Perth's second-quarter blitz has shot down the injury-hit Brisbane, Bryce Cotton scoring 36 points in a 112-85 win that leaves the Bullets' season on the ropes.

Cotton had been relatively quiet in two previous clashes with Brisbane this year, but exploded in the second quarter as they rallied from an early eight-point deficit to avoid a banana skin moment against the depleted side.

Bullets pair Josh Bannan (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Casey Prather (32 points, 11 rebounds) were a two-man band for the hosts, who were without Rocco Zikarsky, Emmett Naar, Deng Adel and Tyrell Harrison on Wednesday.

Bannan had appeared in serious doubt after slipping and twisting his knee in a Saturday loss.

But, with his knee heavily strapped, the crafty forward combined superbly with Prather in a small-ball line-up that initially disrupted the Wildcats.

He had the opening eight points and then assisted Prather's first bucket, the pair scoring all of Brisbane's first 18 points.

Cotton was benched as the hosts went ahead by eight points, but the Perth star returned to drive twice to the basket late in the first quarter and level the scores.

With the juices flowing he nailed two quick triples, the Wildcats accelerating in a 21-4 run to begin the quarter and open up a 23-point lead at the main break behind the most lopsided quarter (38-15) of the season.

The Bullets (10-13) had won six of eight games to right the ship.

But a fifth loss from their last six starts sees them slip to seventh on percentage and two wins outside the finals cut-line with six games to play.

"You can't afford it," Bannan said, critical of his team's second-quarter effort.

"You want to make the play-offs but you have to set goals to be more ambitious than slide into the six.

"Our intent needs to be to win every single game so there's no shadow of doubt.

"We have to change our effort levels to be better than they were tonight."

Perth (14-9) kept the heat on second-placed Melbourne (15-9) to complete a 6-1 road trip ahead of a welcome return home to host Adelaide on Friday.

"It wasn't a great start but we stuck with it," Perth coach John Rillie said.

"I'll critique the second half, but we've been on the road for seven games ... we did what we had to do.

"We're in a nice groove, but we can get better."

Perth made their first eight three-point attempts in a perfect storm the hosts had no cover from.

The Bullets, who host last-placed Cairns on Friday, did find their flow again, whittling the deficit to 11 points.

But they fluffed a three-on-one breakaway though and Cotton steadied with a smooth floater as the gap widened again.

Keanu Pinder (19 points, six rebounds) and import forward Dylan Windler (16 points, six rebounds) showed range as well as power around the rim.