United travel to Wollongong needing a win to claim their season-series with the Hawks and keep second-placed Perth Wildcats at bay, because the West Australians have two games coming up against last-placed Sydney Kings.

Melbourne are up 2-1 in the season series, but the Hawks lead by two on points scored, meaning United have to win the game to claim the series.

The Hawks' top-two chances also rest heavily on beating United, considering the Wildcats are almost unbackable favourites to win both Kings games and seal one of those positions.

United expect to suit up their usual roster, while the Hawks will not risk star shooter Kirk Penney, who has had a hamstring problem and only started supervised running this week.

The Hawks would not rule out Penney from making a surprise appearance, but that prospect remains unlikely and they will still have former league most valuable player Kevin Lisch and centre A.J. Ogilvy to lead their charge.

Local media in Wollongong did their best this week to rehash allegations United coaches used the Fox Sports television coverage to spy on the Hawks' timeout in Melbourne's one-point win in January, and Hawks coach Rob Beveridge hopes home fans will give the visitors an unpleasant welcome.

But United's coaches repeatedly denied those claims, and Beveridge said he accepted their assurances.

Melbourne guard Chris Goulding said defence would be the key against the potent Hawks offence, and his club needed a win to take full advantage of their overtime win in Perth last round.

"We've set a tone for how we want to play defence and rebound the basketball, even though we still can improve on that Perth game," Goulding said.

"For us it's about carrying that through from the Perth game – we can't slacken off, we know how good the Hawks are.

"They have been playing good basketball of late. We have to take that step up again and keep improving in the next three games, or the quality teams we are playing will beat us."

Melbourne import Stephen Holt had his best scoring night of the season in Perth, with 33 points, including seven three-pointers.

Goulding said his teammate could easily catch fire again.

"Steve can get hot at the flick of a switch, so it's about us getting him the ball in the right positions and him stepping up and taking advantage of it," he said.

With just this week and next left in the regular season, Goulding acknowledged results were all that mattered, especially with Melbourne having the chance to avoid playing decisive finals games on the road.

"All the Perth win did was keep us on top of the ladder for one more week," he said. "It's hard to go to any away gym in this country and get a win, so it's a confidence boost, but if we don't back it up then it won't mean too much."

United play Illawarra at the WIN Entertainment Centre on Thursday at 7.30pm, with Fox Sports 3 and the NBL Live App showing the game live.