{"id":523156,"date":"2026-03-06T20:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523156\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T20:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:02:18","slug":"they-cant-handle-pressure-legend-calls-out-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/523156\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;They can&#8217;t handle pressure&#8217;: Legend calls out Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few weeks, there has been plenty made of the Perth Wildcats\u2019 lack of ball handling in the backcourt.<\/p>\n<p>Without guards Jaron Rillie and David Duke Jr., John Rillie only had Elijah Pepper, Ben Henshall and Dontae Russo Nance at his disposal.<\/p>\n<p>Duke Jr is now back in the lineup, but the Wildcats\u2019 apparent lack of ball handling came to the fore once again during Wednesday night\u2019s heavy defeat to South East Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p>The Phoenix forced the Wildcats into 17 turnovers, compared to five themselves, thanks largely to their defensive pressure, which caused a 12-3 steal count.<\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/premier.ticketek.com.au\/shows\/show.aspx?sh=NBL26\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CLICK HERE TO BUY NBL26 FINALS TICKETS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One who knows firsthand about being the chief playmaker on a Wildcats side is club legend Ricky Grace, who said the squad \u201cdidn\u2019t look battle ready\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said at the beginning of the season, they need a Ricky Grace, but that wasn&#8217;t pumping my tyres. I was saying that they needed a point guard,\u201d Grace said via Thursday\u2019s NBL Now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s no way you can expect [Kristian] Doolittle to bring the ball up the court, to be the starter and as well as the finisher and sustain that over a full game<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[After Wednesday, now teams know] if you&#8217;re playing the Wildcats, you\u2019ve got to pressure them, because they just don&#8217;t have anyone that can control it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>But the four time NBL champion doesn\u2019t believe all is lost for the Wildcats, offering a solution to the side ahead of their Play-In Game on Saturday against Melbourne United.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDavid Duke Jr., physically, athletically, mentally, he can match it when the kitchen gets hot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would start David Duke, give him a go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saturday\u2019s Play-In Game at RAC Arena tips off at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tradablebits.com\/tb_app\/543837\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Perth Wildcats Finals Hub:\u00a0Ticketing info &amp;\u00a0more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772827338_553_699cf5b7327f19300623040a_NBL26 Finals_1920x250.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the past few weeks, there has been plenty made of the Perth Wildcats\u2019 lack of ball handling&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-523156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}