The Kings rivalry always delivers as a contest and there's been a lot of lip service this week.
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But as a playing group, we're just focussed on finding our feet and building on the win in Adelaide.
For us, we know there'll be extra feeling, as there always is against Sydney, without worrying about anything else that's been said.
A win on their court would give us confidence for a long season ahead.
After just the two pre-season games, the other two cancelled by COVID scares, it was important we started fast against the 36ers.
We knew they'd be tired after a trip for Perth on Friday night and then coming back to Adelaide for our game on Sunday.
So while it's great to come home with an 81-71 win in our pocket, we also know we're still learning to play with each other.
It's was important to get some court time, especially for the new guys who are adjusting to the NBL as a league.
Xavier Rathan-Mayes has already shown he offers a two-tiered offence for us.
He came off the bench to score 15 points, including three three-pointers, supporting our starters Tyler (Harvey) and Justinian (Jessup). We know he can score and also get our other guards some shots, but he can also run with the bench group, which will only improve as the season goes on.
It's exciting to see the scoring potential we have.
But while a lot has been said about how we reloaded our guards this season, bringing Duop Reath in is a huge addition to the Hawks.
It's a generational thing, the guys coming through aren't just bash the basket centres and Reath has so many aspects to his game.
He's a three-point shooter and he's going to be really hard to handle for the bigger and slower centres in the NBL. Having Duop and Sam and Harry Froling there, we're going to have a great season together.
But whatever we do against the Kings, we'll only build on from there.
Hopefully there'll be plenty of red in the stands to cheers us on up there on Saturday night.
NBL
Round two
Saturday (5.30pm)
SYDNEY KINGS v ILLAWARRA HAWKS
Qudos Bank Arena
TV: Live on ESPN/Kayo Sports
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