Perth Wildcats import Kristian Doolittle happy to defend any of Melbourne United’s stars during semifinals

Perth Wildcats star Kristian Doolittle has declared he is ready to guard every Melbourne United player during Thursday night’s semifinal, saying his job is to stop the most dangerous player on the floor. Doolittle was named the Wildcats’ Defensive Player Of The Year at their MVP awards on Saturday night and will have a massive say in whether the team can beat United at John Cain Arena. The powerful American will targeting whoever United coach Dean Vickerman wants to produce match winning plays. “I’m preparing for everybody. There’ll be moments in time where I’ll guard whoever is going or whether it is a time or situation or whether we need a big stop. I’ll usually be on whoever we think is going to be taking that shot, to make it as tough as possible,” Doolittle said. “I prefer to guard a guard. Guarding a big ain’t fun because it’s a little more physical and they can wear you down, especially depending on however long I can guard them. A guard has more space. I feel like that’s where you can really show how good you are on defence, when you’re out in space. But I always say I’ll guard whoever I’ve got to.” The FIBA break for international games means both teams have had an extended break to prepare. Elijah Pepper and David Okwera will re-join the team on Tuesday after representing Australia but Spaniard Izan Almansa will travel directly to Melbourne from Europe. Pepper dominated for the Boomers, top scoring against Indonesia and Thailand with 18 and 24 points respectively. The Wildcats lost to Melbourne in all three games throughout the regular season. But they’re taking confidence from knowing they didn’t have their full squad available in any of those matches. Doolittle said the Wildcats are also aware that they played nowhere near their best against Melbourne. He believes the players were their own worst enemies during those clashes. “In the games that they beat us, besides the one where we didn’t play as ourselves and got beaten by like-30, I felt like we should have won both of those games,” he said. “Due to our own mistakes we lost the game on our own. It’s not necessarily that you have to change everything, we’ve just got to be stronger in those moments