Trailing by just six points on Saturday night after a hard-fought opening half, the two-time reigning champions were blown away 59-30 after the main break in their heaviest finals defeat since 1989. Perth were belted then by 55 points by the now-defunct North Melbourne Giants.

"It doesn't matter who you play, where you play, you be a man and play hard," Gleeson fumed.

"I don't think we played hard for 40 minutes - we played hard for 20 minutes.

"We weren't playing Wildcats basketball.

"I don't think we were proud of our effort tonight."

Perth captain Damian Martin felt his side were embarrassed in terms of effort and had to show more pride in game two on Friday at Perth Arena.

"Disappointed ... embarrassed," Martin said.

"They had guys almost running into each other. That's how desperate they were to get out in the open court and run.

"The reality is they didn't do anything outside their skill set - they were just hungrier and (more) desperate, particularly in that second half.

"They embarrassed us and now we've got six days to go back and say that's not going to happen again on our home court."

Australian Associated Press