Do the Perth Wildcats have the best home-court advantage in the NBL?
After claiming their 10th consecutive win at Perth Arena, with a 106-103 victory over the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night, Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson thinks they do.
The last time the Cats lost in Perth was on January 29 this year, when Melbourne United claimed a 91-85 victory in over-time.
The Cats won their next six games at Perth Arena to finish the 2015-16 season, including two wins against the New Zealand Breakers in the grand final series.
And the win over the 36ers on Saturday was the reigning champions' fourth home victory to start this season.
“It's the best (home court advantage) in the league, without a question,” Gleeson said.
“The support… and they had a lot to cheer about with the threes and they had a lot to boo - with the (Adelaide) guys doing what they were doing - I can't say too much.
“But I think they were well justified with their judgement with the booing.”
Adelaide’s Jerome Randle scored 40 points on Saturday night, but was booed constantly for much of the second half, after he was involved in some physical one-on-one battles with Cats skipper Damian Martin.
Martin was returning from a fractured jaw sustained less than two weeks ago.
While he got through that ok, he suffered a leg injury early in the second half and missed almost the entire third and fourth quarters.
The Cats may have to beat New Zealand next Sunday without Martin if they want to extend that home winning streak to 11 games.
But having to make big trek across the Tasman and then across the country, has not been easy for the Breakers in recent seasons.
Their last win in Perth was 15 February, 2015, when they beat the Wildcats 89-87 in overtime. Since then, they have travelled west five times and gone home empty-handed each time.
But despite again giving up a solid lead - 18 points - to scrap for a win, Gleeson says the signs are good.
“We’ll recuperate and hopefully the diagnosis for Damo is good,” he said.
“We’ll see how it pans out. We know we're under a bit of adversity, but we see some good signs; we're getting there.
“We showed mental toughness, with no captain, or leader out there. We put a rookie (Corban Wroe), who has been with the team for two weeks, to run the show.
“That takes cojones and I’m super proud of them.”
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