Rillie's masterstroke: Small ball sparks Wild comeback

John Rillie knew he had to try something.

It was half-time at RAC Arena and the Wildcats were staring down the barrel of a fifth straight loss to Melbourne United, their season fizzling out with barely a whimper. 

They were 14 points down, they could have easily ended up losing by 30, or more. But would that margin really matter? In Finals, a loss is a loss. Perth's season was on the line, and it was time to call an audible.

The 'Cats went small. Rillie backed in the back court of Tai Webster and Ben Henshall to get the job done, with Dylan Windler and Kristian Doolittle up front, and Bryce Cotton doing everything he could to contribute, despite being hounded by Shea Ili.

The signs were there in the third. The Wildcats finished the quarter with a 10-3 run to reduce the margin to 11 with one to play. There was a way to go, but the momentum was starting to shift and the crowd was starting to get involved.

Then, Dylan Windler took over, lifting his team with a huge individual display, and the likes of Tai Webster and Ben Henshall played vital roles. 

Perth outscored Melbourne 33 points to 15 to win 96-89 and forced a deciding Game 3 back in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Rillie paid tribute to his playing group for sticking with it and finding a way to get it done without relying on match-winning Pinder or Cotton outbursts.

"We hadn’t played good for 60 minutes in the series, but everyone has commented on how powerful our offence can be," Rillie said.

"We had been very pedestrian up to that point, so I felt like we would have our moment at some stage for that bubble to burst, so it was about keeping guys believing in that.

"Giving them (the players) credit, in every timeout our mentality as a group to just chip away and stay with it, and to fight, was unbelievable."

It was different players stepping up, with five-time MVP Cotton still doing what he could with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists, despite the efforts of Ili.

Webster was outstanding with his confidence and energy for 13 points in 21 minutes.

Henshall might very well have had the best one-point game he'll ever have, where despite missing all seven of his shot attempts, he was influential in Chris Goulding missing his last 11 three-point efforts.

Then there was Windler and Doolittle in the fourth. The import pair combined for 17 points and seven rebounds on 6/7 shooting, to be instrumental in the stunning turnaround.

And captain Jesse Wagstaff's physical presence can't be understated, providing a scoring option when it seemed everyone else was a little off the boil in the first half. 

"All year I've been preaching to our team that everyone is going to get a moment or an opportunity, and all you have to do is do your job," Rillie said.

"What your job is, is to play to the best of your ability and you saw Tai Webster with a great example of that, Doolittle stuck with it and Dylan with his second half.

"You look at Ben Henshall's stat-line (one-point), but he did a phenomenal job chasing Chris around all night, and it's not always going to be pretty, but the uglier it got actually the better I felt about us, because we just kept fighting to give ourselves a chance."

There has been moments throughout the season where Cotton has been unstoppable and Pinder dominant, but Rillie loves to see others step up. 

It was Windler's time in that second half with him finishing with 27 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, four blocks and two steals while hitting 6/7 from downtown.

"One of the beautiful things about this team is that they actually really embrace everyone's success when they have their moment," Rillie said.

"When someone's rolling or we feel like we can capitalise on their brilliance, we want to go to that and we're fortunate enough to have guys that have that dynamic playmaking and scoring ability amongst our group."

Full of confidence, the Wildcats now travel to Melbourne for the Series decider, live on ESPN from 7.30pm AEDT on Tuesday night.