PERTH coach Rob Beveridge insists Cairns remain a dark horse in the NBL premiership race as talk centres on a seemingly inevitable finals series between his Wildcats and last year's champions the New Zealand Breakers.
Beveridge is sick of responding to assumptions that those two sides are certain to meet in the deciding series later this year and hopes his players are not getting caught in the hype.
"The chat about us and New Zealand just creates expectation and pressure, it’d be nice to not have that and fly under the
radar like Cairns and Townsville are," Beveridge said.
"But we understand that is the way it is and we just need to ensure we aren’t focusing on that because the bottom line is, if we stop winning games we won’t finish top two."
Tonight’s battle with Cairns at the Snakepit has been billed as the match of the round, with a win for Cairns keeping them in touch with the top four.
But they will need to overcome a Wildcats unit accustomed to silencing opposition crowds.
Perth beat the Taipans in Cairns for the first time in five years last year and have a strong away record of 7-4 this season.
"It was a special win; we had no preparation and arrived in Cairns after lunch on game day," Beveridge said of his Far North breakthrough in round six.
"It’s one of the proudest crowds to play against, it’s tough to go into an environment like that, but we managed to get the better of them in that last quarter."
"The monkey’s off our back now and I think we’re confident wherever we play.’’
The Taipans will be a different beast this time around, though, with a full deck of cards and more established as a unit.
"It’s no excuse, but we were a different team then,’’ Taipans assistant coach Mick Downer said.
‘‘Now we’ve got Dusty (Rychart) getting back into it and there are no issues with the fitness of Ian (Crosswhite) and Alex (Loughton).
"We owe them for that loss."
It could again be a battle between the point guards, with Jamar Wilson and Damian Martin among the best in the league.
"There is a good batch of guards going around the league at the moment and he’s definitely one of the best," Beveridge said of Wilson. "Jamar’s up there with (Breakers) Cedric Jackson and I rate our guard Damian Martin as well. But then Drew (Warren) is shooting so well for the Taipans and they’ve got the veterans Alex, Ian and Dusty; it’s a good mix they’ve got right now."
