Teams set to fight for survival (Men's Preview)
Lakeside Lightning travel to Southside Mitsubishi Perth Redbacks for game one of the best-of-three series Friday night, while Sun City Plumbing Geraldton Buccaneers host Southlands Willetton Tigers on Saturday.
All four advanced to the semis with 2-0 series wins in their quarter-final series’, but closer contests are expected this time.
Second seed Willetton will be trying to repeat its performance from early July when it went to Geraldton and won 104-80, with a win this time to put it in the dominant position in the series.
The Buccaneers will be tough to beat at home, where it was 10-3 for the regular season, but Willetton showed it can cope with the travel with that win last month.
Geraldton must win to retain realistic hopes in the series, with the chances of winning twice at Willetton next week, where the Tigers were 12-1 for the season, extremely low.
Adelaide 36ers star Daniel Johnson will be crucial for the Tigers as he battles with in-form former NBL big man Ben Pepper and starting centre Matt Wundenberg.
Fourth seed Perth also needs to win game one to give itself a chance going into the second weekend of the series.
Lakeside is dominant at home but Perth will fancy its chances of pinching one of the games on the road if it can win this weekend at home, where it was 11-2 for the regular season.
The Redbacks are on a six-game winning streak and will be confident after overcoming fifth seed Wanneroo, but Lakeside have won nine straight and breezed past East Perth in the quarters.
Perth’s Jon Meriweather will battle with Lakeside’s Ben Beran in a matchup at the power forward spot that could be crucial to the outcome of the series.
Joel Wagner is averaging 27 points and 10 assists per game in the finals, continuing his good form for Perth, while Luke Payne is one of Lakeside’s form players, scoring at least 21 points in each of his last eight games.
Article by Jacob Kagi
Photo by Marg Prior
Don't forget the Basketball WA Pre-Sale for Grand Final tickets ends 5:00pm Sunday August 8. Click here to purcahse tickets using the code word "BWA".
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