Perth sticks to winning formula

Perth head coach John Rillie says his side won’t alter its game plan too much ahead of the impending Playoff Series against the Tasmania JackJumpers.

Tasmania earned its place in the best-of-three series against the Wildcats due to the Seeding Qualifier win over Illawarra on Wednesday night. The JackJumpers overcame the Hawks by 16 points at MyState Bank Arena to lock in a date with the competition’s second-placed side.

Rille says at this late point in the season, teams are going to be reluctant to change much of the strategy that has seen them progress this far.

“We have to continue to play the way we have success,” Rillie told SEN WA. “In Playoffs each possession just gets magnified that little bit more because you understand losing means your season is done.

“When we were playing poorly in October, we knew we had time to fix the problem, but now you don’t have time, so your margin for error is a lot more under the microscope.

“Teams at this stage of the year aren’t going to change too much, so how can we capitalise what we do against their defence or how can we combat their offence at a more efficient rate than what we did the three times during the regular season.

"Once you get to this part of the season there is going to be quality teams no matter who we play, and to win it we have to beat quality opponents. That’s the beauty of finishing second and giving ourselves home court advantage. In saying that, we were going to play a quality opposition no matter who won last night’s game."

The Wildcats will have endured almost three weeks without a game when they finally take to the court in Game 1 of their series against the JackJumpers, but rookie guard Ben Henshall has kept himself sharp by representing the Boomers in their recent FIBA Asia Qualifiers.

Henshall starred with 14 points off the bench in Australia’s 14-point win over South Korea, and he added four points and four rebounds in the 55-point dispatching of Indonesia.

Rillie says Henshall’s role within the Boomers setup last weekend will help him dial in on his role for the Wildcats this upcoming series.

“His role and our expectation of his will be very similar to the Boomers in coming off the bench and providing a spark,” Rillie said.

“Anyone on our roster on the bench like Ush (Jordan Usher), Michael Harris, Jesse Wagstaff, Alex Sarr, instead of just maintaining we should be able to kick the lead or change the momentum of the game into a more favourable position for us.

“What that allowed him to do was pull on the green and gold – and that’s a great experience at any time – but also understand this is a great position for him to be in and a great role for him to have at this point in his career.”

The series will see another return to Perth for Tasmania’s Will Magnay, who represented the Wildcats 15 times during the NBL21 season.

Perth ended up suffering Championship Series defeat to Melbourne on that occasion, and Magnay has since re-established himself as one of the premier bigs in the competition, after a horror run with injury.

He was named Foot Locker Player of the Game for his performance in Wednesday’s win over the Hawks, and Rillie says his side needs to be mindful of the former New Orleans Pelican on both ends of the floor.

“He was impressive last night, now he’s probably found a patch of his career where he’s been able to remain injury-free for a period of time, so he’s been able to get the reps in practice but also the confidence of his teammates,” Rillie said.

“You certainly saw a top-shelf performance from him last night at both ends. He’s got a great reputation at the defensive end, but last night he was very efficient offensively as well.”

Game 1 of the Playoff Series between Perth and Tasmania will be shown live on ESPN via Kayo from 9:30pm AEDT on Friday, March 8.