The Wildcats faced former teammate Nathan Jawai in a two-points loss to Cairns on Monday.
Camera IconThe Wildcats faced former teammate Nathan Jawai in a two-points loss to Cairns on Monday. Credit: Supplied/Getty Images

Perth Wildcats: Greg Hire asserts every NBL game a “must-win”

Greg HireJoondalup Times

To me, every game is a must-win.

Irrespective of the standings, you need to focus on each contest as an opportunity for your team to grow and in doing so, walk away with a win.

The season is long and there are highs and lows as we have experienced in 2016-17.

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But it’s important that as a team our mindset remains constant, we don’t buy into the hype and we don’t feed the negativity.

Admittedly, it stung losing against Adelaide on our home court and then going down against the Cairns Taipans.

There’s a reason the 36ers are the benchmark of the league this year.

They play with confidence and belief, creating some exceptional basketball.

We lacked that killer instinct to put them away, which is what good teams do: they continue fighting.

We need to have that urgency to put away a team.

Our game against the Taipans on Monday showed fantastic resolve to nearly pull out a win after being down 12 points with only a few minutes remaining.

While disappointing, we have a fantastic opportunity to reverse those results this weekend.

We start against the Taipans at Perth Arena on Friday night.

And our huge two-game challenge in three days continues when we play New Zealand in Auckland on Sunday.

We need to make sure we first stamp our authority on tomorrow’s clash; as always this is a “must-win” game.