The crunch has come early for the Wollongong Hawks.
Tonight they host title favourites New Zealand in a match crucial to both team's top-four prospects.
Wollongong (10-9) are hanging onto fourth spot while the Breakers (9-10) are equal fifth with Adelaide.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks On Friday night Wollongong will play their sixth game in 17 days when they travel to Melbourne to meet the Tigers.
The Hawks could reclaim a share of top spot with a couple of wins, but even one loss could force them out of the top four for the first time this season.
"Every game is important, but with this season being so close, if we lose both of these games we're right on the back foot and we'll be almost praying for a miracle," Wollongong centre Larry Davidson said.
"We were on the bus coming back from the airport (on Sunday night) and I was thinking, 'We've only got nine games left'. It hit home pretty hard.
"If we can win both games this week, it'll keep us one foot ahead.
"If you get stuck behind it's going to be pretty tough to catch up.
"There's only four or five weeks until the end of the season, so you can't be saving yourself anymore."
Disappointed as they were after their 34-point loss to Perth, the Hawks know how important it is to get straight back on track.
"It's a new game and I don't like carrying stuff over from the previous one," Davidson said.
"I'd rather just focus on the next game.
"There's definitely stuff that we have to work on and get better at, and it's mostly just little things. It was a weird game.
"The end score was 30-plus, but we were kind of in it right up until the end of the third quarter, then we just fell apart.
"We watched the game video and went over the fourth quarter and all the lapses we had.
"The Breakers probably have more shooters than Perth and if we have the same lapses they'll punish us as well.
"We have to tighten up, especially now that it's getting near the end of the season - you don't want to be making the same mistakes you were making at the start of the season."
Davidson said he was completely over the knee injury that sidelined him for last month's games against Cairns and Gold Coast and was looking forward to his battle with New Zealand centre Rick Rickert.
"He's good around the basket, so I need to keep him away from it as much as I can and keep him off the boards," he said.
"I'll probably have to try to get physical without fouling him. It's the same as always: keep him off the glass and frustrate him into some bad shots."
The Hawks are 8-1 at home and hold a 2-0 lead over the Breakers in their four-game season series.
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