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DrinkWise Game Preview - Round 4: Perth Wildcats vs Adelaide 36ers

20 Oct
3 mins read

Written By

Jordan McArdle

For the first time this season, Perth Wildcats will have a clean bill of health heading into their road clash against Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night.

Wildcats head coach John Rillie confirmed that import Kristian Doolittle (knee) and guard Kyle Zunic (foot) were cleared to fly to Adelaide on Friday ahead of captain Jesse Wagstaff's 450th game.

Doolittle sent a scare into the Wildcats' camp early in last Friday night's clash against Melbourne United at RAC Arena when he went down with a knee injury.

But scans revealed the 26-year-old had avoided serious damage.

"He was out there performing, scoring buckets and playing defence. I’ll rule him in," Rillie said after practice on Thursday.

"Doolittle is going to be travelling to Adelaide and playing. Any sportsman that goes down like that, you do hold your breath and hope it doesn’t impact their career for any type of length.

"It’s been great to have him out in practice this week and him re-joining our team.

"He influences the game in ways that statistically don’t show up. You saw Jesse’s impact the other day when he played - Kristian and Jesse bring a similar type of impact to the game for our group."

Rillie said the full roster availability was a nice problem to have as his team hunts their third win of the season and second against Adelaide.

"This is the first time we've had everyone healthy to take on the road with us," he said.

"I can say it’s a great thing, because as we’re trying to search and find ourself having everyone available is great to have in that situation.

"You have to have those conversations with guys so they understand where they fit and when their opportunity comes along.

"Dave Okwera plays against Sydney and hadn't played in the last couple of games and he did a great job coming in.

"The old coaching cliche 'you'd better come and be ready for your opportunity' - because your opportunity will come at some stage."

Game Details

Who: Perth Wildcats vs Adelaide 36ers

When: 5pm WST Saturday 21 October

Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Watch: Live on ESPN via Kayo or Foxtel

Opposition watch

Adelaide are shaping up as a danger side after breaking through for their first win of the season against lllawarra last weekend and signing sharpshooting import Dejan Vasiljevic during the week.

The 36ers dropped Thursday night's clash to South East Melbourne Phoenix in Vasiljevic's debut and will be desperate to bounce back on their home court.

Last time they met

The Wildcats celebrated their annual Pink Game clash with a hard-fought win over Adelaide at RAC Arena on October 6.

Three-time NBL MVP Bryce Cotton led the scoring with 19 points in the 82-75 result, with fellow import Jordan Usher and French Next Star hit 16 apiece.

 

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