Tasmania and Perth are ready to renew their NBL rivalry with both coming off tough losses and the defending champion JackJumpers left sweating over the availability of their star big man Will Magnay.
The two teams last played one another in the semi-finals last season which Tasmania won in three games on the way to a historic championship triumph.
Both come into Sunday's clash feeling a bit wounded after emphatic Friday night defeats, with the JackJumpers losing 90-78 at the Cairns Taipans, and the Wildcats being thumped 97-68 by Melbourne United in Perth.
That will see both teams making the long trip to Hobart on Saturday with a 1-2 record.
The JackJumpers have been thrown the added curve ball from the dying stages of the loss in Cairns when a late scuffle, that started with Rob Edwards and Jordon Crawford, ended up with Magnay getting into the middle of it.
The Paris Olympian appeared to grab Cairns import Edwards by the throat during the incident.
He has now been referred to the game review panel, potentially leaving him in doubt for Sunday.
Tasmania coach Scott Roth was more concerned about the lack of energy and aggression shown by his team to end up 24 points down in the third quarter before getting back within four late against the Taipans.
"Usually the most aggressive teams give themselves the best chances and they were clearly the most aggressive team in the first half," Roth said.
"Their fight was obviously at a very high level and we weren't scoring, but give them credit for playing harder than us.
"You can talk about technical things and whatever, but ultimately until you solve playing harder or at least equal to your teammates then that's when you can go into talking about things you can do better.
"Until you get the playing field level by just your effort you're going to struggle, and they smacked us around throughout the first half. We didn't do anything on either side of the floor overly well."
Wildcats coach John Rillie has a similar concern over his team but he saw no signs of a fightback as Melbourne won by 29 points in what is the biggest win at RAC Arena in 12 years for a visiting team.
Rillie did lament the absence of point guard Tai Webster, but absent import forward Dylan Windler has a chance of playing on Sunday.
"You would think you can't play that bad two in-a-row," Rillie said.
"You go into Tassie and you understand what that environment is and the mental preparation as well as the physical preparation becomes key.
"They are in the same boat as us travelling in to play on Sunday so it's probably the team that applies and gets themselves ready to bounce back the quickest who will have the best chance of winning that game."
