Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge is resigned to being without NBL MVP Kevin Lisch for Sunday's do-or-die semi-finals against the Perth Wildcats in Wollongong.
Lisch suffered a serious ankle injury early in Illawarra's 80-68 loss to Perth in game one at Perth Arena on Friday night and appears unlikely to suit up again for the Hawks this season.
The American watched the rest of the match from the bench after going down in the first quarter, sporting a moon boot and moving around on crutches.
Beveridge said Lisch felt so bad about getting injured, he was blaming himself for Illawarra's loss.
"He actually feels like he's let the team down because he got injured," Beveridge said.
"It's really, really hard on these players it's devastating for the team when something like that happens to the crucial players.
"When we have our 10 players on the floor, we are legitimately one of the best teams in the league and it's really hard to go up against a super-power like Perth when you don't have a player like Lisch in the team."
Lisch's absence proved telling as Wildcats captain Damian Martin inspired his side to victory in his 200th game for Perth.
Martin finished with nine points, six assists and four steals as he nullified the influence of fellow guard Kirk Penney, who was unable to shoot from the three-point arc with his usual freedom.
Beveridge will look to forward Tim Coenraad, who sunk 23 points on Friday, to step up once again on the offensive to cover the loss of Lisch.
"As far as we're concerned, we've got one game to go on our court and we're going to leave it all out there," Beveridge said.
"We're going to make a pact that we're just going to try as hard as we possibly can, for each other. It's going to be very difficult, but we've got to play our guts out.
"If the Wildcats want to go to the Grand Final, they've got to earn it on our court."
Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson doesn't have any such injury concerns and will take several fresh players to Illawarra.
Gleeson expects the Hawks to guard Martin a lot closer after his influential second quarter effort, that included two crucial three-pointers.
"Teams leave him wide open and he's knocking it down, they were all net," Gleeson said.
"He's been putting a lot of work in in the last three years for that exact reason - they leave him open and he was good enough to drop them down tonight.
"I think he's the best defender in Australia's history...that's what you need from your captain."
Share
