Perth coach Trevor Gleeson believes his new import combination of Casey Prather, Jameel McKay and new addition Bryce Cotton have the potential to create havoc in the upcoming NBL finals.
Gleeson was breathing a lot easier after the Wildcats surged into the top four with a 72-68 win over a stuttering Brisbane Bullets last night.
The Wildcats entered the final term trailing Brisbane by seven points but came out aggressively, wiping off the deficit in the first 90 seconds of the last quarter..
A lovely rainbow three-pointer from Cotton followed seconds later by a transition basket by the slick American gave Perth a 62-60 lead.
Cotton, who had tongues wagging after his eye-catching 29-point NBL debut for the Wildcats against Sydney last weekend, broke Brisbane's defensive shackles to score nine of his 11 points in the final quarter -- including two huge free-throws.
"With Damo (captain Damian Martin) coming back (from injury) and Bryce joining us we are still in that period of everyone getting in sync with each other," said Gleeson who admitted he'd sleep better with Perth well placed to continue their amazing record of contesting every finals series since 1987.
"I think you can see the parts are there. Bryce carried us on Saturday night and we had Casey and Jameel doing the job for us tonight.
"Look out if the three of them get going we're going to have a lot of fun out there."
While the win lifted Perth into the top three, behind Adelaide and Illawarra, Brisbane slipped to sixth and face tough games against the Hawks and New Zealand next round.
Coach Andrej Lemanis tried to find positives from the loss and put import Jermaine Beale's disappointing four point return down to a "bad night".
"Like everybody he (Beale) has good games and bad games." said Lemanis.
The bottom line though is Brisbane need more points from Beale who needs to contribute a lot more than four points.
His 1-7 return however is just not good enough from a key import in this League.
