THE Slammers, Wolves and Flames will be looking to remain unbeaten, the Buccaneers to continue their stunning form, the Eagles and Redbacks to start finding their best and the Giants and Hawks hunting for their first wins all as part of Week 3 men's SBL action across the weekend.

Week 3 gets underway with two matches on Friday night as the Rockingham Flames take on the Perth Redbacks at Mike Barnett Sports Complex and the Willetton Tigers play the Cockburn Cougars at Willetton Basketball Stadium. Both matches tip off at 8.30pm.

It's then a jam packed Saturday night with fixtures beginning at 7.30pm with the Geraldton Buccaneers playing the Lakeside Lightning at Active West Stadium and the Goldfields Giants taking on the Joondalup Wolves at Neils Hansen Basketball Stadium.

The final three matches tip-off at 8pm with the Mandurah Magic playing the Perry Lakes Hawks at Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre, the Cockburn Cougars taking on the East Perth Eagles at Wally Hagan Stadium and the Stirling Senators battling the South West Slammers at Warwick Leisure Centre.

The round then concludes on Sunday with two matches at 2pm that sees the Perth Redbacks face the Mandurah Magic at Curtin Stadium and the South West Slammers take on the Kalamunda Eastern Suns at Eaton Recreation Centre.

On Friday night, the Flames and Redbacks meet in a battle between two teams expected to be contenders this year, but who have had differing starts.

Rockingham has won its opening two matches of the season against the Goldfields Giants by 14 points and the East Perth Eagles by four.

Meanwhile, the Redbacks have won just one of their opening three matches but in that one victory last week over the Lakeside Lightning, new import Marshall Brown had a monster game with 48 points.

However, in losses to the Geraldton Buccaneers and Stirling Senators he hasn’t been quite able to have the same impact so the influence he can have on Friday night's contest is likely key to the Redbacks' chances of handing the Flames their first loss of 2015.

Friday's other fixture sees two teams who have made good starts to the season do battle with the Tigers hosting the Cougars at Willetton.

The Tigers have loaded up big this season under new coach Alan Black and despite a disappointing 23-point opening round loss to the Joondalup Wolves, they have looked good with a 38-point thumping of the Goldfields Giants and a 29-point victory over the defending champion Eagles.

The Cougars didn’t have as much hype surrounding them coming into the season following a stack of departures over the summer, but Gavin Field has put the team on his shoulders the first two weeks averaging 30.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists a game.

Cockburn has been able to record wins over the Stirling Senators and Perry Lakes Hawks following an opening round loss to the Lakeside Lightning.

The Buccaneers then host the Lightning on Saturday night and the Buccs will be looking to continue on their unstoppable form from last weekend.

Coming off losing last year's grand final to East Perth, the 2014 minor premiers lost to the South West Slammers in the opening round, but last weekend delivered two imposing performances.

It started with an incredible 53-point hammering of the Perry Lakes Hawks and then finished with a hard fought 17-point victory over the Perth Redbacks.

That means that the Buccs are now full of confidence returning to Geraldton giving the Lightning a huge task to try and improve on their 1-2 record to start the 2015 season.

The Giants then might be at home on Saturday night as well, but after three losses to open their 2015 campaign they have a big job at hand taking on the unbeaten Wolves.

Joondalup has opened the season with a 102-79 win over the Tigers and then last weekend beat the Suns 111-96.

Another team with a big job to do on Saturday night is the Hawks who after losing their opening three matches of the year have to take on a dangerous Magic outfit in Mandurah.

The Magic have started the season winning two of their three matches but it's the Hawks who need to find something or risk having the season slip away from them in the early rounds.

Perry Lakes has lost to East Perth by 18 points, to Geraldton by 53 and Cockburn by six to open the season and now face a double-header weekend needing to find a way to get on the winner's list.

The Cougars then back up their clash with the Tigers on Friday night by hosting the defending champion Eagles on Saturday.

East Perth has only recorded one win from its first four matches to open its championship defence with that lone victory coming back on the opening night over the winless Hawks.

However, last weekend was a challenging one for the Eagles particularly on Saturday night against the Slammers with the absence of a host of key personnel but they will now look to start getting their title defence back on track against the Cougars.

The last match on Saturday night then pits the Senators up against the unbeaten Slammers. Stirling might have just won one of three matches so far in 2015, but they possess a talented line-up with the likes of Cody Ellis, Austin Bruton, Ryan Woodbury, Kyle Lindbergh and Jayden Coburn.

The Slammers, however, have started the year strongly with impressive wins over the Buccaneers, Lightning and Eagles, and will be looking to keep their unbeaten run going as long as possible.

The round then concludes with two matches on Sunday afternoon starting with the Redbacks hosting the Magic at Curtin.

Perth will be coming off a tough encounter with the unbeaten Rockingham on Friday night while Mandurah will have played Perry Lakes the previous night.

And finally the Slammers will back up having played Stirling at Warwick on Saturday by returning home to Eaton to host the Suns on Sunday afternoon.

It will be Kalamunda's only appearance of the weekend with the Eastern Suns having recorded an opening weekend win over the Giants, but then losing by 15 points to the Wolves last weekend.

WEEK 3 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
FRIDAY
Rockingham Flames v Perth Redbacks, Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm
Willetton Tigers v Cockburn Cougars, Willetton Basketball Stadium 8.30pm

SATURDAY
Geraldton Buccaneers v Lakeside Lightning, Active West Stadium 7.30pm
Goldfields Giants v Joondalup Wolves, Neils Hansen Basketball Stadium 7.30pm
Mandurah Magic v Perry Lakes Hawks, Mandurah Aquatic and Recreation Centre 8pm
Cockburn Cougars v East Perth Eagles, Wally Hagan Stadium 8pm
Stirling Senators v South West Slammers, Warwick Leisure Centre 8pm

SUNDAY
Perth Redbacks v Mandurah Magic, Curtin Stadium 2pm
South West Slammers v Kalamunda Eastern Suns, Eaton Recreation Centre 2pm

Article by Chris Pike
Photo by HoopShots (www.hoopshots.com.au)