Wildcats Want Kings Revenge

Saturday, January 21, 2023

The Perth Wildcats are gearing up and seeking revenge on the Sydney Kings, after letting them dominate their battle in round 14 with a 21-point win.

The ‘Cats are sitting in fourth position on the ladder after two straight wins. Import forward TaShawn Thomas was very vocal about Perth’s determination to increase their aggression against the top of the ladder Kings.

Thomas mentioned the loss in round 14 was still in the back of their minds and the Wildcats have prepared to change the narrative tonight.

“Everybody definitely remembers last time,” Thomas said.

“One thing JR (coach John Rillie) has tried to focus on was to remind us ‘don’t back down’. It’s still a challenge and we feel pretty confident going in. We’ll play as hard as we can.

“When we played them last time, we were (standing) a little bit too back. We want to address the game a lot more aggressive and put the refs to the call. When you’re aggressive, the refs tend not to give you that call. That’s what we’re trying to go for – being a little bit more aggressive on defence.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">? TEAM UPDATE ?<br><br>Mitch Norton (hip) has been ruled out of tomorrow night’s game against Sydney Kings.<br><br>Michael Harris comes into the 11-man lineup. <a href="https://t.co/8zW40i2e1E">pic.twitter.com/8zW40i2e1E</a></p>— Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1615970938058862593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Speaking on his performance in their last match-up with Sydney, Thomas was disappointed he let MVP candidate Xavier Cooks control the game.

“I don’t like what I did last time,” Thomas said.

“Coming in this time, I’m definitely trying to critique myself and to try to do what I need to do to slow him down.

“Seeing them on film, you know they’re fast, but once you get them on the court, you actually see how fast they are. Getting that little bit of taste we had last time was good. I feel like we’ll benefit off it coming on Friday.

“They’re playing the best team basketball. They’re a very talented team. But I don’t think they’re not beatable. I feel like every team in this league is talented so we’ve just got to perform on our night.”

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Wildcats coach Rillie added: “What I hope we got out of the first game against the Kings is we understand how fast they play, they do a phenomenal job at creating pace for themselves on. If we don’t have an urgency to get back on defence, we certainly didn’t learn our lesson and its going to be a long night.

“What helps us is if we play good efficient offence and they’re taking the ball out of the net a lot more….that just automatically slows them down.

“They’ve got a lot of contributors; Cooks is a huge ingredient but if you just focus purely on him you’re going to be scratching your head. They’re the champions for a reason, they have good players all over the floor.”

Rillie commented on the importance of tonight’s game, declaring the Kings are the NBL’s measuring stick.

“The barometer is the Sydney Kings,” he said.

“The ladder speaks for itself with the tightness, we obviously want to build momentum and keep building it we’re in the thick of it.”

Tip-off tonight between Perth and Sydney is 9:30pm AEDT at RAC Arena.