Basketball On The Internet.

DESPITE securing arguably the greatest recruiting coup in WNBL history with the signing of China's 211cm international superstar centre Han Xu, Perth's blatant lack of a "Plan B" hovers once again as its Achilles Heel ahead of imminent WNBL playoffs, Isobel Borlase at Bendigo and Courtney Woods at Townsville ready to lead their teams past the Lynx.

In two recent WNBLChampionship Series, Perth has won Game 1 away, bungled Game 2 at home and been unceremoniously cleaned up in Game 3.

Its attractive style of run-and-gun has proven fun to watch but it's a system heavily reliant on its deep array of sharpshooters being on target.

That's all well and good during the regular season, but come playoffs and it hasn't stood up to the rigours of vastly increased defensive pressure.

Between Perth's 2022 and 2024 Grand Final defeats, Townsville Fire under Shannon Seebohm (2023) and Bendigo Spirit under Kennedy Kereama (2025) have shown what it takes to raise the championship banner.

Those same two coaches' teams fought it out last year but out west, it is 34 years now since the Lynx claimed their only WNBL crown in 1992.

The addition this season of the spellbinding Han Xu has given Perth coach Ryan Petrik a new advantage his seven league coaching contemporaries have to focus on first in every Lynx scout.

It makes his team's offence even more potent but that isn't what may again keep the Lynx from lifting the crown.

Truth is, the Lynx have always been an ordinary - at best - defensive team, their focus at the other end of the floor. And yes, it is exciting to watch them execute a philosophy which seems to say "go ahead, you score 90, we'll score 100".

Put it this way. Perth winning a dour defensive struggle? Unlikely. Perth blowing you off the floor? A far more regular occurrence.

But which teams win the big finals? 

Those that play D, and sadly for Lynx lovers, that still doesn't seem to feature terribly prominently in Perth's Plan A.

If anything, Han Xu's presence as the ultimate deterrent around the hoop has allowed Petrik's players to gamble more often. But how often do those in his main rotation pull up an opposition drive?

When an Amy Atwell goes 4-of-19 from the floor as she did in the loss to Townsville, then unless two others step up to compensate - one of them regularly Alex Wilson - then Perth is about to succumb.

Defending champion Bendigo, completing this season minus championship duo Marianna Tolo and Casey Samuels, still went within a whisker of upsetting Perth to launch Hoops Fest.

Townsville - despite a 9-19 third quarter - took those lessons and doled out a stunning road defeat on the Lynx.

That loss may well cost Perth its shot at a first-place finish and its resultant homecourt benefits.

Kereama's masterful coaching has kept the Spirit soaring, Kelsey Griffin drinking from the fountain of youth and Borlase emerging as the league's pre-eminent player.

Borlase's 42-point haul in Bendigo's 98-88 win over finals wannabe Southside - her career high and the most in a single game by a Spirit player - made her the first to score 42 since Penny Taylor in 2002 and only the 11th player in league history to do it. That puts Borlase in company that includes names such as Taylor, Lauren Jackson and Julie Nykiel - rare air indeed.

Meanwhile at Townsville, Woods has enjoyed her career-best season, well supported by Alex Fowler and the amazing Miela Sowah. On the rare occasions Sowah misses a 3-point attempt, it is almost surreal.

Chantel Horvat and Lucy Olsen off the Fire bench provide a further kick for Townsville.

Bendigo and Townsville are looming largely, as they consistently do.

To claim a second WNBL championship, the question now isn't which teams can Perth outscore. It's which teams can the Lynx stop when the season soon reaches its pointy end.