Mitch Norton, Vic Law and Luke Travers injured during Perth Wildcats’ loss to South East Melbourne

Doubts are hanging over three of the Perth Wildcats biggest names for Monday night’s match against Tasmania JackJumpers after they slumped to their fourth loss in five games against South East Melbourne.

The Wildcats lost 86-80 and face a nervous wait to see how Mitch Norton, Vic Law and Luke Travers recover.

Norton was poked in the eye with 90 seconds remaining, and taken to the change rooms for treatment but didn’t return

Law suffered a corked thigh earlier in the quarter but managed to finish the game, while Travers passed a game day fitness test on his injured ankle but spent only five minutes on court.

“We’re pretty banged up right now,” coach Scott Morrison said.

“I know Vic was pretty banged up at the end of the game. Mitch – I don’t know how his eye looked – but that’s one of the toughest kids I’ve ever coached. If he can’t come back in the game, I don’t think it was normal.

“LT was banged up today. I’m sure other guys have got some knocks during the course of the game. It was a physical game. Whoever is available is going to have to give it all they have on Monday.”

Perth have now lost to Sydney twice along with being defeated by Melbourne and South East Melbourne since January 30. Their only win during that time came against a Phoenix team that was missing their coach and four players due to COVID-19.

The clash followed a similar trend to other matches with the Wildcats trailing by 14 points early in the third quarter and then fighting back to tie the scores late.

The Phoenix kept Bryce Cotton scoreless in the first half before he finished with 15 points.

Law starred with 22 points and nine rebounds, Matt Hodgson played arguably his best game in a Wildcats uniform with 10 points and seven rebounds while Michael Frazier II took a step forward with 10 points and four rebounds.

But the Wildcats couldn’t stop Kyle Adnam (24 points) or Mitch Creek (22 points) and their inconsistency during games remains a problem.

“Our issue is we don’t recognise that the battle is 40 minutes,” Morrison said.

“We have some positives to build on. Our rebounding has improved. We did a good job on the glass. We’ve just got to try to get everything clicking at the right time and getting enough aspects of our game fine tuned that we can put together a 40-minute effort.”