They prepared for it on the training court, talked about it before the game and again at half-time.
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But the Wollongong Hawks could do nothing to stop a rampant Perth Wildcats when push came to shove on Sunday night.
The Hawks led 38-35 at half-time but were held to an NBL-record low 14 points in the second half.
"We spoke at half-time about it, that they were going to up the ante and chase us, so we knew exactly what was going to happen," Wollongong captain Oscar Forman said.
"It was just one of those things where it comes at you in a way that's hard to deal with, which is why they're a successful team. The half-time break wasn't our friend."
Forman felt he didn't give his backcourt teammates enough help when they were under siege in the second half.
"I take a lot of the blame," he said.
"The ball comes to me and I wasn't able to get us into a strong enough offence. That's where we've been working with [coach] Gordie [McLeod] over the past few weeks, that I have to get us into our offence. Tonight I got rattled and couldn't get us into that.
"We can't just leave everything up to Adris [Deleon] or Malcolm [Grant] and throw them the ball with a few seconds to go [on the shot clock]. There's not much they can do with that.
"If someone else has got it with eight seconds to go, then that's the time to back yourself with your skills and see what happens, knowing your teammates have got your back."