For us, it started towards the end of last month when ladder-leaders Adelaide 36ers came to Wollongong.

On that night we were able to chalk up a massive home win and followed it up with another vital victory against Cairns Taipans at the same venue a week later.

In both games we played with the same finals-like mentality and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the focus and determination the boys showed.

For one reason or another that wasn’t the case again when we played Melbourne United on Monday night.

That same desire was clearly lacking in the 78-72 defeat.

I can’t understand why that happened, particularly because we had so much to play for.  Victory over United would have bolstered our claims for second spot and with that comes an all-important home final series.

Unfortunately we slip that chance slip through our fingers.

It was disappointing so I will be challenging our players this week to make sure it doesn’t happen again this weekend against Brisbane.

There is no question that it’s now a match in which we have everything to play for, with second-place still up for grabs.

It is every bit a must-win for us because losing would take our finals fortunes completely out of our hands.

With the likes of Perth, Melbourne, Cairns, Sydney and New Zealand all breathing down our necks and ready to take advantage if we slip up, it’s vital that we stay in control of our own fate.

To do that we will need to show the right mental application and desire.

Part of that means making effort plays at both ends of the floor, doing those non-negotiables and knuckling down on the defence end.

That’s what I will be stressing to the boys this week because if we don’t go out and show those sort of fighting qualities, then I believe that we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs.

The ball is truly in our court if we want to play NBL finals this season and it’s now up to us to make it happen.