Perth have overtaken old rivals New Zealand to go top of the NBL after the two perennial contenders had mixed fortunes on Sunday.
A 36-point masterclass from point guard Bryce Cotton helped Perth to a 99-91 away victory over Illawarra, the Wildcats' fifth straight win.
The Breakers lost 96-92 away to Adelaide, where they trailed by 13 with just over three and a a half minutes to go, before a 12-0 run got them to within one with just over 30 seconds left.
In Wollongong, Cotton, who also tormented Illawarra in last year's grand finals series, hit seven out of 12 three-point efforts.
He was well supported by fellow imports Derek Cooke Jr, who made all eight of his field goals in a 19-point haul.
Illawarra shot 56 per cent from the field with import forward Demitrius Conger bagging 30 points, but no other Hawk contributed over 12.
Earlier in the round, Perth scored a 88-79 home win over Adelaide.
Coming off two losses last week, the Breakers also started the round with a win, with Tom Abercrombie tallying 22 points and 12 rebounds in a 96-89 home victory over Brisbane.
But on Sunday, they slumped to a third loss in four games as they trailed for much of the match against an Adelaide side missing the injured Mitch Creek.
Nathan Sobey scored 22 for the home team and Edgar Sosa 26 for the Breakers, who had four players foul out.
Cairns moved into the top four with a fourth consecutive home win, despite the continued absence of Nate Jawai, Stephen Weigh and Mike Carerra.
The Taipans scored a 79-70 victory over inconsistent Melbourne to give coach Aaron Fearne his 250th win.
Last-placed Sydney face the daunting prospect of having to almost certainly win 12 of their final 14 games to have a chance of making the playoffs after losing 85-77 at home to Brisbane.
Recently acquired Sydney imports Jeremy Tyler and Jerome Randle were the game's top scorers with 23 and 22 respectively.
The Bullets bench outscored their Kings counterparts 26-5, with Brisbane keeping alive their own playoff prospects against a Sydney side which coach Andrew Gaze conceded again faded down the stretch.
Melbourne host Sydney in the final match of the round on Monday.
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