The NBL is close to receiving one of its premier talents back as Perth Wildcats‘ center Matt Knight made a successful return to the court.
The Wildcats have a scheduled week off after a 6-0 start to the season and could receive their star big man back to what has been an all-star lineup, led by Miami Heat import James Ennis.
Knight participated in a practice run with his fellow Wildcats teammates on Friday and seemingly got through the scrimmage without trouble after missing pre-season with an ankle injury.
The Wildcats return to action next Thursday night against the Taipans with Knight now a real possibility to re-join the active lineup.
“Not 100 per cent – we’re looking at about 85 to 90 per cent at the moment,” coach Trevor Gleeson said of Knight’s chances of playing against Cairns.
Knight will have to get through, then pull up without concern, from Friday’s session and training next week before he’s given the green light.
“When Matt does come back, it’s just the chemistry on court. He is right now where he should have been eight weeks ago.
“The team’s moved forward with how they’re playing together and their chemistry on the court, and Matt has a lot of catching up to do. The last thing we want to do is put him in and we’re going backwards – we want to just integrate him slowly to get him back to full health.”
Round 5 of the NBL season kicks off on Friday night with three games scheduled- Sydney v Cairns, Adelaide v Melbourne and Townsville v NZ Breakers before the Tigers go again against Wollongong on Sunday.
The Tigers sit third on the NBL standing with a 2-2 start to 2013-14 and have a real chance to establish early playoff position should they dispatch the 4-2 36ers and then the lowly Hawks at home.
Melbourne have set the tone defensively in the NBL this season as the only team yet to concede 80 points in a game while holding opponents to just 75.3 points per game thus far. The Hawks will need import Rotnei Clarke to be at his best in order to keep Wollongong’s playoff hopes alive.
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