Defensive lapses cost Wildcats in Sydney thriller

Details
Perth Wildcats 95 defeated by Sydney Kings 98
Box Score
Qudos Bank Arena
19 February 2022

Summary
A game of big momentum swings which ended up coming down to the wire. Sydney dominated the opening quarter before Perth dialled up the defence and closed the rebounding differential in the second quarter to take a halftime lead. The third quarter again belonged to the Kings before a wild final quarter saw the visitors close the gap and get up a potential game-winning shot, but it wasn’t to be. The battle between Bryce Cotton and Jaylen Adams was a highlight of the night, with each star guard scoring over 30 points.

Reaction
Scott Morrison reaction on final moments
“It was tough because they kept going on runs and I felt I had to use my timeouts to try and slow their momentum and reorganise us, and I used my last timeout try and get a break for a couple of guys because they’d played a lot of minutes in a row, and I didn’t have any left to try and calm things down. I thought the guys did a pretty good job fighting back in it. It definitely wasn’t the last two minutes that cost us the game.”

Scott Morrison on defensive concerns
“Number one: Transition. We gave up two layups to start the fourth quarter when we had guys that were able to get back and protect the rim and at least make the shot more difficult. We had a couple of times where we had weak side guys not pulled in, we got beat on the strong side and had no one there to help protect the rim. It sounds simple, but layups are the simplest shot in basketball. I remember a coach back home, he coached hunior high girls, and he said if you just get more layups than the other team you win, it’s kind of the same in this league too. Any league.”

Player focus
Bryce Cotton had a season-high 33 points as well as four dimes, while Mitch Norton contributed double-figure numbers for the fourth consecutive game, plus pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
Luke Travers 16 points included two clutch fourth quarter triples, while Jesse Wagstaff connected on four threes after getting his first start since 2018.

Key stats and facts
The main difference between the two teams on the stat sheet was shooting, with Sydney connecting finishing with 50FG% to Perth’s 40. This could be explained by the Kings preference to take the ball inside, scoring 44 points in the paint to the Wildcats 22.
The Wildcats were able to score 24 second chance points but the Kings 15 points from turnovers were costly.
The Perth Wildcats attempted 46 three-pointers which is the most in their 40-year history. They made 17 of them which is the most of any team this year.
Jesse Wagstaff made four threes, which is the 13th time he’s made four or more in his 401 game career.
Bryce Cotton made eight threes which is the third time he’s made eight or more in his career.

Next game
The Perth Wildcats take on South East Melbourne Phoenix on Saturday.