Perth Wildcats star Kristian Doolittle doesn’t want coach John Rillie to call time-outs during close NBL games

Perth Wildcats star Kristian Doolittle has backed coach John Rillie’s policy of not calling time-outs late in games, saying he believes it gives the team the best chance to catch their opponents off-guard. There has been a big focus on how the Wildcats approach the finish to games after they again lost a close match last weekend. Perth had two time-outs remaining when Melbourne hit the front with 30 seconds remaining, but Rillie stuck with his policy of not calling a time-out. The Wildcats struggled to produce a clean shot and Doolittle missed his late attempt. But he wants Rillie to keep letting the team play when games are on the line. “I feel like the right play is to not call the time-out,” he said. “If you call the time-out, the defence has time to set up and to make substitutions, to have a defensive line-up out there. “We want to be able to keep the flow of the game. Whether it is myself or Jo or anybody else taking the last shot, we want to be able to get an attacking play to create an advantage for anybody to get the right shot. “We called a play at the time where myself, Dylan and Jo were all involved. We take our chances with any five of us out there to be able to take that shot if they’re open. We passed it along and we didn’t really get anything so it came back to me and I took a shot.” Doolittle revealed he has taken on the responsibility of calling plays late in games. But he said the team had spent so much time planning what they will do in the dying stages of matches that everyone should already understand what’s about to happen. He said the play that he called against United was predictable for everyone who was on the floor. “It doesn’t matter who calls the play. I feel like if JR would have called the play, he would have called the same one I called,” Doolittle said. “I called the play with an understanding of what we are trying to get out of the play as a team. That goes back to preparation and the film and study we go into. I’m not just calling a random one.”