A late injury scare to MVP favourite Bryce Cotton has topped a horror night for the Perth Wildcats as the Illawarra Hawks NBL fairytale continues.
Coach John Rillie had nothing to do with injuries suffered to his key pair Kristian Doolittle and Bryce Cotton as the Hawks overran them 108-92 at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong on Thursday to start the last round of the NBL season.
However, it was a 'Cats team increasingly lacking focus and control of their emotions as the game wore on - and Rillie certainly does take responsibility for that.
Emotions almost spilled over, especially when there was no call made on a backcourt screen set on Doolittle.
The Perth forward ran backwards into Sam Froling, with the Hawks centre standing his ground perfectly legally, but the end result was a shoulder injury that could have a huge impact on the Wildcats finals prospects.
There was also a no call on halftime that saw Perth young gun Ben Henshall fall heavily after having his dunk blocked by Illawarra's Davo Hickey. Again though, it looked perfectly clean from Hickey.
Coupled with the Hawks winning the rebound count 57 to 35, and taking 35 free-throws to 26, Rillie's frustrations spilled over.
It was nearly a total disaster for a Perth team, who are guaranteed second place no matter what happens in Tasmania on Saturday, once Cotton hurt a knee in the fourth quarter too.
Cotton, a lock to win his fourth MVP award, is doubtful for Saturday against the JackJumpers.
"He'll (Doolittle) just get some X-rays here and then we'll see where it goes from here," Rillie said.
"It was knee to knee contact (for Cotton) and it's just one of those deals with how does he pull up after playing tonight."
In the bigger picture, keeping their emotions in check will become a key focus for the Wildcats come finals time.
"Tonight, I got too emotionally invested in the game when it was a really good game," Rillie said.
"We have to go out and play a good style of basketball, respect ourselves with the way we approach and usually good things happen that way."
There are far fewer problems with the Hawks. They are now 12-6 since Justin Tatum replaced Jacob Jackomas as coach to be guaranteed of playing Finals.
Tatum isn’t content, though, and is focused on beating regular season champions Melbourne United on Sunday to lock in a top-four finish.
"We know that we've solidified ourselves a playoff spot, but our goal is to finish off with a winning season (currently 14-13)," he said.
"We want to win that game against Melbourne because we want to finish with a winning season record so that's our finishing goal for the regular season."
