Nick Kay’s Perth Wildcats have no intention of taking their foot off the accelerator when they travel to Melbourne for the final game of the home and away season.
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The Cats all-but cemented top spot on the NBL ladder with another come-from-behind win against the Adelaide 36ers at RAC Arena on Friday night.
Perth trailed by 16 points during the second quarter, but another Bryce Cotton second-half resurgence saw the Cats home for a sixth consecutive win, 93-85.
Kay again played an instrumental role recording his 11th double-double with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
United need to beat Perth by around 30 points on Sunday to pinch top spot - a position the Wildcats have held at the end of 11 of 17 rounds so far this season.
Coach Trevor Gleeson said he had no thoughts of taking Sunday's game easy.
"Our mentality was first to lock in a top-two finish and I think that locks us in the top two. That was one of our goals at the start of pre-season," Gleeson said.
"We're playing great basketball now and want to carry that forward; we don't want to go backwards.
"We want to win the game, without question. They are a great team and it's going to be a cracker."
The first half in Perth's 93-85 win over Adelaide on Friday night will give Gleeson plenty to look at, though.
For the second consecutive week, Bryce Cotton had a slow start to the game.
Against the Sydney Kings a week earlier, the league's reigning MVP went 0-10 and didn't score in the first half before finishing with 27 points in an overtime win.
Against the 36ers, he had just five points at half-time, but had only taken five shots, after being well defended. He got off the leash in the second half to finish with 29.
"We'll look at that," Gleeson said. "They did a very good job in the first half, defensively, but we didn't execute that good to create points."
Gleeson will also look at the way his big men attracted fouls in the first 12 minutes of the game.
At the start of the second quarter, Angus Brandt, Tom Jervis and Jesse Wagstaff each had two fouls next to their name.
Wagstaff fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter.
"There were a lot of hands in the cookie jar," Gleeson said. "The big fellas should be getting fouls up high. There was a hold and off the ball (foul).
"They have to be smarter with that."
Australian Associated Press
