Basketball On The Internet.

IT would be a great disservice to the Perth Wildcats to say Illawarra's Hawks blew another wonderful opportunity for an NBL win over them last night.

No doubt in the view of Hawks fans, they did.

Being a "glass half full" kinda person, I prefer to see it as further evidence of why Perth is as consistently strong as it is and has bred a culture of success that transcends Cal Bruton, Murray Arnold, Alan Black, Adrian Hurley, Rob Beveridge and even current mentor Trevor Gleeson.

There's a lot of pride at that ballclub and Jermaine Beal is a great example of it.

Let's be blunt here though. Beal - and for that matter, Brian Conklin at Townsville too - have earnt their NBL reputations by consistently bringing quality. 

Neither of them has been setting 2015-16 alight though.

In fact, in many ways, instead of their "NBL Season 3" being a third time lucky scenario, so far it has been their worst season.

Beal (above) was travelling OK last night until Kevin Lisch literally floored him. With one of his wicked high-skill shake-and-bake moves, Lisch sat Beal on his behind as he stepped back and swished an uncontested three.

Yeah. It was the kind of play you don't want to see on highlight reels all week, if you were the defender.

But Beal has a lot of pride. He replied with a three and went on to score 14 last-quarter points, taking over the contest.

Hey. He still got put on his behind, but at the end of the night, Perth again had kicked Illawarra's behind and he was the architect of it.

Matty Knight continued his All Star play with a 16-12 double-double and Tom Jervis was big (literally) with 11 boards, blocking three shots and changing others.

To again recover from an 11-point deficit at the last break to make it 3-0 over the Hawks this season - and 15 from the past 16 - you know no-one has to say: "We've got a lot of self-belief and pride in our program."

It was plain to see.

Tonight: OH, it will be on for young and old at the Kingdome and I'd make this an even money bet. Sydney has so much to prove/lose and Adelaide is trying to get on a roll. I'm sticking with the 36ers, but not with a high degree of confidence.

Last night: WILDCATS 99 (Beal 26, Prather 19, Knight 16; Knight 12 rebs; Prather, Beal 4 assts) d HAWKS 96 (Lisch, Ogilvy 25, Penney 19, Forman 11; Ogilvy 10 rebs; Lisch 4 assts) at The Sandpit, Wollongong.

Online

Kings waiting for 36ers: http://bit.ly/1lkTinp