Hawks make positive strides ahead of crucial home stand

It's difficult to overstate how important this week is for the Hawks.

We managed to steady the ship with a tough win over Cairns on Saturday night and now we have a chance to build some momentum with two crucial home games this weekend.

We'll do battle with Cairns for the second time in a week before we play the Tasmania JackJumpers for the first time in franchise history on Sunday afternoon.

Two wins and we're riding high heading into a crucial stretch of the season.

Two losses and we're right back to square one. Battling to maintain our top four hopes.

There was plenty to like about our victory over the Taipans, but we know we're still well below our best.

We're an incredibly talented basketball team, but we still haven't put a complete game together.

It is slightly concerning that we're now 13 games into the season and still below our best, but it's also exciting to know we're currently fourth on the ladder and have so much room to improve.

One of the biggest areas we've struggled with this year has been our first quarters. We've had far too many matches where we've started slow and have had to work extremely hard just to get back into the match.

That has meant coach Goorjian hasn't been able to turn to the bench to give the starters a rest.

We've been able to get away with it when we've had multiple days between games, but we won't this weekend.

If we start well against Cairns on Friday night, coach will be able to manage our minutes and give some guys a much-needed rest.

If we don't start well it will be more of the same, with the starters shouldering most of the load.

That will come back to hurt us on Sunday when the fatigue kicks in against a fresh JackJumpers side.

Our bench hasn't received much playing time lately, but we are all ready to go.

We're working just as hard as the starters at practice, we're spending the time in the gym, getting our extras in before and after games.

Coach has repeatedly emphasised that we are a squad and every player will have a role to play this season.

As captain of this side, it's even more important that I'm putting in the work at practice, even though I'm not receiving regular minutes.

My role off the court is just as big as it is on the court.

It's my job to drive the culture within this team, to maintain the energy and enthusiasm, and to ensure every player within the squad is working together in our quest to win a championship.

It hasn't been easy these last few weeks, but if we can get two big wins in front of our home fans this weekend, we'll be right back on track with an important road stretch coming up.