Walton Jr hopeful for Playoffs appearance

For the sake of self-preservation, South East Melbourne Phoenix point guard Derrick Walton Jr is refusing to look more than 24 hours ahead in his race to be fit for the Playoffs.

The Phoenix take on top seeds the Illawarra Hawks in a best-of-three series, starting next Friday night at Wollongong's WIN Entertainment Centre.

There is growing confidence Walton will be cleared to play in that Game 1, having been sidelined since he suffered a high-grade left hamstring strain on January 11 against the Brisbane Bullets at Traralgon.

Walton, in his first season with South East Melbourne but a previous Championship Series MVP with the Sydney Kings, faces an important fitness test on Friday and has narrowed his focus in a bid to give himself the best chance.

"I'll be honest with you, I just show up and do the rehab, man," Walton told AAP.

"Keeping everything simple for me is the best way for me to keep going forward because obviously I get antsy.

"If they tell me a date I'll be circling it and hounding them about it. We've got a mutual agreement that we just try to get through each day. We just get the heads down and work."

Walton, who suffered the injury when he slipped on his way to the rim during a win over Brisbane, said patience had been key to ticking boxes in his rehabilitation.

"It would be different if it was a nagging ankle or something I can kind of like wrap up and just play through," he said.

"This is one of those things that affects everything about how I'm able to be impactful on the floor.

"Little stuff like watching film is stuff I do on the regular, but physically I just let the staff do what they do best."

Walton - an NBL championship winner and Championship Series MVP with Sydney NBL23 - was crucial to South East Melbourne's resurgence after a horror 0-5 start to the campaign.

He was starting to warm into the season when he injured his hamstring the first time this season in a Throwdown victory against Melbourne United.

That was the Phoenix's first win of the season and the first game with Sam Mackinnon in charge after replacing Mike Kelly.

That meant that Walton didn’t play under new coach Josh King until he returned against the Cairns Taipans on November 10, but he was right back to some high-level basketball before that second hamstring injury.

Walton had put up 19.4 points and 6.2 assists in his previous five matches showing what a match winner in the NBL he can be, but he now hasn’t played since January 11.

He admitted it has been "hard as hell" watching the final seven games of the regular season, plus a pair of tough Play-In Tournament games, from the sidelines.

But he's mentally prepared to have an impact if given the green light to face the Hawks and All-NBL First Team guards Trey Kell III and Tyler Harvey.

"I feel like I'm still going to be exactly who I've always been," Walton said.

"I've got to always embrace the moment and just be the catalyst like I've always been.

"My role doesn't change ... it's more so just being out on the court and being confident I can do stuff."

Phoenix coach King described Walton as his team's "Bryce Cotton, Chris Goulding, Kendric Davis" - highlighting his fellow American's importance to the group.

"When we were playing at our best this season, in early January, he was part of that," King told AAP.

"He's a high-level player who's played at high-level places all around the world, so he's going to make your team better.

"But with that being said, he's also been out for a while. You've got to move different pieces around in order to integrate a really key piece like that back into the puzzle."