Last week's red-hot performance against Perth has Wollongong's Cam Tragardh aiming to pick up where he left off in tonight's road meeting with Cairns.
Tragardh had one of his best games of the season in the 109-84 thrashing of Perth, erupting with 15 points in the opening quarter and finishing with a game-high 23.
With his regular frontcourt comrade Larry Davidson staying in Wollongong to undergo treatment on a knee injury this weekend, the player nicknamed "Trigger" has promised to shoulder greater responsibility against the Taipans tonight and the Gold Coast Blaze on Sunday.
Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks "It is more of a workload for the bigs, but that's the beauty of being so deep, and I'll certainly be looking to step up and take a bit more leadership with Laz out because he does a great job of leading us in the frontcourt," Tragardh said.
Tragardh will have to lift his work rate under the boards in Davidson's absence, while back-up centre Tim Behrendorff is certain to receive increased court time.
Despite averaging just five minutes per game off the bench, Behrendorff has his team-mates' confidence and trust.
"Timmy's a fantastic player and it's a great opportunity for him," Tragardh said.
"Unfortunately with the game going from 48 to 40 minutes this season, it's tough for everyone to get that court time they want when there's four legit big guys. But this is certainly a fantastic opportunity for him to show what we see him do every day at practice. He's a great player and I have no doubt he'll step up and fill that void."
After losing twice to Adelaide, Wollongong (9-5) reclaimed the outright lead at the top of the ladder with impressive wins over title favourites New Zealand and Perth.
But unlike last week's comfortable rout of the Wildcats, the Hawks have prepared for war against a team desperate to stay in top-four contention.
Tragardh said Sunday's duel with the Blaze would barely be mentioned in the Hawks camp until tomorrow morning.
"We're definitely thinking about Cairns at the moment," the 26-year-old forward said.
"It's really important that we bring the intensity and execution that we brought to last weekend's game. We understand that it's going to be a grind and it's not going to be all roses like last week. Some people said we made it look easy against Perth, but we brought that intensity and we were going hard the whole game."
While the Taipans trail the Hawks 2-1 in their four-game season series, they beat Wollongong by 11 in their most recent meeting at Cairns.
"We know we can't panic if they come out on fire like they did last time when (guard) Skip Mills made five threes in the first half. We have to weather the storm," Tragardh said.
"You're not always going to have a comfortable 20-point lead like we did last week. If we have to come from behind like we did against New Zealand, we know we're capable of doing that, but it's important that we continue to execute and stay in the contest. If we stick to the game plan, we know we're going to be right there at the end, and we feel if we're in the game at the end and it's close that we're quite confident we can get the win.
"We haven't been blown out or embarrassed on the road. We've been right in every road game we've played, so there's definitely positive signs that we don't play poorly on the road like we have in recent years."
Meantime, the Townsville Crocodiles (10-8) scored a 87-80 away win over the New Zealand Breakers (8-9) last night.
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