"Fight" or flight: 36ers’ season on the line

With the Adelaide 36ers' season hanging in the balance, Mike Wells believes his team needs to recapture the consistency they had at the beginning of the season, and urgently.

“Our energy and our consistency of being able to compete at the level you need to compete in this league to win has gone in and out,” Wells said.

“We are there sometimes, we are not there sometimes and that has probably been the biggest change in this group.

“We had some really good wins earlier in the year, there was a collective resolve there.”

Adelaide has lost seven of its last eight games and is in a fight to keep its Finals hopes alive, as they travel to Sydney on Monday night.

The more concerning part of 36ers' losing ways has been that the last three have come by more than 20 points, with two of those being on their home floor, where they had previously won 10 straight.

“As we have gone through different things and people have been out for various reasons and now adding some people back in, our competitiveness and willingness to stay in the fight hasn’t been what it needs to be,” Wells added.

The 36ers' game against Sydney will be the first time Kings champion, DJ Vasiljevic, has returned to Qudos Bank Arena.

After a tough loss to Illawarra on Christmas Day, Sydney is looking to build too.

“We've had a good review together as a group and had some productive time on the practice court, as everyone is keen to get back in the winners' circle,” Brian Goorjian said on Friday.

“Our performances on the road have put us in a good position on the ladder but we now have to take care of home court, especially if we want to get back into that top two.”

Goorjian understands the threat of Adelaide’s potent offensive power, ahead of a crucial Round 14 matchup.

“The Sixers are a dangerous team, with plenty of weapons, especially in the big man department,” he said.

For both teams, there's massive stakes in a huge Monday night clash, live on ESPN from 7.30pm AEDT.