Basketball On The Internet.

IS tonight the night? Does Illawarra leave its consecutive losses in Perth at Jordan’s famous number ? (23 ... not 45) Or will the Wildcats’ premature announcement of playing for their seventh NBL title prove prophetic?

Good questions all, but here are a few others to mull.

Is tonight the night Shawn Redhage decides he’s had enough of being treated like the forgotten man? Will Greg Hire decide it’s someone else’s turn to skin their knees and go unrecognised for the effort?

Has Tom Jervis had enough of proving himself and needing Nate Jawai to struggle so he can get any extended minutes?

Will Matt Knight tire of being the NBL’s No.1 garbage-man, will impatience with Jawai spill out, will the officials call the game impartially or be influenced by a 13,000-strong Red Army?

If you know any of the Wildcats, you know the answer to most, if not all of those questions will be an emphatic “no”.

They will be switched on, ready to go, so the questions switch to Illawarra.

Is Kevin Lisch truly 100 per cent after spraining his ankle a week ago in the same venue?

Can the Hawks execute their game plan from Game 2 with anywhere near the same degree of efficiency as they did in front of the Wollongong faithful on Sunday?

Will some of those long-time Hawks be content they pushed this Swisse Semi Final Series to three games?

Will Perth’s faux pas of prematurely advertising ticket sales for the Grand Final against New Zealand focus Illawarra’s zeal tonight?

Those are much tougher questions to answer.

Hawks coach Rob Beveridge shuffled his deck for Game 2 and trumped the Wildcats. This time by necessity those cards have to be played much closer to his chest.

Over the long haul, the Formans, Davidsons, Coenraads have not previously shown the purposeful commitment you’ll always find in Damian Martin, Wagstaff, Beal, Redhage.

That’s a more important fact than the Hawks last winning in Perth in 2005.

Truly, that Hawks team featured players such as Glen Saville, Mat Campbell, Adam Ballinger, Troy Pilon, Cortez Groves, Tony Rampton beating a Wildcats team including Paul Rogers, Peter Crawford, Tony Ronaldson, Matt Burston, Dillon Boucher, Cam Tovey, Liam Rush … I mean really, that has no relevance to tonight whatsoever.

GROVES' GROOVE: But does Cortez Groves have any relevance tonight? Then neither does #23

What matters tonight is how focused Illawarra can stay against the avalanche that will be Perth’s assault. And whether Lisch will be emulating Willis Reed for the New York Knicks in the NBA’s 1970 Championship Series’ Game 7 – he had a bad ankle injury, should not have played, scored the first four points and ignited the Knicks to victory – or just harming his longer-term recovery.

Before this series tipped off, I had the Hawks winning. But that was with all factors being equal. Not knowing the full extent of Lisch’s freedom of movement definitely clouds the issue. But I’m still leaning their way.