The Perth Wildcats have snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the New Zealand Breakers 89-80 to remain on track to qualify for the NBL finals for the 36th consecutive year.
Facing the prospect of losing a fourth-straight home game for just the second time in the past 38 seasons, the Wildcats bounced back on Thursday night at RAC Arena in Perth with a clinical performance against the bottom-ranked Breakers.
Perth never trailed after the five-minute mark of the first quarter with Vic Law (18 points) leading the way as the best of five Wildcats to finish in double figures.
The Breakers fought hard to stay in the contest and created a few anxious moments for the home crowd in the third and fourth quarters but the Wildcats responded on each occasion to maintain a comfortable lead.
Coach Scott Morrison felt the defensive effort in the first half, where they held the Breakers to 36 points, showed his squad was moving in the right direction after a few sub-par performances.
"All the guys are buying in and trying to trust each other defensively, really locking in on what their roles are defensively, and they are encouraging each other from the bench to really keep playing hard and take it one possession at a time," Morrison said after the win.
"We made a few little lapses where we let them get loose, but I thought that was one of our better defensive efforts in the last few weeks."
With a 15-9 win-loss record, Perth's unprecedented playoffs streak looks set to continue as they hold a two-game advantage over the fifth-placed Tasmania JackJumpers with four matches to play.
Stranded at the bottom of the ladder, the Breakers were aiming to end a five-match losing run against opponents they've only beaten three times in the last 16 meetings.
But a promising second-quarter effort from the visitors unravelled when Bryce Cotton drilled two quick triples and Law added a long bomb of his own for Perth to take a 44-36 buffer into the main break.
New Zealand big Yanni Wetzell continues his stellar season for the Breakers with 22 points and 10 rebounds while a late flurry from Hugo Besson (15 points) gave New Zealand a glimmer of hope with Perth's lead cut to seven in the final minute.
"Overall, we played well in this game - we executed, we played with a lot of details and the attitude was correct and it was, I think, a good basketball game," Shamir said as the Breakers (5-19) dropped their sixth match in a row.
So we gave it everything we had today, it's something that I hope we will do for the rest of the season."
