Perth Wildcats vs Illawarra Hawks - Thursday Preview

Game Details
Perth Wildcats vs Illawarra Hawks
4.30pm WST Thursday 27 January @ WIN Entertainment Centre
Watch LIVE on ESPN – available via Kayo or Foxtel

Context
This is the two teams second game in five days, with the Wildcats defeating the Hawks in their clash on Saturday despite falling behind by double digits early.
Between games, the Wildcats returned to their base in Hobart before travelling back to NSW on Wednesday.
A key focus for Scott Morrison and the Wildcats will be addressing their slow starts as they are now the worst performing team in first quarters on aggregate in the competition.
Illawarra have played again since their last meeting, comfortable defeating the Adelaide 36ers on Monday behind a hot-shooting performance from big man Harry Froling.
The Wildcats go into the game with a 6-2 record, while Illawarra have won five of their eight games. They currently sit second and fourth on the ladder.

What the coach had to say
Scott Morrison on slow starts: 
“I’ve put it on the team this week. I’ve tried a few things, I’m no genius or anything like that but there’s only so much you can do, you want to play your best guys and they’ve (the starters) proved time and time again they are our best guys, but for whatever reason they aren’t starting with the urgency they need to. There’s no sense tiptoeing around it, it’s definitely an issue, and it’s going to come back to haunt us if it hasn’t already and we need to get it fixed. So, I’ve put it on them, and they seem to agree, that they can work on it and fix it.”

Scott Morrison on back-to-back games against the Hawks
“It’s kind of like playoffs, both teams go back to their corners and figure out what changes need to be made. If I’m being honest, my opinion is the team who lost the first game has a slight advantage as they can make adjustments based on what they see and the winning team is guessing what they’re going to do. So, we have to be at our best and try and improve some things that we didn’t think we did at our best in the first game.”

Roster Availability 
Corey Shervill is the only player unavailable for this game.

Opponents to watch out for
Harry Froling’s 27-point performance on eight of 10 three-pointers on Monday night against Adelaide shows how deep the Hawks roster is. Tyler Harvey added 19 points and Sam Froling 18 points in that game as well.

Last time they met
Bryce Cotton, Todd Blanchfield and Vic Law starred in the Wildcats comeback win on Saturday, becoming just the second team this year to feature three players to score over 20 in the one game.
Illawarra’s 18 per cent three-point clip was their worst of the season, and their 78 total points was their lowest of the season.

Fun Facts and Stats
Bryce Cotton owns two of the top-three individual scores for Wildcats playing against Illawarra. He scored 45 in the 2017 Grand Final and 36 five months later.
Jesse Wagstaff has played against the Illawarra Hawks more than any other Wildcat. Saturday will be his 62nd game against the Hawks.
Mitch Norton is eight points away from 2,000 career points.
Illawarra have recorded just nine turnovers total in their last two games.

History
Perth and Adelaide have met 134 times in 40 years, with the Wildcats winning on 94 occasions. 
The Wildcats have won 10 of their last 12 against the Hawks, including four of their last six at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
Illawarra have been restricted to scores in the 70s in 10 of their last 11 games against Perth.