SIX matches on Easter Thursday in the Men's SBL and there's plenty on the line at the top as the Joondalup Wolves and Perth Redbacks do battle and at the other end with the South West Slammers and Mandurah Magic desperate to open their accounts.

Ahead of the break over Easter, all six Week 5 Men's SBL matches will take place on Thursday night with each of them to tip-off at 8.30pm following the corresponding Women's fixtures.

The games include the undefeated Perth Redbacks taking on the Joondalup Wolves while the winless duo of the South West Slammers and Mandurah Magic face the Rockingham Flames and Cockburn Cougars respectively on the road.

The other Thursday night fixtures see the Perry Lakes Hawks play the Lakeside Lightning, the Kalamunda Eastern Suns face the Stirling Senators and the Willetton Tigers tackle the East Perth Eagles.

The Goldfields Giants and Geraldton Buccaneers have both been given the week off over Easter.

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The Hawks and Lightning shapes as a tremendous and hard to pick contest at Bendat Basketball Centre.

Under new coach Matt Parsons who is the Coach of the Year from the past two SBL seasons, the Hawks have won two of their first four games but did welcome Matthew Adekponya last weekend despite losing to Willetton.

Lakeside, meanwhile, have done well to win three of its five games to open 2017 and the Lightning would see the Hawks as a big scalp if they are looking to be genuine playoff contenders.

Perhaps the game of the night will take place at Joondalup Basketball Stadium with the Wolfpack hosting the Redbacks.

The Wolves sit on a 3-1 record following four rounds and while they would like more output from imports Wade Guerin and Richard Ross, they still have enough strong, experienced local talent to be going along nicely.

The Redbacks, however, are undefeated after five games and even though Michael Vigor and Lee Roberts aren’t here yet and Alex Loughton is gone, Shawn Redhage is proving a tremendous force still and with good pieces around him they can announce themselves as title threats on Thursday.

The Flames have done well under new coach Brad Samuelson to stay afloat at 2-2 to start the season with a vastly new-look team featuring new imports Donovan Jack and Vinnie Zollo.

The Slammers finally welcomed back Brian Voelkel on Sunday after he was forced to sit out the first three weeks, but his near triple-double couldn’t quite lift them over the Stirling Senators.

That means the Slammers remain winless heading into the clash with the Flames at Mike Barnett Sports Complex.

Slammers coach Charles Nix is actually glad to have the short turnaround from Sunday to Thursday but is full of respect for the Flames as an opponent.

"I'll be honest, the short turnaround is perfect for us. We just want to get back out there playing another game. We've had one training session on Tuesday and will come out to play on Thursday so we don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about the loss on Sunday," Nix said.

"I love that Rockingham has got some quality imports in and obviously (Ryan) Godfrey is a quality, experienced guy and young Beau (Samuelson) heading back from college to play under his dad gives them another really talented kid.

"They've got a couple of guys too who have played over 100 games in (Luke) Roberts and (Matthew) Honey too so they have a good mix of experience and youth.

"We understand that we are going to have to be at our best to get it. I've been thinking it's time for our first win for four weeks now, but we'll do everything we can to get it on Thursday. We will have to make some adjustments to make it happen though."

The Eastern Suns had a terrific round last weekend scoring their first two wins of the season over the Magic and Giants with Courtney Belger and Kerrod Horn making a significant difference to their line-up.

They now host the Senators at Ray Owen Sports Centre on Thursday who are coming off an impressive and hard fought win over the Slammers at home on Sunday with Rhys Vague continuing his strong start to his career at Stirling.

The Cougars have started life as the defending champions under new coach Adam Nener winning two of five games heading into their clash with the winless Magic at Wally Hagan Stadium.

Cockburn will be desperate to square its ledger but Mandurah equally determined to break its duck and with new import guard Will McNeill having an extra week's preparation to work on his chemistry with Taylor Mullenax and Ricky Kreklow in particular, the Magic will look to put on a good show.

Then there is the Tigers up against the Eagles at Willetton Basketball Stadium and it shapes as another outstanding battle.

The Tigers are undefeated with Ray Turner in the line-up having beaten the Buccs in Geraldton and then defeating the Hawks last week in style.

The Eagles, meanwhile, beat the Wolfpack last week with Kevin Davis on fire against his former team.

The battle between Turner and Davis will be worth the price of admission alone, but there will be plenty more that will determine who prevails in a contest between two teams deserving to be considered championships threats after the first month.

WEEK 5 MEN'S SBL FIXTURES
THURSDAY
Perry Lakes Hawks v Lakeside Lightning – Bendat Basketball Centre 8.30pm
Joondalup Wolves v Perth Redbacks – Joondalup Basketball Stadium 8.30pm
Rockingham Flames v South West Slammers – Mike Barnett Sports Complex 8.30pm
Kalamunda Eastern Suns v Stirling Senators – Ray Owen Sports Centre 8.30pm
Cockburn Cougars v Mandurah Magic – Wally Hagan Stadium 8.30pm
Willetton Tigers v East Perth Eagles – Willetton Basketball Stadium 8.30pm

Photo by SportsPix Photography