The Bullets have endured a horror run with injury in their return season and are the only team to have dropped off the finals radar heading into the final round of the regular season.

The Hawks squandered a chance to shire up a finals berth with a 78-72 road loss to Melbourne on Monday, meaning their play-off hopes hinge entirely on Saturday’s home clash with the last-placed Bullets.

A win, with other results falling their way, would secure second spot and a home finals series while a loss could see the Hawks tumble out of the play-offs altogether.

“It puts a bit of pressure on us, we have to win to get second or third depending on other results,” Martin said.

“It just makes our job simple really. We have one goal and if we don’t win most likely, with points and splits, we’ll be done.

“You work all year to get into the play-offs and if, at the start of the year, we had the choice of playing the team coming last in one game to get second or third… you’d take that. They’re not playing for a play-off spot but there’s young guys in that team that are trying to cement themselves in the league which is very tough to do and they’re playing for their future jobs so they’ve got plenty to play for

“It’s a good thing, you don’t want to get into the play-offs losing. If we lose to Brisbane, which shows how close this league is, then we don’t deserve to be there.”

The Hawks-Bullets clash is just one in a final-round  play-offs jenga stack that is a fitting end to the most evenly contested competition in the league’s history, with seven of eight teams still in the fight. Martin said it’s certainly the closest race he’s been part of in his 10 NBL seasons.

“It’s definitely the closest I’ve seen,” Martin said.

“You put in a third import and that levels out teams and the talent spread is the most even it’s been for a while,” Martin said. 

“It’s definitely the closest I’ve seen and it’s going to continue this weekend because Perth still has to play two games, Sydney have to go over there and win and they’re really relying on other results, Melbourne’s still got two games Cairns as well so there’s still a lot of juggling left to do.

“It would be a shame to work so hard and play so well in a season and miss out but our focus is not on missing out our focus is on getting to second [spot].”