The Thunder avoided the prospect of going into this Saturday night's last game needing to beat their likely semi-finals opponents McKinnon at the Keilor Basketball Stadium.

Thunder coach Steve Toy said his side could play the game on its own terms.

"The goal at the start of the season was to make the finals so it was nice to put that away with a couple of games to go," he told the Advocate. "The sooner we could lock it in the better. We'll have a good look at them and try to exploit their weaknesses come finals time. We'll probably keep a few things up our sleeve."

The Thunder split their series with ladder leader Chelsea.

Their only meeting with second-placed McKinnon resulted in a loss on the road.

The Thunder go into the last game of the regular season confident of striking the first psychological blow ahead of the playoffs.

They want to improve on their impressive 7-1 record on their home court.

"One of our objectives at the start of the year was not to lose a game on our home court," Toy said.

"We think it's important because mainly we want people to come and watch us play."

The Thunder have the meanest defence in the division. They had conceded a league-best 51.68 points a game leading into last weekend's penultimate round.

The Thunder prides itself on its defence. "At the start of the year we talked about our goals and one of them was to be the best defensive team in the competition," Toy said. "We go out every week with the theory, the harder we work on the defensive end the more opportunities we'll get at the other end.

"The girls have been terrific."

The Thunder claim to be one of the fittest and closest-knit teams in the division.

Their pre-season fitness campaign has worked twofold. "It created a really good team bond," Toy said.

For the Thunder to make some noise in the finals, they need their 'big three' - point guard Kristen Mavor, centre Lauren Toy and forward Belinda Ancora - to fire.