While everyone else is talking about Santa Claus, Bryce Cotton is the name on the players' lips at Melbourne United as they prepare to host Perth.
The three-time NBL MVP will lead the Wildcats' charge against the ladder-leading United on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd at an open-air John Cain Arena.
In their first clash this season Melbourne managed to keep Cotton to 11 points, which resulted in an 88-81 victory.
However, in their round six match in November, Cotton led his team's scoring with 24 points en route to a 102-95 win in overtime.
United coach Dean Vickerman said Cotton was again the talking point this week.
"It's such a big task (to shut Cotton down), and at different times we'll put that weight on Shai (Ili) and 'Delly' (Matthew Dellavedova) a bit more, but we've got to spread it over the whole group," Vickerman said.
"Everyone's got to be more involved in trying to slow down Bryce, from the point of entry of the ball coming in-bounds, to the last second of the shot clock."
Promising teenager Joel Foxwell played the role of Cotton in Thursday's training session, with Vickerman saying his speed was comparable.
"He was fantastic in trying to be Bryce today - he's probably got a bit of work to do to match Bryce's step-back," the coach laughed.
"I thought we had one of the best-quality practices of the year. ... health is good and there's a really good energy in the group."
Melbourne dominated the early-season running to set up their competition lead, but Perth have been on the move and are now third on the ladder.
Vickerman predicted the match would have a finals edge.
"We've won one each and it's open-air and sold-out and Christmas and all those things, so it's going to be a bit different," he said.
"You're going to have two in-form teams going at it, and we're both pretty desperate to win it.
"I think the intensity that you will see in this game will certainly have a play-off kind of feel about it.
"They obviously beat us in overtime last time and we carry that one around a little bit and look forward to this opportunity."
