The Perth Wildcats were missing two key starters but still produced a third straight home victory on Friday night with the knowledge Brandon Knight's not far away, Jo Lual-Acuil Jr will soon be back and Jaron Rillie successfully returned.

The Wildcats were without their newly arrived, but instantly ill, NBA-experienced point guard along with star centre as they hosted the South East Melbourne Phoenix at RAC Arena on Friday night.

But they produced a strong showing for the 92-88 win to make it three in-a-row to improve to 3-1 with plenty of growth still to come.

Coach John Rillie summed it up as a good team win and while there were some impressive statistical performances from Kristian Doolittle (22 points, eight assists, seven rebounds), Anthony Dell'Orso (22 points) and Elijah Pepper (25 points, three rebounds, two assists), other contributions stood out.

"It was a great team win and we stayed with it especially after the way we finished last time against them so there's good growth there," Rillie said.

"We had contributors in big moments all over the place tonight and a couple that come to mind are Angus Brandt's tip-in and Jimmy Whitt's blocked shot, and those little things equate to allowing the other guys to do what they do out on the floor.

"You just come out and do your job and respect the game for what it is, and it's amazing how it ends up working out for you."

As for Knight, the import point guard with 451 games of NBA experience landed in Australia for the first time on Wednesday but it hasn’t been the welcome he hoped with him going down with a bout of food poisoning.

He was never going to play on Friday night, but that denied him the chance to even be at RAC Arena although Rillie is now glad to have eight days ahead of their next game against the New Zealand Breakers also at home to get him ready.

"Well, he's had a quick introduction to Australia and the health care system but our goal is to have him ready for the next game," Rillie said.

"But I'm certainly gonna be mindful of putting him in a position where he can be successful. This group's doing a great job and the little bit of time I spent with him, he's got a great approach to all of this.

"So it's about how we are setting him up for success but the team up for success as well."

Friday night also saw Jaron Rillie make his first appearance of the season and in fact, play his first game at any level since January 4 this year when he suffered a significant hamstring injury.

He was capped to play no more than 10 minutes and used up his time in the first half for nine minutes with a couple of assists, and his dad is glad to have him back available.

"That's all he could play tonight," his dad and coach said.

"The way we handled the whole game, we had a nice tempo and pace, but when he comes out on the floor, there's a confidence about how he goes about it and the shot quality we got when he was out there.

"It's something that he certainly will get confidence from and build on, and our team will and we're evolving.

"There'll be nights in October, November and December where it doesn’t look great until we really, truly figure who we really are, but this is a fun group to be around and we're showing the resolve to win these types of games."

The best part of what the Wildcats have done for Rillie over the past three games is play well together as a team.

Whether it's Pepper providing career-best form both as a scorer and playmaker, Doolittle showing his brilliant all-round abilities, Dylan Windler chipping in, Dell'Orso instantly finding his feet or games record holding captain Jesse Wagstaff coming up big, so many players are making their mark.

"You saw a great team effort tonight like Doolittle had a near triple double, Windler was active and aggressive and when he's in that mindset that's great to see," Rillie said.

"And then Pepper keeps growing and [Dell'Orso] did a great job tonight too. Besides myself, he would have been disappointed with his production in the first game against them so it was great to see him bounce back in that way.

"But over the last couple of weeks he's been doing a good job for us so for that to continue is great."

The other improvement Rillie is seeing in his team is a strong mental aptitude to stay focused on what matters and not let emotions take over when things might go against them, with a good example of that when Doolittle was called for a disruptive foul on Friday night.

"It's still so early in the year and we're trying to figure out who we are and we still don’t know we are," Rillie said.

"But the way we've been composed to Week 1 is encouraging and tonight, they get that undisciplined foul or whatever it's called these days (disruptive) and previously we've reacted a little different to those moments.

"Where tonight, we just moved on and went from there and we finished the game well."

Chris Pike

No Knight, no JLA no worries for Wildcats