Norton looking for steady improvement

Steady improvement is the key to being a championship-contender at the business end of an NBL campaign.

The Perth Wildcats have had some outstanding games as well as some disappointing periods while facing plenty of adversity during the COVID affected 2021/22 season.

Vice-captain Mitch Norton said it’s about trending in the right direction.

“The class of the league is improving, and although sometimes you play a really good set, sometimes you’re going to get beat by better offense. For us, it’s been about paying attention to detail, probably a little bit more to the scout, and our system, and I think we’ve shown improvements like that,” he said.

“I touched on it today a training. We’ve all been a part of teams that have been up and down but successful ones kind of have that steady improvement and I think that’s what we’re looking for.”

Norton believes his team showed signs of that in its win over Adelaide on Sunday.

“I think it was about us hustling and staying in the play. It was something brought to our attention the last couple of games, about not getting out-worked. So, although they did get a lot of offensive rebounds, our energy and effort to chase down ad contest shots and to force them to miss contested threes is something that we want to try and achieve.”

In their most recent games against, the Wildcats have stumbled when facing the league’s top ranked teams.

They’ll have a chance to fix that when they face the top-of-the-ladder Melbourne United on Thursday.

“We want to win every game. Heading into that arena we haven’t been too successful this year, so it’s something that we’re trying to re-write.”

The United game is the first of three road games in five days for Perth.

It will bet the Wildcats final regular season road trip of 2021/22.