Cotton starred with 39 points to take a tight top-of-the-table clash away from the Kings in Sydney, going 8-13 from downtown at a staggering 61 per cent clip.

It saw the Cats shoot a collective 51 per cent from deep in the 13-point victory that will leave the Kings bent on atoning against the Hawks on Tuesday.

Illawarra have largely struggled from deep this season but were a tidy 44 per cent from the perimeter in their loss to the Phoenix in Saturday's second fixture.

Todd Blanchfield led the Hawks with 22 points at 42 per cent from deep and Weaver said the Kings will need to do a better job of guarding the perimeter.

"I think we got better at some stuff [on Saturday], no doubt," Weaver said.

"There was some really good stuff in that game that got a bit obscured by the fact [Perth] shot 52 per cent from three but we've said that a couple of times.

"Taking guys out of that [is important], we don't want guys like Todd Blanchfield and Timmy Coenraad getting eight-10 attempts so we'll do our best to try and take that away.

"At the same time we'll approach them the way we've approached everybody which is the next most important game we play."

It will be a clash between sides running first and last on the ladder, but Weaver has experienced enough of the league's oldest running rivalry to know standings mean little heading into a derby.

"We felt it when they came up here," Weaver said.

"They're a good team, obviously LaMelo being out makes them a little different, they've got [Darington] Hobson who'll be a new guy for us to prepare for.

"They're well coached, they crash the boards hard, play with pace. Its great for us to have built the lead in the standings to where we can lose [on Saturday] and still be on top, that's a credit to [our] guys but, we need to play well.

"We want to continue to strive to get where we're going."