Wildcats look to bring their winning intensity

Kristian Doolittle and John Rillie are confident the Perth Wildcats can bring the intensity that helped them win four of their first five games when they host the Tasmania JackJumpers on Thursday night.

Kristian Doolittle pointed to the stops Perth got late against Cairns and the open looks they created by sharing the ball. As attention turns to Tasmania, he’s confident his teammates can carry those habits into Thursday's game.

“We were able to get the ball from side to side and get some wide-open threes and let the offence do the work for us,” Doolittle said.

John Rillie echoed that belief in his side when asked after Sunday’s game and his answer was clear.

“Absolutely confident about the group,” Rillie said.

From Perth’s four wins in their first five games, Rillie recalled the urgency the Wildcats brought to the 50–50 balls during that stretch.

“We did a good job of that early on in the year with the way we played and we had a desperation about ourselves,” he said.

“That’s what we have to reshape right now.”

Rillie saw good patches at both ends of the floor against Cairns. His message after the game was for each player to look at what they could do to help a teammate and sustain those stretches. When the Wildcats do that together, he said, more of those 50–50 moments start to go their way.

Doolittle saw that trust at work on defence as Cairns made tough shots even when Perth had forced the look they wanted, and captain Jesse Wagstaff reminded his teammates those shots will fall from time to time. Doolittle’s message was to back each other to defend the next possession.

“I feel like sometimes we’re down on ourselves after we play good defence, and then they still make the shot,” he said.

“I just feel like we just have to have a next-play mentality.”

The Wildcats got stops late against the Taipans as some of those tough shots stopped falling. At the other end, they kept the ball moving and trusted the next pass to find an open teammate.

Rillie’s confidence extends to the players stepping into bigger roles. With injuries opening up minutes across the roster, he wants those players to make the most of their opportunities and help set the standard for teammates working their way back.

“When those guys come back, I would hope we’re in a position where they can just slot in and they have to get up to speed with us,” Rillie said.

Doolittle’s attention now turns to Tasmania, with the Wildcats back in front of the Red Army for their Round 9 clash at RAC Arena on Thursday 12 November.