National Basketball League leaders Wollongong are sworn to keeping title talk out of the locker room.
The Hawks (7-4) jumped back into top spot on percentages without lifting a finger over the weekend, with Perth (7-4) blowing a 20-point lead against Gold Coast on Saturday night and the chance to remain in outright first.
Wollongong are confident of chalking up their eighth win of the season when they host Adelaide on Wednesday night, and revenge will be a motivating factor after the Hawks lost by seven earlier this month on the 36ers' home floor.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks Victory over the Sixers would assure the Hawks a winning record when they hit the 28-game season's halfway point, a milestone which will probably only be attained by two or three teams in an incredibly tight competition.
It could also provide the impetus for the league's last original club to aim high over the second half of the season.
But rather than get starry-eyed about dreams of clinching top spot and the right to home court advantage throughout the post-season, the Hawks know they can't afford to look past their next opponent.
"A lot of people around town are talking about us finishing in first place, but we're not thinking about grand finals yet, we're just thinking about trying to make the play-offs," decorated forward Glen Saville said.
"Obviously it's great that we've gone fairly well so far and it's good from the point of view that it creates awareness in the community and gets people talking, but the truth is that finishing on top is not something we talk about as a team, certainly not yet anyway, because there's such a long way to go.
"At this stage of the season, I'm neither here nor there about finishing first. The most important thing is staying in the top four. That has to be our goal and anything less would be really disappointing, especially given the way we've played.
"The Hawks haven't been to the play-offs for three years and we want to get back there. If you cement a top-four spot and you've got a chance of finishing first, then no doubt we'll be trying to achieve that. But right now it's about beating Adelaide and doing what we can to stay in that top four.
"It's such a close league that you can't afford to go on a little losing streak or you drop out of that top four pretty quickly. We haven't lost two games in a row all season and we don't want to start now."
The Sixers are in outright third with a 6-4 record, but there are four other teams with six wins under their belts who hope Adelaide lose to the Hawks and also to Townsville on Friday night in North Queensland.
Lining up for the visitors on Wednesday will be former Hawks imports Cortez Groves and Adam Ballinger.
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