Illawarra's "season-defining" fixture

Wednesday night's Ignite Cup game looms as a crucial one for the Illawarra Hawks.

Just when it thought they were getting their championship defence back on track, after big wins against Melbourne and Cairns, the Hawks came crashing back to Earth with a heavy defeat to NSW rivals Sydney.

Now sitting at 4-7 heading into Round 10, one NBL champion has called Illawarra's clash with Adelaide as "season defining".

"This is really a season-defining sort of game [for Illawarra] to see where they're actually at," Mark Worthington said on Wednesday's episode of NBL Now.

"If they can beat Adelaide, it shows intention of where they are heading towards the finals.

"If they lose this one, they find themselves in a bit of a hole and it's really hard to get out of it.

"[Honestly] I still think they're a top six team with the talent that they have, but they'd want to start gelling in a way that we saw in the last previous weeks."

To snap their six-game losing streak in Adelaide, the Hawks will need to slow down the competition's leading scorer Bryce Cotton, who is averaging 27.4 points a game in NBL26.

The 36ers are 7-0 in games Cotton scores 24 points or more.

"The success that people have had against Adelaide so far has been holding Bryce Cotton down to a low shooting percentage," Worthington said.

Wednesday's fixture tips off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.