Perth Wildcats to get their first look at New Zealand’s ex-NBA 229cm giant Tacko Fall in Sunday’s NBL clash

How do you solve a problem like 229cm Tacko Fall?

That is the question for the Perth Wildcats heading into Sunday’s game against New Zealand as they prepare to face the tallest player in NBL history.

Fall made his NBL debut for the Breakers on Thursday night, coming off the bench to be a defensive weapon with five blocks to go with five rebounds and four points from his 14 minutes on the court.

He’s 23cm taller than Keanu Pinder, 21cm bigger than Izan Almansa, has a 28cm advantage on Kristian Doolittle and is 31cm taller than Dylan Windler who played with Fall for a short period at Cleveland Cavaliers.

Breakers coach Petteri Koponen said his squad was still trying to work out how to play with someone like Fall.

“He’s an exciting player. He’s one of a kind,” Koponen said.

“But it’s not only Tacko. He’s not the player who you can give the ball and he’ll create. We need all the guys to learn to play with him and find him in the positions.

“You kind of have to play a bit different. He showed during the week how he can dominate some of the practices in the half court setting.

“Now he needs to get in better shape, and the guys need to learn how to play with him. He’s going to get better, both offensively and defensively, but it will take some time.”

The Breakers lost their first game with Fall in the line-up, copping a 38-point hiding from Illawarra Hawks on Thursday. Several players were at RAC Arena on Friday night watching the Wildcats destroy Brisbane.

Perth’s big names didn’t expend their usual amount of energy during that game with heavy rotations leading to nobody playing for more than 27 minutes.

When combined with not having to travel for the second game of a double-header, coach John Rillie is hoping his team can maintain the form it showed against Brisbane.

“What I’m hoping for is this stretch allows us to get a little momentum and rhythm with our group. Leading into the FIBA window, we played at home and took care of business but then we went on the road and that wasn’t to our liking there. We have to find a rhythm and a balance to our team right now. Hopefully playing a few games at home will allow us to do that,” he said.

“Bryce is coming back from his injury so it’s good to get him good minutes without him having to push through until he gets to his elite best. But also, we’ve had three guys travel extensively with the national team so we were being mindful of those guys as well. Izan had to travel all the way back to Spain and that’s not close.”