Blaze coach Joey Wright says a defensive standard has been set which now must be maintained starting with Saturday night’s showdown against Wollongong.

The Blaze are sitting in fourth on the ladder on a three-game winning streak heading into the clash at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.

Up against the team with the worst record in the NBL, the Blaze will be brimming with confidence following last week’s demolition of Cairns.

It is a match that will be remembered after the Coast held the Taipans to just 49 points, which was Cairns’s lowest NBL score.

Wright is expecting no different when the Hawks come to town Saturday night.

“That was a little bit of us playing good defence and Cairns playing bad offence,” Wright said.

“But we need to play defence like that and if we can keep teams in the 70s, that is going to give us a chance.

“That wasn’t a great offensive night for us either, but if we can keep teams in the 70s, then we will at least be in the 70s, so we’ll at least be in every ball game.”

Wright is realistic enough to know it will be nearly impossible to hold opposition clubs to less than 50 points a game for the remained of the season.

But he believes their form over the past three games suggest that more success is on the horizon.

“We have played that way (strong defensively) since the Perth game and backed that up,” he said.

“So if we can continue to play that way during games, we will definitely be in every game.”

In what is a very even league, Wright said he has been buoyed by his side’s three-game winning streak.

He said there was no reason it could not continue but labelled the Hawks clash as a danger game, especially with the inclusion of former Blaze player and recently axed Melbourne point guard Ayinde Ubaka.

“I think in this league to get three wins in a row is really tough,” Wright said. “It is extremely competitive, so we are starting to get on a bit of a roll. But we have to take every game for what it is and treat it like that, starting again with Wollongong.”