Basketball On The Internet.

BRYCE Cotton opened the NBL's Round 7 with a season-high 37-point haul as Perth made it three wins in a row and exposed the Breakers as battlers this time around and highly unlikely to match their bold Championship Series campaign of 2022-23.

The wicked zone defensive alignment which almost brought them all the way back from a 26-point deficit to a three-point loss to South East, then forced Sydney to find a late game-winner, was tonight their biggest liability and allowed Cotton to find his groove early.

And once that happens, well, you know, you're more than likely effed.

Cotton has been left to fend for himself in the Wildcats' early games when playing against man-to-man, often having to create shots himself or having to run ragged to get anything resembling an open look. He has been a fatigued and inaccurate man.

As a result, his early season performances have been acutely un-Cotton-like, with the blame falling at the feet of second-year coach John Rillie.

But by opening in its zone instead of using it tactically to surprise and unsettle the Wildcats, New Zealand instead fell into a hole of confusion. defenders harassing the ball, then running hard at the pass receiver - very often in a double-team with a surprised teammate - meaning the initial passer then was wide open for a shot when the ball was passed back.

You start a game giving Kristian Doolitte two open threes and he ices them both. Worse, you leave Cotton wide open while defenders are ball chasing, and you've opened yourself up to potential suicide.

Compound that by having Parker Jackson-Cartwright over-dribbling and no-one able to consistently make a shot and wow, a disaster is looming mighty largely.

Ahead 28-8, Perth was soaring, Cotton alight, Keanu Pinder enjoying himself and Jesse Wagstaff leading by example, the Wildcats' 34-point first quarter the most by any team this season. 

Anthony Lamb (25 points with 6-of-11 threes) and Mangok Mathiang (11 points, 14 rebounds) were at the forefront of several promising New Zealand revivals but whenever it came as close as 10 points, Cotton would put a stop to it, a couple of times with 3-point facials as his full confidence (he shot it at 60 per cent) returned.

He was definitely in the zone.

PERTH WILDCATS 94 (Cotton 37, Pinder 21, Wagstaff 11; Doolittle 11 rebs; Doolittle, H. Harris 4 assts) d NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS 76 (Lamb 25, Jackson-Cartwright 20, Mathiang 11; Mathiang 14 rebs; McDowell-White 6 assts) at RAC Arena. Crowd: 10,685