Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman is counting on his squad to shake off the disappointment after wasting a golden opportunity to lock in home-court advantage for the NBL play-offs.
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United appeared on track to chalk up back-to-back minor premierships but two tough losses in their last three starts mean that destiny is out of their hands.
Following Melbourne's 87-85 loss to the Cairns Taipans on Thursday, Perth (17-9) can rise one game clear in top spot if they win Friday's home clash with the Adelaide 36ers.
But if the Sixers win, the Wildcats will play United (17-10) in Melbourne on Sunday with the minor premiership going to the victor.
Concerned with his squad's energy levels leading into the Cairns clash, Vickerman's worst fears were realised as United fell behind early and never fully recovered.
"The part of our first half that I'm frustrated by, in our two recent losses to Sydney and (Cairns), is that we haven't taken care of the basketball," Vickerman said.
"If we are going to turn the ball over 12 times in the first half, we can't expect to be having a lead or even being close playing a good team.
"It's certainly an opportunity missed tonight."
Captain Chris Goulding, who tallied 22 points against the Taipans, echoed the thoughts of his coach following the damaging loss.
"We have been presented with some amazing opportunities as a group and we've failed to take them the first time they've been handed to us," Goulding said.
"We had a chance here to get towards top spot and historically top spot is a big prize and we stumble again.
"I just hope we can respond like we have previously but at some stage you've got to take opportunities when they presented themselves, they don't hang around in this league for long."
Vickerman knows his squad needs to bounce back quickly in order to close the regular season on a high against the Wildcats.
"We'll wake up tomorrow, we'll go back and do some review and we'll start our scout on Perth," he said.
"As soon as we shut that review down, we've got to let it go and just move on.
"That's what going to happen in the finals - if you don't have a performance that you are happy with, you've got to let it go really quickly and I think we are good enough to do that."
Australian Associated Press
