Friday wins set up United-Wildcats Sunday battle

Dean Vickerman is looking forward to Melbourne United taking on Jo Lual-Acuil Jr for the first time in the NBL while Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie wants to find out more about his team heading into the FIBA break.

Both United and the Wildcats made it three straight victories when they beat the Illawarra Hawks and Tasmania JackJumpers respectively on Friday night.

They will now lock horns on Sunday at John Cain Arena in the first meeting of NBL26 after their three-game Playoff Series a season ago in what doubles as the very last match ahead of the FIBA international window.

After losing their lone two games of the season, Melbourne have now bounced back to win three straight against South East Melbourne, Brisbane and Illawarra to sit at 12-2 to be guaranteed of top spot heading into the break.

They did escape with the 105-102 Friday win in Wollongong thanks to a huge late triple from Finn Delany and then JaVale McGee heave just coming after the buzzer for Illawarra.

Vickerman is looking forward to the challenge against the Wildcats now especially with Melbourne missing Shea Ili and Perth without Jaron Rillie.

"Perth are going to be a hell of a challenge and like us, they've got an injured point guard so how you manage around that is going to be a key part of the game," Vickerman said.

"But then, there's JLA coming back to Melbourne and it's going to be a super fun game, and an intense game.

"Right now, I think we've beaten everybody in the league so this is the team we haven’t played right now so to go into a FIBA window if we're good enough to win this game, it will be a nice spot to be."

Rillie is happy with the momentum his Wildcats are building with three straight wins against Adelaide, New Zealand and Tasmania to head into Sunday's clash with Melbourne at 8-5.

What he is looking forward to is finding out just how the 'Cats stack up against the league-leaders heading into the FIBA break where ironically, he'll be on the coaching staff for the Boomers with Vickerman.

"I think we've done a good job in these last three games and have had some good practice time to build this, and Sunday will be like a great challenge to really see where we're at, at the moment," Rillie said.

"I'm sure Dean watched those last few minutes how we ended the game so we have to tidy up some things if we really want to get to that championship level consistently.

"They're (Melbourne) playing at a phenomenal level and are the best team in the league, but like most of us they are dealing with injuries and bringing guys in and out, and they had a tough game tonight as well.

"We'll prepare like we do for any other team and we've gotta go in there with a nice edge about ourselves to see where we're really at. It's more about us and where we sit right now against the best team in the competition."