Despite the outside noise, the Perth Wildcats have won two straight games while awaiting the arrival of point guard Brandon Knight and covering him by committee has been working led by career-best NBL form from Elijah Pepper.

Coming off Thursday night's heart stopping win against the Adelaide 36ers with the stunning winning banked in three from Pepper, the Wildcats remained at RAC Arena on Saturday night still awaiting the arrival of import Knight.

They then lost star centre Jo Lual-Acuil Jr in the first half to a calf injury so had to do it against the New Zealand Breakers without their ideal starting one and five men, but produced a strong performance by committee for the eventual 97-93 victory.

In that guard role, that had Pepper (25 points, five assists, 5/10 three-point shooting), Dylan Windler (26 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks), Kristian Doolittle (12 points, five boards, four assists) and Anthony Dell'Orso (15 points, 11 rebounds, five assists) all splitting time as the ball handler and bringing it up the floor.

Then to cover Lual-Acuil Jr up front, Angus Brandt (two points, two rebounds) played a crucial 19 minutes and 543-game captain Jesse Wagstaff was massive especially turning the momentum with 10 points in the third quarter.

Overall, doing it by committee has been key now for the Wildcats to be 2-1 to start the season.

"There's a lot of ways to look at it but right now, we have to do it by committee and opportunity," Rillie said.

"I would like Marley to read the scouting report and understand that probably taking Parker one-on-one in his first NBL game is a learning game, but that's who we are and we know that's who we have to be right now.

"And we're doing a good job with finding ways to facilitate through different avenues."

At the opposite ends of the spectrum, 40-year-old captain Wagstaff was massive in setting up the win for the Wildcats before fouling out.

It was then a big learning moment for 17-year-old point guard Marley Sam who found out about professional basketball quickly thanks to Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

"We should send him (Wagstaff) away to 3x3 and Commonwealth Games every year, but what he does an incredible job of is he knows who he is and stays in that lane," Rillie said.

"The sooner players understand what your lane is and stick to it, that's when you'll get true happiness from the game and that's what he does, and he's done it for 18 years and even before that in college and beforehand.

"He (Sam) had a graduation yesterday and now he comes into this and that's the life that he's living right now. It's a steep learning curve for sure and he'll be better for that experience as well."

What might have got lost in the shuffle of Pepper's game winning shot on Thursday night, was that he also produced the best all-round performance of career in that win over the 36ers as well.

Now over the past two games that the Wildcats have won, he has had a total of 50 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals while shooting 18/33 from the field, 8/17 from the outside and 6/8 at the foul line.

That's the best form of his professional career while Windler also worked tremendously in tandem with him on Saturday night and enjoyed the role he was able to play.

"I felt good and just tried to stay engaged and get in action whatever that is for us whether it's off the ball, on the ball or mixing it up," Windler said.

"I'm just trying to find ways to impact the game whether that's on the glass, at the defensive end or being able to make a few shots which always helps.

"I am just trying to stay aggressive overall."

Chris Pike

Doing it by committee working for 'Cats