Perth Wildcats coach Scott Fisher has declared his side is better with the addition of Damien Ryan, despite the loss of Adam Caporn for the season.

“I think we are a better side and that’s not a slight on Adam. His second half of games he played with a bad knee,” said Fisher

“We rewarded him for his courage by keeping him in there, but now Darren (Brooks) is moving well in the point guard position. Adam’s knee is actually coming along well and the doctor said he might even be ready for the play-offs, but obviously that won’t happen. “Damien has to scare people when he hits four straight shots like that. His legs still aren’t under him and he doesn’t have that solid grasp of what he’s doing, but two games and he probably will.”

It wasn’t as emphatic a home victory for Perth as their last three over New Zealand, Wollongong and Sydney, but Fisher is pleased with how the team is travelling.

“It wasn’t our best game, although we got going in the second half.

I love seeing so many of our guys scoring and it’s hard to defend that for the opposition,” he said.

“Our offence is clicking better over the past few weeks and to add an offensive weapon like Ryan is obviously great. Our defence will always keep us in the game and now we have the options to make a real impact offensively.”

Singapore put in a gallant effort against the Wildcats, but in the end the home side had too many offensive weapons for the Slingers to stop.

“We played them tough for three and a half quarters before breaking down in a few areas and didn’t make some adjustments,” said coach Gordie McLeod.

“The two guys that killed us were Ben Hunt coming off the bunch with 13 points and then Ryan went on that streak in the fourth. We weren’t able to make the right adjustments to stop that from happening.”

Singapore’s first two games in the NBL were against Perth and McLeod has seen his team improve, but so have the Wildcats.

“As a team we’ve made enormous gains in the way we are playing. It hurt us not having Larry (Davidson) in our rotation, but I thought our other guys did a good job,” he said.

“We have made good improvement as a team since the start of the year and the Wildcats certainly have as well when you can add someone like Ryan into the mix.”

Marquin Chandler was the star for Singapore with 26 points and his coach has been impressed with his development over the season.

“Marquin is a great team player. Not only is he able to make things happen on his own, but he’s also unselfish, can bring other players into the game, is underrated defensively and we’re using him better as a team.”

Chris Pike

Wildcats better with Damien Ryan arrival