Perth have been on a mission to prove the critics wrong this season, when multiple analysts predicted they would miss out on the finals for the first time in 35 years.
After a shaky start, they've rocketed to the top of the table, winning the mid-season NBL Cup in the process.
Perth have won their last five matches, all of them by 9 points or more, and nine of their last 10.
Meanwhile, Illawarra have almost had the opposite journey in their season.
The Hawks won their first four matches of the season, but since then have only won five of 12 matches.
After their most recent game against Melbourne United - a 10 point loss last Sunday - Hawks coach Brian Goorjian admitted his side would be up against it when they face the Wildcats.
“We’re off to Perth for the next one, it’s brutal, it’s really going to test us,” Goorjian said.
However, centre AJ Ogilvy is more optimistic.
“When we’ve been knocked down in the past we've bounced back and shown what we’re made of in the next game,” Ogilvy said.
“So I don’t think I’ll have to drag guys with me, we’re all very proud of wearing the Illawarra Hawks jersey and the system we play, and we know we didn’t stand up to that tonight (against Melbourne), so I think the guys will be rip-raring and ready to go come Friday in Perth.”
The Hawks have won just once in Perth in their last 33 attempts. That single victory came in 2016.
Bryce Cotton has once again been on fire for Perth these last few matches, scoring 33.7 points per-game the past two rounds, while dishing six assists per-game and committing just 3 turnovers across the three games.
“At the start of the season, there were a couple of guys who hadn’t played with Bryce before and they get to be spectators,” Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson said.
“It’s the moving pieces, they came out and started trapping him so we've got to put in our counters, we've got to be in our rebounding positions, we've got to be in our defensive transition, it’s just getting use to those positions out on the court.
“He was making some shots and we were ok, but then later in the second half I thought we dried up from the three-point line, I think we only hit two threes in the second half, but we still found different ways to score from crashing the glass, because we were in the right positions when they were rotating on Bryce.”
You can watch the Illawarra Hawks attempt to stop the Perth Wildcats tonight on SBS on Demand from 9:30pm.
