Sydney Kings coach Brian Goorjian is still sweating over the fitness of skipper Jason Smith heading into a NBL grand final series against a Melbourne team he expects will try to "ram the ball down our throats".

Guard Smith suffered a shoulder injury in game one of the semi-final series against Perth and missed the second game.

He produced an important scoring spurt in the first quarter of the deciding game on Saturday, but sat out the second half after crashing to the court on his shoulder.

"He is a bit sore, so we will monitor that over the next few days," said Goorjian, who couldn't guarantee Smith would definitely suit up for game one on Wednesday.

Goorjian described Smith as a "very important piece" of the Kings' make-up, particularly his strength in defence.

"They (Melbourne) are big and physical and Jason is not tall, but he's one of our stronger players," Goorjian said.

"We do have depth, but in the physical size defending, he is a very very important piece and obviously the difference between game two and game three (against Perth) was (forward Mark) Worthington and Jason in that area."

Melbourne coach Al Westover said the Tigers were in better shape than before any of the three regular season games they lost to Sydney, with versatile Dave Thomas approaching top form following a long-term injury and mid-season recruit Sean Lampley now familiar with the Tigers' system.

"Their depth has changed since Thomas became healthy and Lampley became comfortable, now you are adding two more pieces and they are becoming very very deep," Goorjian said.

"We are just hitting our peak right now," Westover said.

Goorjian anticipated a similar style of game to the torrid series against Perth with the Tigers looking to dominate inside with their big men.

"I think Melbourne are going to try and bring the ball up the court and ram it down our throat and we are going to try and pressure them out of doing that," Goorjian said.

Without wishing to sound negative about his team's prospects, Goorjian doubted Sydney would sweep the series against a side he rated as one of the most talented NBL teams ever assembled.

"The longer the series goes the better our game plan becomes," Goorjian said.

"The pressure on them up the floor trying to break them down, it might not happen in a half or a game, but hopefully it does over the course of a series, then neutralising them inside and finding some way to keep the ball out of there."

Perth coach Scott Fisher felt Goorjian would come up with a way to nullify the Tigers' inside game.

"Anstey and Lampley, I think there's a predictability in the post and I think Goorjian will figure that out," Fisher said.

Westover admitted the Tigers had experienced problems trying to shut down Sydney's quicksilver guard Dontaye Draper.

"He (Draper) is a jitterbug and at the end he's the one hitting those pull-up daggers, he's a very underrated shooter," Westover said.

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