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Melbourne United vs Perth Wildcats Live Stream & Tips - Wildcats to open NBL Finals with Game 1 win

Jeremy Darke

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Last updated: 25 Feb 2025

Jeremy Darke 25 Feb 2025

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NBL Finals opens with Perth Wildcats visiting Melbourne United in Game 1
Wildcats rely on Bryce Cotton's scoring and strong frontcourt.
Concerns for Melbourne include matching Perth's offensive pace

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Melbourne United vs Perth Wildcats in Game 1 (Getty)

Melbourne United vs Perth Wildcats Preview
Head to Head
Melbourne United Form
Perth Wildcats Form

Melbourne United vs Perth Wildcats Preview

The NBL Finals Series gets underway on Thursday and the Wildcats are backed to break their four-game losing streak against Melbourne United with a victory in Game 1 at John Cain Arena.

Bryce Cotton is 8-15 against Melbourne in the regular season and 3-1 in NBL Finals.
Perth rank second in NBL25 with an average of 100.6 PPG
Melbourne ranks 5th in the NBL with 40.8 opposition points in the paint.
Kristian Doolittle averages 9 RPG in his past 7 matches.

Head to Head

2024/25 Match Results

22/01/25: Perth 93 - 99 Melbourne

09/11/24: Melbourne 106 - 97 Perth

04/10/24: Perth 97 - 68 Melbourne

2023/24 Season Series

Melbourne United won 2-1

Melbourne United Form

Melbourne United will head into these finals flying under the radar with the other three teams in the semifinals playoffs having bigger storylines during NBL25. United are a danger, they finished second in the regular season and nobody is talking about them.

In my opinion, it is simply because they haven’t been dominant at either end of the court, they are ranked fourth with 95.6PPG and fifth with 91.4 OPPG.

United are stronger on the defensive end than they are on the offensive end and sit really mid-range in most statistics.

Their strength on the defensive end is that they do not give up cheap points, ranked top of the NBL in opposition second chance points (11.4/G) and fast break points (8.8/G).

The issue with Melbourne in this series will be if they can score enough points to keep up with the Wildcats high-octane offence or can they dilute the scoring power of all of Perth’s weapons, especially, but not only, the league MVP Bryce Cotton.

Perth Wildcats Form

Perth finished the season red-hot, winning 8 of their final 10 matches and eventually did the dirty on the Phoenix in the Seeding Qualifier 122-105 after trailing by 5 points at the half.

The depth of talent on offence for the Wildcats is up there with the Minor Premiers the Hawks and is potential more dangerous on their night when everything is clicking.

The return of Keanu Pinder’s top form has lifted the Cats to another level with the 29-year-old averaging 23.2 points and 10 rebounds in his past 5 games.

Pinder’s combination with Kristian Doolittle (20PPG + 9RPG in his last 7 games) gives them arguably the strongest frontcourt in the NBL Finals.

Then there is Bryce Cotton. The league MVP is averaging 34.6 points per game in his last 5 matches and obviously can make it or break it for the Wildcats. If Cotton is hot and the rest of the Wildcats get half-started, then they will put up too many points for Melbourne.

The question and it is a big one, is can Perth play enough defence to protect the points they throw on the board?

Verdict

Melbourne United v Perth Wildcats

Perth Wildcats are backed to win as the away underdog, scoring over 96.5 points and Kristian Doolittle recording 8+ rebounds.

Perth Wildcats

Money Line

@6/4 - 2 Units

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Perth Over 96.5

Team Total

@11/12 - 2 Units

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Kristian Doolittle

8+ Rebounds

@3/4 - 2 Units

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