Win or lose, the Wollongong Hawks certainly won't die wondering when they confront Perth in tonight's winner-takes-all grand final at The Jungle.
Despite the odds being stacked against his side, Hawks coach Gordie McLeod believes they are in with a great chance if there is nothing conservative about their approach to the decider.
Wollongong levelled the best-of-three series at 1-1 with Tuesday night's 75-63 win in game two.
Get Friday's Mercury for your 8-page Game Day liftout Live sites for Hawks grand final decider "In this series, we wanted to be very, very aggressive and have an aggressive mindset with the way we were going to play," McLeod said.
"Obviously defence and rebounding will be important on Friday, but we also have to be fearless with regards to knocking the ball down and making some shots. That's how you win.
"You ain't gonna win a game like this on the road by being conservative.
"We want to be super-aggressive."
Ball security in the face of Perth's high-pressure defence will be crucial to the Hawks' chances of claiming the championship.
Wollongong had a relatively low 13 turnovers in game two and must treat every possession like gold tonight.
"Our guards were a lot stronger with the ball (in game two) and we'll need to be even stronger in game three, because we know they're going to get after us and get physical with us," McLeod said.
"We were good on the glass and it was good to get our bigs involved as the game went on. Defensively, if you get someone shooting under 40 per cent, that's a great effort.
"We got contributions across the court and we competed very well.
"All those areas were great for us and we need to replicate that and still get some improvement in game three."
PIC GALLERY: All the action from WIN Entertainment Centre AUDIO: Our reporter in Perth rates the Hawks' chancesWhile McLeod and Perth coach Rob Beveridge believe Wollongong might have an edge if tonight's game boils down to a clash of half-court offences, the Hawks know they need to generate some easy transition baskets.
"If your defence is not strong and you're not getting opportunities to run, it's very hard to beat that team for 40 minutes if you're trying to grind it out in the half-court," McLeod said.
"Our defensive rebounding in the second half (of game two) and the opportunity to run was such an important thing for us.
"We took away part of their game and that's what we're going to need to do on Friday night if we want to have success."
The Hawks won the club's only title in 2001, while the Wildcats are hunting an NBL-record fifth championship.
A Wollongong victory would cap a remarkable 12 months, after the club was minutes away from folding last year.
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