Both teams have gotten off to strong starts this season, both having only conceded one loss thus far with Hornsby losing to the same Hills team the Tigers floundered against last week.

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This weekend's game is a very interesting matchup that could definitely be seen down the line as we inch closer to the finals.

Shoalhaven Tigers head coach Ben Bagoly said that the weekends loss that ended the teams perfect record could in fact be a blessing in disguise for the team heading forward.

"You obviously want to win every game, but sometimes you need a loss like this, when you're on a win streak you can get a bit comfortable and I think that's what happened last weekend," he said.

The Tigers copped an 87-104 loss at the hands of the second seed Hills Hornets.

Bagoly said that this matchup against their top place rival was the first time the flaws in their defense had properly been attacked.

"They're a great team and all credit to them but it was our one on one defense that really let us down," he said.

"Against lesser teams sometimes you can away with issues on that side of the ball but these good sides will punish you for those mistakes."

"It was good for everyone to see first hand what is the standard and what we have to work on."

Kharl Carlos took full advantage of the Tigers defensive lapses, dropping 23 points along with five three pointers to lead the Hills side.

Meanwhile Tigers mainstay Bruce Ozolins put up a big 27 points, but it wasn't enough to close the gap on what was a lopsided victory.

Heading into training this week and looking ahead to this weekends match up, Bagoly is preaching one thing.

Defence, defence, defence.

"We really are going to go over and stress what our teams defensive principles are."

"We need to all be on the same page defensively, we have to know where helps coming from, where we want to force guys and everyone really has to step up their one on one defense," he said.

This weekends match is another in which the Tigers cannot take their foot of the gas.

The Hornsby Ku Ring Gai Spiders sit just one win behind the Tigers at 4-1 and have shown talent across the board this year, lead by Benjamin Basten's 14 points per game.

The Spiders while run by a young core, have a very strong unit of guards with several strong shooters the Tigers will have to contain.

"They have some really good young guards, quick with the ball, fundamentally sound and can get to the rim so we are going to have to work hard to contain them," Bagoly said.

"They're a really good team, they're a top team who expect to be there at the end of the year and it's going to be a really good test for us."

Bagoly said there were times were the boys needed to trust each other more defensively, noting on numerous occasions that after the first rotation on defense, the second and third would often let them down.

"I have full faith in the group that they'll put forward their best effort and get it done, but we need to keep growing as a unit, learn from our mistakes and work towards playing our best basketball."

The team should be hit with a jolt of energy with the return of Nowra power forward Kyle Leslie who's recently returned to the area after a successful collegiate campaign overseas in America.

Leslie will be available for this weekends match.

The Shoalhaven Tigers will tip off at 5:00pm at the Spiders home court, The Brickpit, on Saturday May 14.