they met, both struggled under a barrage of defensive attention, but in the three NBL21 meetings prior to that, Sobey banged in 69 points and 15 assists while Cotton responded with 74 points and 12 dimes. Expect more of the same in the Jungle on Sunday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Back-to-back triples from Bryce to start the third quarter. ? <a href="https://t.co/hy9S2ERjIt">pic.twitter.com/hy9S2ERjIt</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1467399882163949568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s talking the talk?

There was plenty of trash talk going on in the off-season when Vic Law departed Brisbane for the wild west, but as it turned out it was all in love.

“We all know Vic’s a very good player,” Cadee said.

“He was a guy that originally when we had him last year we wanted him back. We loved him as a person and loved him as a teammate.”

It didn’t stop Cadee having another dig at the big-spending Wildcats.

“A guy like that, other teams would be silly not to try to get him,” he added.

“There are obviously some teams in this league that have more money to spend than others.”

It sets up a classic match-up between the high-flying Cats and a Bullets team that has been stuck mid-table for a number of years.

Perth have started this season like a team that has claimed four of the past six titles, winning back-to-back home games in Round 1, while Brisbane’s ‘so close but so far’ loss to the JackJumpers typified their recent history.

“We kind of got rattled towards the end of the game,” coach James Duncan said.

“We need to have discipline for these moments that are going to happen throughout the course of the season. We play Perth next and it’s going to be the exact same situation out there.”

The game resembled the beatdowns that were common in the NBL a decade ago, and Brisbane weren’t able to keep their cool with the unexpected physicality.

“I don’t think we handled how physical they were, they did a great job of it,” point guard Jason Cadee said.

“It definitely was reffed a bit differently than I have played for a little while – and I’d say in the pre-season – so we’re going to have to get used to that and kind of ramp that up in training so next week when we play in Perth we can come ready for that physicality they are now allowing.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Taking care of business <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OHMYJOSH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OHMYJOSH</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/threesplease?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#threesplease</a> <a href="https://t.co/Tn9l8X3lwH">pic.twitter.com/Tn9l8X3lwH</a></p>&mdash; Tasmania JackJumpers ? (@JackJumpers) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackJumpers/status/1466713961626169347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The important lesson for the Bullets is to be ready for whatever style is thrown at them, ready to wear physicality from the 'Cats, but also prepared for tighter officiating.

While last night’s Cairns v Tasmania game was also a brutal affair, the first three games of Round 2 were whistled more tightly, and no pattern has yet emerged about how the league will be officiated this year.

Three things opposing teams can’t afford to do in Perth are give up cheap fouls, throw the ball away and leak offensive rebounds.

The Bullets committed 19 turnovers in Hobart, but one pleasing sign was their 16 o-boards and 84 per cent defensive rebounding effort.

That’s an area of concern for the Wildcats, who lost the rebounding battle to Adelaide and tied with Cairns, and pulled in a measly 61 per cent of their d-boards across the opening round.

“I’m concerned about all of the teams’ heights. I realised in Tasmania that we’re going to be smaller most nights,” coach Morrison said.

“It’s kind of a choice for our guys, if they can take care of the defensive glass and be tough on the interior, then we can use our strengths down the other end, by spacing them out, by flying around, attacking off the dribble and using our speed.”

While Majok Majok and Luke Travers stood tall on the glass, with Matt Hodgson sidelined Perth need more hands on deck.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Luke Travers ELEVATES ? early!<br><br>Watch live on ESPN &amp; Kayo. <a href="https://t.co/dQDmy0linT">pic.twitter.com/dQDmy0linT</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1467385293724553218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“It’s about the intangibles – heart, toughness, working together, things like that. When it comes to rebounding, those things fall into play. You have to work as a team to make sure you’re blocking everybody out, you’ve got to be tough, and you have to have heart to have the desire to try get the rebounds,” Morrison said.

“I believe Charles Barkley was famous for saying something like, ‘It’s not about your height it’s about your heart with rebounding’, and we just need to have five guys that show it and we’ll be ok. That will allow us to use our strengths which are speed and versatility, as opposed to maybe height on paper.”

In some good news for the 'Cats, Todd Blanchfield is expected to return ahead of schedule, and give a high-quality third wheel alongside Cotton and Law.

“He’s a guy that you have to account for regardless of where he is on the floor, and we’ll get him involved in some actions. We have some stuff we’ve been running since I was hired that suits him really well,” Morrison said.

“Hopefully we’ll use him as a spacer, as a guy in the actions, and his length will also be valuable on defence as well, as we’re a smaller team that depends on our guards and our wings to be long and active, so he fits that bill too.”