The Adelaide 36ers will find out on Monday the severity of the knee injury to star guard Jerome Randle, as another of the NBL's shooting stars, Kirk Penny, is poised to return.
Randle, the league's leading scorer at just under 24 points a game, suffered his injury early in the second half of Adelaide's 104-90 home win against Illawarra on Saturday.
"It's not an ACL," 36ers coach Joey Wright told AAP on Sunday.
The Hawks (15-10, 3rd), who had scored a 104-97 home win over Adelaide (14-10, 4th) two nights earlier, hope to have sharpshooter Penney back for their next game after he missed their past three due to a hamstring issue.
"Tonight he's having his first proper run," Illawarra coach Rob Beveridge told AAP on Sunday.
"He's been rehabbing every day, all the swelling is clearing.
"He's pretty damned good. There's no doubt we're missing him and we need him back."
Sparked by 28 points from import Ebi Ere and 19 points and 11 rebounds from Daniel Johnson, Adelaide produced a decisive 21-2 run early in the final quarter, which showed they could still prosper without MVP candidate Randle.
Beveridge was typically forthright in his assessment of the defeat.
"It was an incredibly physical game and I think they broke our backs, as simple as that," Beveridge said.
At the top of the league, Melbourne (17-8, 1st) pulled one game clear of Perth (16-9, 2nd) with a 91-85 overtime away victory over the Wildcats on Friday.
"It's probably the best basketball game that I've been involved in, in this country," Melbourne coach Dean Demopoulos said.
American guard Stephen Holt paced Melbourne with 33 points, making seven of his 11 three-point attempts.
"We didn't defend Holt all that well. To give him five open looks in the first quarter was pretty poor defence," Perth coach Trevor Gleeson told AAP.
Earlier in the round, Perth scored a 84-74 home win over Cairns (11-14, 6th).
Defending champions New Zealand Breakers (12-12, 5th) snapped a six-match losing skid and kept their finals hopes alive with a 100-93 home win over Townsville (9-16, 7th).
The Crocs notched a 96-88 home win over hapless Sydney (5-20, 8th), who also went down 81-76 at Cairns and will definitely finish bottom.
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