Wildcats lock in top-two spot with win over Taipans

The Perth Wildcats had to fight hard to overcome a plucky Cairns Taipans but pulled away late to end up winning 117-88 at RAC Arena to lock away a top two NBL finish.

Cairns put in a spirited showing most of the way but finishing the game without Sam Waardenburg (tight Achilles) and Bul Kuol (fouling out) was too much.

Perth had too much to play for securing second spot with 33 of the game's last 39 points turning a two-point lead into a 29-point win over the last seven minutes.

Taipans coach Adam Forde had a definite game plan with exploiting Perth point guard Tai Webster's defence a big focus while Waardenburg had his best showing of NBL24 until getting hurt.

He hit three triples for 19 points in the first half but it was a game with plenty of free-flowing offence, and not a whole lot of defence with scores tied at 30-30 at the end of one.

It was still 57-57 by half-time with Perth shooting 56 per cent and Cairns 57 with the dam wall beginning to break in the third with the home team going up seven by the end of three.

The Wildcats were then able to pull away with the cause for the Snakes not helped when Waardenburg's night ended with a foot injury and Kuol fouled out to start the fourth quarter.

"It just pulled up a little bit and after seeing Lamb (Anthony, New Zealand Breakers forward who ruptured his Achilles last Sunday) go down, that's unfortunate and I didn’t want to risk anything like that," Waardenburg said.

"I don't really know much about the Achilles, but it felt uncomfortable so I didn’t want to risk it."

The Wildcats went on to win by 29 even though it was a two-point game with seven minutes to play to improve to a 17-9 record.

That guarantees a top two finish ahead of road games next week to Illawarra on Thursday and Tasmania on Saturday.

Perth ended up shooting 55 per cent from the field while going 27-of-36 at the foul line along with 16 offensive rebounds for 18 second chance points.

Superstar Bryce Cotton top-scored for the 'Cats with 26 points and four assists with Keanu Pinder adding 18 points and nine rebounds, Jordan Usher 18 points, Kristian Doolittle 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Next Star Alex Sarr 14 points and 11 boards.

Wildcats coach John Rillie always had faith his team could work on top.

"The second half is going to be easy for people to evaluate that we played well, but the pace and the way the game was going in the first half was a good style for us," he said.

"We just had to tighten a couple of things up and you see when we're dialled in for a nice chunk of time that we're an explosive team that way."

Patrick Miller delivered 25 points and five assists for Cairns with Bobi Klintman adding 11 points with the Snakes now 11-16 with a home to Melbourne United to finish on Friday.

Afterwards, Forde could scarcely how quickly the game got away from the Taipans.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like it," he said.

"After I called my last timeout to say this is it and we'd throw caution to the wind, and then it just went from a two-point game to a 30-point loss in the span of six and-a-half minutes."

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

PERTH WILDCATS 117 (Cotton 26, Pinder 18, Usher 18)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 88 (Miller 25, Waardenburg 19, Klintman 11)

BOX SCORE