Defence will be the only word heard around the Perth Wildcats this week as they attempt to regroup after two tough losses to top-three teams Melbourne and New Zealand in three days.
The Wildcats went down by 14 to the Breakers in Auckland on Thursday, travelled to Darwin on Friday and lost to the Tigers by 13 on Saturday, but that travel will be used as no excuse by coach Conner Henry.
"We've travelled 100,000 miles this year so I don’t think this trip took it out of us," he said.
"It was a long day for us, but I hope everybody was in bed by nine or 10 on Friday to get their rest. We get paid to be professional athletes and to have enough in the tank, and we should have."
The Wildcat defence has been more of a problem than the travel and Henry will work his team hard this week to get it back on track before taking on the Blaze on the Gold Coast on Sunday.
"We aren’t going to win this championship shooting jump shots, that's a fact. We have to somehow get this figured," he said.
"First and foremost that has to happen defensively and we have to go home this week and recommit to playing defence as a team. We need to quit allowing so much penetration and then we have to put the ball in the basket from a little closer," he said.
"We can be free-flowing on one end and get great shots, but if we aren’t willing to do the dirty work at the other, especially against a team like the Tigers, they will get good shots and easy ones close to the basket. We need to stand up for ourselves on the defensive end."
Coming off the bench, Isiah Victor has been massive with games of 13, 16, 25 and 20 in recent weeks, and while that is pleasing his coach, defensively he wants to see more out of the big man.
"Vic has been on quite a good roll offensively but not as good defensively. I would rate him only average at the defensive end and I have to get more of him there," he said.
"I don’t care how many points you score, what I want from Vic is rebounds, blocked shots and for him to use his length while guarding little guys out on the floor and be tougher inside. Offensively he is doing fine and we have figured out where to get him the ball to be successful, and the last two weeks he has been on fire and carrying us offensively."