The last time to Hawks managed to string wins together was in round 13 and 14 last season under former coach Rob Beveridge, following up a 12-point win over Sydney with a 14-point victory over New Zealand a week later.

Wins have been sporadic ever since, the trend continuing through the preseason and into Flinn's first campaign as a head coach.

They were a Scotty Hopson buzzer-beater away against New Zealand in Wollongong three weeks ago, and were edged out by four points against the Phoenix in round three.

They also followed an impressive road win over Cairns with a tight loss to Sydney but are yet to string wins together despite much improved performances over the last month.

It leaves them at 5-15 on the season and needing two wins in their final eight games to avoid equaling the club's worst ledger of 6-22 in Gordie McLeod's final season in charge in 2015.

While he doesn't make a habit of looking beyond the next task, Flinn says this weekend's home double against Perth on Friday and South East Melbourne on Sunday is a chance to get over that hump.

"Our whole effort this weekend is to, obviously not look past Perth, but we want to string two together," Flinn said.

"This team, even in the preseason, we've never gone back to back wins. Not one time.

"It's something we've spoken about and worked for. We've tried to address it, it's hard to put your finger on it. I don't want to make excuses for young guys but they've got to go through this process of being in tight games when the lights are on, making good decisions and consistently performing.

"It's just been that type of year but we've got a good opportunity this weekend. We want to acknowledge the fans and sponsors who've stuck by us.

"We've got eight games to go. We'd need a couple on the road but winning five out of the eight would not be unrealistic for us if we keep working hard but it starts for us this weekend."

Monday's loss to Adelaide continued an agonising run of near misses, with the Hawks falling short of a road win despite a 35-point outing from skipper Todd Blanchfield.

They led by one at halftime on the back of their highest first-half tally of the year but were sunk by a late Anthony Drmic dagger, with Flinn cutting a frustrated figure in the aftermath.

"I was pretty frustrated to be honest," Flinn said.

"Against Melbourne we turned it over 19 times and and didn't get any o-boards. I thought we addressed those areas on Monday, we took better care of the ball and finally got Toddy into his groove.

"We scored on the road. You've got to build scoreboard pressure on the road and you've got to make shots to win on the road and we were doing all that.

"I just thought we were the better team but obviously Adelaide did what they had to do down the stretch."

Friday's outing will be the first for new Perth import, and seven-year NBA veteran, Miles Plumlee after the defending champions sacked centre Dario Hunt after 21 games for club.