A devastating shooting display from the Perth Wildcats delivered a devastating 95-61 win over the Sydney Kings at the Crown Kingdome on Sunday afternoon.
The Wildcats were simply impossible to tame as they caught fire from three-point range, hitting an impressive 15-of-35.
The visitors' accuracy was highlighted by the fact they put up only five more shots than Sydney yet ran out 34-point winners.
With reigning MVP Kevin Lisch (22 points) showing why he’s regarded as one of the league’s best and Jesse Wagstaff (15 points) and Everard Bartlett (13 points) hot from outside, Perth piled on the misery for 40 minutes.
In truth, the Wildcats’ shooting display was merely the icing on the cake of an impressive all-round performance.
The 2012 runners-up spectacularly swatted away eight Sydney shots, Michael Dunigan, Jeremiah Trueman and Shawn Redhage all collecting two and Damian Martin producing the play of the game with his huge rejection of Corin Henry.
“We know how good we are defensively and that we are the benchmark for the league defensively, but offensively I think we suck,” said Wildcats coach Rob Beveridge.
“We were selfless tonight and it was one of our best performances and our best shooting performance.”
The ease Perth were able to carve-up Sydney’s defence caused Kings coach Shane Heal's frustrations to get the better of him, resulting in a second-quarter technical foul as the Wildcats' momentum turned into a tsunami.
“Tonight is extremely hard to take,” Heal said.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t go out there and have a crack – it’s unacceptable. We weren’t mentally or physically ready to complete against a team you have to be able to beat to have any chance of winning the league.”
The home side were their own worst enemy, shooting just 11 per cent at one point in the first half and 0-of-8 from three-point territory at half-time.
When the Wildcats amassed a 25-point lead midway through the second quarter it already appeared to be a bridge too far for the Kings.
And so it would prove as Perth produced an equally dominant second half, Lisch unstoppable and Bartlett slicing through the defence at will.
Despite the efforts of Kings star Ben Madgen (22 points) and Tom Garlepp (13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), who continually tried to ignite the home side, the large crowd of almost 7000 was given little to cheer about.
“As soon as you get to a level and enjoy some success, if that drops in any way, we go back to the type of team everyone expects us to be and that’s a team that gets smashed by 30-plus,” Heal said.
“We’re better than that, but until we prove it we’re not.”
An open-court slam from Dunigan put the exclamation point on the afternoon as the Wildcats nailed triple after triple until the final buzzer.
“We know we’ve got so much room for growth and tonight was a good reward for the guys to show that,” Beveridge said.
Perth Wildcats 95 ( Lisch 22, Wagstaff 15, Bartlett 13)
Sydney Kings 61 (Madgen 22, Garlepp 13, Weeks 7)
Crowd: 6788 at Sydney Entertainment Centre
Match preview coming soon
Match preview coming soon.
R12 Report: Wildcats smash Sydney at packed Kingdome
04:11 AM Sunday 30/12/2012