How to watch & talking points: Perth v Cairns

06 Feb 2026

perth wildcats

cairns taipans

Perth continues its post-season push on Friday, hosting Cairns at RAC Arena.

Perth Wildcats (5th) v Cairns Taipans (9th)
Friday, February 6, 9.30pm AEDT
RAC Arena

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Talking points

It's all coming together
The Perth Wildcats have had a rollercoaster NBL26 season, dropping four home games by one-point, blowing big leads and struggling to find consistency.

However, that looks to be a thing of the past as this Wildcats team is peaking at the right time and ready to pounce on a championship.

Led by their three big stars in Jo Lual-Acuil Jr, Kristian Doolittle and Dylan Windler, the Red Army has plenty to get excited about with what's to come in the remaining rounds.

Party spoilers
The Cairns Taipans can play party spoiler for a few teams in the last few weeks, including the Perth Wildcats who are looking to get into the top four.

The Taipans got a big win last round against Tasmania and followed it up by getting out to a 20-point lead on the Sydney Kings, before falling apart late.

Led by Jack McVeigh, there's a lot of confidence and excitement in this group and don't be surprised if they have a couple of wins left in them.

What they're saying

Wildcats guard Elijah Pepper on the pivotal moment of his season:
“I’m aware of the fact that if they bring in another guard, whether I like it or not, it does impact my role one way or another.

“JR (John Rillie) brought the team together the day before the game and said ‘this is our group of guys. This is who we believe in and we are sticking with you guys.’ Those words speak to the confidence he has in us and helps myself and a lot of the other guards who are getting increased minutes.

“There’s myself, Henny (Ben Henshall), Sunday (Dech) and Dontae (Russo-Nance) has been playing bigger minutes. I think it speaks to their confidence and their belief they have in us. That by itself increases your own confidence and when you are playing better it’s a lot easier to have confidence in yourself. It always helps when, if you make a mistake, you know you are not going to get pulled out for it straight away or you will go right back in.”

Taipans coach Adam Forde on learning from last round's results:
“We will focus on the positives of the good things we did against such a good team, so there's nothing to be critical about and we'll try to work on some things, but there's no point focusing on any of the negatives.

"We'll keep competing and fighting, and every game is an audition for a lot of our players, so we'll come out to play the right way and try to win and nobody wants to just go through the motions