R8 Preview: Illawarra Hawks v Perth Wildcats

When: 4.30pm (AEDT), Sunday 7 March

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time

Perth 99 (Cotton 23, White 17, Norton 14, Kay 14) d Illawarra 77 (Blanchfield 26, Dech 15, Grida 11) – January 10, 2020, WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

The Wildcats won the last meeting between the two teams by 22 points in Round 15 of last season and on that night Perth knocked down 17 three-pointers led by Bryce Cotton while they were on the way to a championship and the Hawks were in the middle of a 10-game losing streak on the way to the wooden spoon. But that was 14 months ago now and so much has changed for both clubs. Perth still has Cotton and coach Trevor Gleeson, but there is no more Nick Kay, Terrico White and Miles Plumlee who all played significant roles in that win. Todd Blanchfield top-scored for Illawarra with 26 points but he's now playing for Perth with the Hawks now coached by Brian Goorjian and only Emmett Naar, Sam Froling and AJ Ogilvy remaining from that last meeting.

The now

The Wildcats suffered their first loss of the NBL Cup on Friday night against the Brisbane Bullets while the Hawks bounced back from a tough patch of form to beat the Adelaide 36ers on Thursday setting the stage for a tantalising Sunday showdown to close Week 3 at the tournament within a season.

The Wildcats were the last remaining undefeated team at the NBL Cup up until losing to the Bullets on Friday night by three points. Prior to that they had beaten Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns and South East Melbourne – their fellow three finalists from a season ago and a Phoenix team they've now played five times in their opening 10 matches this season.

The 'Cats still hold an overall 6-4 record this season to go with a 4-1 record in the NBL Cup that sees them on top of the table with 23.5 points. They are equal on points with United but ahead courtesy of percentage and a win against the Hawks on Sunday will strengthen their case to take home some prizemoney at the end of next weekend.

Illawarra started the new season and life under legendary coach Brian Goorjian winning their opening four games on the road in Queensland. Things have been a little tougher since with the Hawks having lost five of seven games leading into Thursday night's clash with the Adelaide 36ers.

They bounced back to form impressively to win 98-89 and it was on the back of Goorjian backing in the same five players for the entire last quarter. That included his leading scorers Tyler Harvey and Justinian Jessup along with the all-round talents of Justin Simon. But he also backed in former NBA pair Cam Bairstow and Deng Adel who had injury-interrupted starts to the season and the Hawks were still finding their groove with them back. But it all clicked together on Thursday as they improved to 7-5 on the season and 2-3 at the NBL Cup.

The stats

- The Hawks don't traditionally enjoy life against the Wildcats. They are the team they have faced the most in history with 126 previous meetings but they have won just 38 of those and have racked up 88 defeats. The 'Cats beat Illawarra in all three meetings last season at an average of 18 points.

- This will be the first time in NBL history where both coaches have combined to win double-figure championships. Brian Goorjian is a six-time championship winning coach at the South East Melbourne Magic, Sydney Kings and South Dragons while Trevor Gleeson has won five championships since taking over at the Perth Wildcats for the 2013/14 season.

- This will be Todd Blanchfield's first game with Perth against his former Illawarra team. Blanchfield is also in career-best scoring form with the Wildcats going at 14.8 points a game with his previous high being 14.6 back with the Townsville Crocodiles in 2014/15.

- Hawks captain AJ Ogilvy will be hoping for a change in fortunes against the Wildcats now that he is the skipper of the team. He has lost 13 of the last 14 games he has played against Perth.

The key men

Bryce Cotton – It goes without saying that the Perth Wildcats can't be a one man show, but if anyone can do it on occasions it is them when they have the presence of dual MVP Bryce Cotton. The fact that 120 games into his NBL career he's already been discussed as an all-time great says it all about him and he looms as a match-winner every time he steps onto the floor. His remarkable shooting ability on top of being able to create his own shot, and then equal danger in getting to the rack making him quite a challenge to guard. Throw in the fact that he is a tremendous passer with outstanding vision, and he's mighty tough to stop. His chemistry with John Mooney is already dazzling to watch and his ability to find his big man to allow him to finish is working a treat. Whether he is shooting or creating for his teammates, the Hawks just can't let him fire.

Justin Simon – If Bryce Cotton firing is going to be key for the Wildcats, then the Hawks trying to quell his influence will be crucial to whatever success they may have. The Hawks will be confident of scoring enough with the shooting of Tyler Harvey and Justinian Jessup, and Cam Bairstow and Deng Adel improving all the time. But Justin Simon was brought in by Brian Goorjian with the intentions of helping the Hawks not be beaten by someone like Bryce Cotton. Now his defensive prowess will be fully put to the test and how he goes trying to defend Cotton is going to have a mighty big say in the final result.

The quotes

Damian Martin won six championships with the Perth Wildcats including five of those as captain, but he left such a legacy defensively winning the Best Defensive Player award six times that the award is named in his honour. He also inflicted plenty of pain on the Illawarra Hawks during his career beating them in two Grand Final series and another couple of semi-final battles. So he's well placed to give his thoughts now on what he expects to see on Sunday highlighted by whether or not Justin Simon can put the clamps on Bryce Cotton as has been touted.

"I've heard it too many times that so and so is going to shutdown Bryce or a team is going to shutdown Bryce. Justin Simon has been brought in as an import to shutdown Bryce and I love that Brian Goorjian has recruited according to who can beat Bryce and the Wildcats in the post-season so I love that confidence he has in his team to make it that far," Martin said on the Basketball Hustle podcast he shares with fellow championship legends Shawn Redhage and Matty Knight which can be listened to by clicking here.

But the reality is that in my opinion Bryce is one of the all-time greats of the league and is the best player I've played alongside in my 13 years in the league. I don’t think there's any such thing as a stopper for him and if Bryce has a quiet night it's usually because he's human. 

"But in saying that, if there is anyone capable of being physically stronger, athletic, quick and trying to make the night very, very tough for Bryce then it is Simon. I can't wait for the match up because you're potentially looking at the best offensive weapon in the league versus the best defender in the league. If that's not tantalising enough to be on your couch and watching the game then you're hard to please."

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian has a famously long history coaching against the Wildcats and this will be his first battle with Perth in charge of Illawarra, and first at all since the 2008/09 season when he was on his way to taking the South Dragons to a championship.

But his focus is on this Hawks team who has played all but one of their 12 games this season on the road so far. That is causing its challenges but his proud of the way his group is holding up and with the way teams are defending his stars.

"It's getting tough there's no doubt. You look at these teams out here and it's been a long time, and we went from Albury-Wodonga to Brisbane and Cairns, and there are no complaints and I've always said it's a strength to be together but this is getting nasty and tough. We've lost some close ones and then we got pounded a little bit, and we've been struggling. So that game was desperation," Goorjian said.

"We were desperate and I coached desperate. I was tighter with my rotations and we made a few adjustments from the last few games. We had been doubling those on-balls and getting in the lanes so our schemes were a little tighter against Adelaide with less rotation. I thought the guys did a good job with that and a good job on the glass. Then that free-throw count was even which has been big for us because we've been really hurting ourselves by fouling and putting the other team on the line.

"We were desperate and responded. I do think these teams are scouting and waiting for Tyler and Justinian, and they are being targeted. They are receiving full on attention off the ball and we've had other guys they are playing off so to have those contributions from Justin on the glass and around the ring, and penetration and Adel hitting those shots was huge for us. That allows us to penalise teams for how they are playing Tyler and Justinian."

Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson hasn’t seen the Hawks since a couple of pre-season games back in December and he knows they are going to be tough to overcome.

"Their three imports are really good and Harvey can get on fire, Jessup is a second round draft pick and we had a bit of exposure to them in the pre-season. Then they've got guys like Ogilvy and Froling in there, and some really good guys off the bench with Bairstow's NBA experience and they are really good," Gleeson said.

"They've done a great job of recruiting and them and Melbourne United I think recruited the best in the off-season. They are super talented so it's going to be a great test for us. Brian's a great coach so you know they are going to be very well prepared and it's going to be a good test to see how we respond and improve from Friday's game."