Wildcats don't care enough

Perth Wildcats captain Jesse Wagstaff has called the care factor of the playing group into question, after a 120-88 defeat to the top-placed Illawarra Hawks.

Wagstaff’s thoughts came off the back of a question about Perth’s defence, which is leaking 97.3 points per game, the worst rate in the league.

“We have a great defensive system but Illawarra do a great job of doing what’s required. We care as a club and we care as players but often I don’t think we care enough to do what’s required in the moment,” Wagstaff said.

“That comes up in many ways. It comes up in boxing out, it comes up in diving on the floor, extra possessions, watching scout. You could sit here for half an hour and go through many things.

“I don’t think it’s one thing. It’s a combination of multiple things over the course of 40 minutes. To bring them down from 120 to 100 is 10 possessions. If you can shore up 10 possessions in a game, suddenly it’s a ball game.

“We got smacked in the mouth. To be honest, they thoroughly deserved to win and we thoroughly deserved to get smoked by 30.

“Hopefully it’s a good lesson for us. Hopefully it’s a blip. This doesn’t count for three losses. It counts for one loss.

“Hopefully it’s a really good lesson for us as a playing group. Hopefully we can take a leaf out of their book and play with that passion and that will that is required to win in this league.”

The Wildcats sit fourth on the ladder with a 10-9 record after Sunday’s result, with Bryce Cotton’s run of four-straight 40-plus point games coming to an end as the star guard managed just 13 points.

Perth returns to action on Saturday night against the Adelaide 36ers at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN.