R16 Preview: Perth Wildcats v Townsville Crocodiles

Tip-off: Friday, January 25, 2013, 6:30pm (local), Perth Arena

TV: ONE, 9:30pm (local); NBL.TV

Radio: Sunshine FM; ABC 720

Last time they met: Perth 68 (Lisch 15, Wagstaff 15, Knight 13) d Townsville 63 (Ervin 18, Blanchfield 11, Crawford 11), Round 8, 2012/13, Townsville Entertainment Centre

The story

After Matt Knight and Luke Nevill went head-to-head every day last season as teammates, Friday’s game might be like another training session – except this one will be in front of 12,000 people.

“And a couple of referees out there blowing their whistles,” Knight laughed.

“I'm sure there were a few fouls that didn’t get called at practice.”

Knight and Nevill have emerged as the NBL’s premier centres this season and both are looking forward to renewing acquaintances.

“He moves all the time under the basket, so it’s keeping a body on him and making sure I know where he is,” Nevill said.

Knight said his constant movement was because “I'm usually giving at least two or three inches to other big men”.

“I've got to keep them on their toes," he said. "I try to move around a lot to tire them out.”

The Wildcats big man knows he has his hands full around the basket.

“He’s very good with his left and right hand,” Knight said.

“I've just got to try and make him catch the ball where he’s not comfortable, because if he catches it down low it’s two points to Townsville.”

But Nevill understands it’s not easy getting deep position against Knight.

“He has a low centre of gravity and he is a big, strong guy, so it’s about moving him around a little bit and being able to shoot over him,” he said.

Knight says he will be speeding up-and-down and dragging Nevill around in the halfcourt too.

“We’re going to use Luke in as many on-balls as we can to try and get him away from the basket,” said Knight, who is a master of using the ball-screen situation in different ways.

“I just like to see what the defender is doing and make a read from that.”

However, he won’t be catching his former teammate by surprise when he slips the screen.

“You can kind of see it, especially by who he’s setting it for. A lot of the time if he is setting it for Kevin (Lisch) he will slip it and let Kevin go to work,” Nevill said.

“You have to stay with your man, you can’t show too hard on the screen because he can slip to the hole or get jump-shots.”

The stats

So far this season Knight has outscored opposition starting centres 14.4 points a game to 6.1, and out-rebounded them 7.1 to 4.9.

Nevill has outscored his opponents 16.3 to 9.7, but been out-boarded 5.6 to 6.6.

When Knight hands out two or more assists the Wildcats are 11-1 in the past two regular seasons, with the only loss being in overtime to New Zealand. When he doesn’t they are 12-10.

Townsville have lost their past six games to Perth and tasted defeat in 12-of-14 since their memorable 2009 elimination final at Challenge Stadium.

The wrap
Things have clicked into place for Townsville since Nevill arrived, with their shooters now thriving, but he now faces arguably the league’s best defensive centre.

Not only can Knight defend the post one-on-one, he is superb at covering the ball-screen and recovering without giving his man an opening.

The “Knightmare” rarely lets his opponent catch the ball in preferred position and he is assisted by terrific ball pressure, which makes good entry passes difficult.

Perth’s rotations are so good on breakdowns that every opposition shot seems contested, yet offensive rebounders are almost always covered with a box out.

Townsville will need to hit all the open shots they get and make hay in transition, which won’t be easy with Damian Martin dogging Crocs superstar Gary Ervin in another of the game’s great battles.

Prediction: Wildcats by 9

By Chris Pike, Pagemasters

BOXSCORE

The unlikeliest of three-point heroes Matt Knight hit a massive triple to help the Perth Wildcats escape with a 62-59 win over the Townsville Crocs at the Perth Arena on Friday night.

The Crocs led by as much as 10 during the third quarter and then three triples in the last quarter from Michael Cedar had them still in front with under a minute to go.

Reigning MVP Kevin Lisch hit two threes - including a staggering shake-and-bake that sent Perter Crawford to the floor - to firstly keep Perth close and then hit the front, but then it was Knight who nailed his first triple of the season with 35 seconds to go that ultimately iced the Cats win.

Lisch finished with 17 points but shot 6-of-19 from the field and 3-of-10 from three-point range but nailed the big buckets when it counted. Knight added 15 points and eight rebounds and Shawn Redhage 10 points in his 250th NBL match.

It was a brave effort from the Crocs with Gary Ervin scoring 12 points to go with nine assists, and Todd Blanchfield, Crawford (14 rebounds), Cedar and Luke Nevill all scoring 11 points.

Despite starting the season 0-10, the Crocs now have lost just twice now in the eight games since and with the Sydney Kings (10-10) and Wollongong Hawks (8-9) struggling in third and fourth positions, Townsville has claims on being the third best team in the league.

Crocs coach Paul Woolpert was proud of his team's effort, but couldn’t help but leave Perth feeling like they let a crucial win slip.

"I'm extremely disappointed to think that for the majority of the game we out-played the Wildcats. I told the guys at a couple of time-outs in the fourth quarter to go out and get it because we deserve it, and it just didn’t happen," he said.

"We didn’t get enough movement down the stretch and our aggression wasn’t what it needed to be, but for the majority of the game both teams defended extraordinarily well. It was just a matter of the Wildcats hitting some big shots down the stretch and the fact that they shot 18 free-throws to our six."

The Wildcats improve to 13-4 and it gives them the perfect lead into Thursday's clash with the New Zealand Breakers.

The Wildcats shot just 32 per cent from the field and coach Rob Beveridge knows that's not good enough, but he was proud the Cats still found a way to win.

"What we showed was how much character we had and I think that is the first time we've been put in a position where it was a real grind," Beveridge said.

"Obviously we shot the ball poorly and that's an area we need to work at, so that's no good, but the way we are playing defence and having to get in those grinding style of games, is what happens when we are so poor at shooting the ball.

"The character that our players showed was what I was so proud about because the Wildcats heart was there tonight. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win and made some amazing plays down the stretch."

It was a dour first half with the opening quarter ending tied at 12, and the Wildcats didn’t improve much in the second period backing up shooting 5-of-18 from the field in the second after 4-of-16 in the first.

While the Crocs improved to shoot 8-of-15 in the second quarter, turnovers and bail out foul calls at the other end meant they only led 31-29 at half-time.

The Crocs  started better in the second half with Blanchfield knocking down two triples and an alley-oop and Crawford another long bomb to help them to a double-digit lead.

The Cats whittled that down to just three by three quarter-time and things heated up in the last quarter with both teams nailing big threes, but it was the home side just getting up in the end.

Perth Wildcats 62 (Lisch 17, Knight 15, Redhage 10)
Townsville Crocodiles 59 (Ervin 12, Blanchfield 11, M Cedar 11, Crawford 11, Nevill 11)

Crowd: 10,900 at Perth Arena