Melbourne United are confident that fiery forward Tai Wesley can overcome a shoulder injury in time for their NBL title-deciding clash with Adelaide on Saturday night.
Wesley has an AC joint injury, hurting the shoulder in their game four loss to the 36ers which forced the series into the game five decider at Hisense Arena.
He was on light duties at Melbourne training on Tuesday, restricted to shooting practice, but coach Dean Vickerman was confident the versatile big man would recover in time for the match.
"It's definitely a little bit stiff right now," Vickerman said.
"We expect him to not be 100 per cent but be able to play the way we need him to play."
Wesley will be put through some contact work on Thursday.
The coach said that the big-game experience of Wesley, who won a title with New Zealand Breakers in 2015, would over-ride any question marks over the American's fitness.
"He's been fantastic in really big games," Vickerman said.
"He probably hasn't had his best finals series right now but I thought he was really close to having a great game the other night but he just left a couple of post-moves a bit short so we still believe he can have break-out game."
Wesley was fouled out for the third-straight game but Vickerman said that his team wouldn't be backing off and intended to be more aggressive with the title on the line.
The match is almost sold out, with Melbourne hopeful the trend of the home team winning continues.
In the last 31 NBL grand final games, the home side has won 28 times.
"There's definitely a comfort level and you derive that bit more energy from your home crowd," Vickerman said.
Australian Associated Press
