Wildcats wary as Finals fight continues

The Perth Wildcats are wary of facing teams who are fighting for positions in the top-four, as it enters the business end of the 2021 season.

The Wildcats have travelled to Queensland to continue its stretch of six games in 11 days.

Next up is the Brisbane Bullets, who made easy work of the Sydney Kings on Thursday night.

“It’s that time of year, team’s are fighting for playoff spots, Brisbane are right in the hunt, we're trying to get to top-two position. It’s going to be good to see how we respond,” said coach Trevor Gleeson.

Captain Jesse Wagstaff agreed.

“We’re playing teams that are fighting for their lives, there’s a lot of teams bunched up and we’re playing for our lives too, we’re trying to secure a spot, so every game from here on in, I think we have eight left and five pretty quickly, so every game its on,” he said.

“That’s what it should be, that’s what you want heading into playoffs.”

Saturday’s clash with the Bullets will see Will Magnay return to face his former side for the first time.

It’s also his first time returning to his home city since departing Australia for the NBA.

Gleeson was pleased to be able to get 12 minutes of court time into Magnay on Friday.

“You can see he’s a little bit rusty with quickness and ball handling, but that will come. You know any time you make a roster change, you have to alter things a little bit and hopefully we keep growing in that area.”

Magnay finished with three rebounds, two assists and a highlight reel block.

In Brisbane’s 23-point win over Sydney, Anthony Drmic added 28 points, while Nathan Sobey scored 19.

Sobey remains second in the NBL in averaging points per game, behind Perth’s Bryce Cotton, with 22.3 per game.

Tip-off on Saturday is at 3.30pm on VICELAND and SBS On Demand