More so, it means someone, or the collective, will have to step up to find some love with the rim if the underdogs will prevail tonight.
The visitors, on a five-match losing streak, won 101-95 in Te Awamutu but the Rangers bounced back at the Pettigrew-Green Arena, Napier, with a 95-88 victory.
The highlight of that game was wily Rangers coach Jeff Green benching his court general, Lindsay Tait, for a good part of the game before heckling and cussing his way through the whistle blowers to turn their fortunes around.
Green made no apologies for it, saying it was the way to work the referees as well as bringing collective emotions to a heel for the Green army who have won four of their last six games with the losses to unbeaten Wellington Saints.
It seems that's the sort of mental fortitude the Hawks will have to find, and quickly, to inject some respectability into another tumultuous NBL season.
It was a season-high 42 points last Saturday against the Mountainairs for the struggling Hawks who were only spurred into action after trailing by 29 at the end of the third quarter in New Plymouth to plummet to the bottom of the NBL table on the heels of lugging the wooden spoon last winter.
Hill, who took the reins from Kirstin Daly-Taylor after she stepped down in April, didn't mince words in chastising his troops, revealing they had failed to turn up at the court in the first three spells.
His frustration boiled over on questioning the players' attitude in training and not shying away from making wholesale changing to his starting five to inject a modicum of urgency into their quest for wresting some respectability.
Kenny said adopting an affirmative mind set despite the distractions that come with the NBL season coming to the business end of the Final Four, which the Hawks won't feature in.
"It becomes a little more selfish this time of the year when you work so hard for individual reasons when you're trying to get a job or going for the Tall Blacks," said the the two-time ANBL title-winning member of the Perth Wildcats.
Kenny said it was imperative the players took ownership into their own hands from the opening whistle rather than embrace a reactive approach when spurred into action in the face of defeat.
"We obviously need to put four quarters together and if we do that we'll be pretty successful."
He said the Hawks took to the floor with the attitude of winning every time but, for whatever reasons, they often didn't fulfil that desire.
Consequently they took heart in one victory over the Dillon Boucher-captained Rangers and felt they should have one the one at the PG Arena as well.
"We still have something to prove."
Kenny said dwelling on their cellar-dwelling position was counterproductive because that simply meant they weren't focusing on the job at hand.
He put training down to "a double-edged sword" because the Hawks couldn't carry over the refined systems into games.
"As individuals we need to be on the same page but I don't know it's a combination of factors," he said when asked to put a finger on it.
Bench guard Dominic McGovan, who had exam papers to submit at EIT yesterday, was catching a flight today to join the Hawks.
McGovan top scored with 17 points against the Nelson Giants last month.
The Hawks host the Saints at PG Arena from 7pm on Saturday although the Rangers are playing three games in the space of five days today.
