The Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks have stayed undefeated to open the NBL season and can now turn their attention to a mouthwatering match-up at Qudos Bank Arena.
The stage is set for quite the occasion on Sunday for the unbeaten Kings' first home game of the season under distinguished coach Brian Goorjian and championship captain Xavier Cooks.
Sydney have opened the season in Perth with victories against the Adelaide 36ers on Sunday and then in a one-point thriller on Friday night against the Wildcats.
A big crowd is now expected for Qudos Bank Arena on Sunday afternoon as Goorjian coaches the Kings at home for the first time since a crowd of 10,244 in the deciding game of the grand final series of 2008 against the Melbourne Tigers.
There's every chance a bigger crowd than that will see the Kings take on the also undefeated Hawks who beat the Cairns Taipans last Saturday in Perth, and the Brisbane Bullets in Wollongong on Friday night.
As excited as Goorjian is to coach the Kings in Sydney for the first time in 16 years, he's just happy back in the NBL after his last stint coaching the Hawks ended two and-a-half years ago.
"I'm really excited about the game, but to be truthful I'm just really excited to be coach of the Kings and back in the NBL every day," Goorjian said.
"I walked into this venue and it's better than anticipated. Even being at the Olympics where people are there to cheer basketball, but here you have a whole stadium full of Perth supporters that are all over it and to walk in this gym to play in that, that's why you're in the game.
"Then to squeak one out, I'm tickled pink about it all."
The Hawks have put up 215 points in their wins over the Taipans and Bullets, and coach Justin Tatum is looking forward to testing themselves against the Kings.
"This is a really big test for us to see where we hope to be in the standings or where we rank ourselves within the 10 teams in the league," Tatum said.
"I don’t think we see ourselves as the underdog anymore. We've always been disrespected and people will always come in and say they are going to run over Illawarra, but we've changed those minds last year and definitely the beginning of this season."
While there's a lot of attention on this season's return of Cooks, Tatum is backing his power forward pair of Darius Days and Lachlan Olbrich to test him.
"I've never seen him play before in my life besides in the league," Tatum said.
"He's a really talented young man and at the end of the day when they throw the ball up on Sunday at 2:30, he's going to have to guard Darius and Lachie, and see if he's going to be able to do his job as well."
