After a weekend off, the Brentwood-centre based Leopards return to action with a pair of crunch games this weekend.
The Big Cats will host Hemel Storm at Basildon Sporting Village on Sunday, tip-off 4pm, where they will look to repeat October's 81-61 victory in Hertfordshire.
Coach Robert Youngblood knows the importance of the weekend's games: "They're two key games for us," he said.
"We had probably our best performance of the season in our win at Hemel, and we'll need to do that again on Sunday. Derby's Trophy results suggest they're better than their league position suggests, bit we need to put together a run of wins before the Christmas break – starting this weekend."
That game was in the National Trophy group stage, and the Big Cats were led by 21 points from Greg Hernandez as they wrapped up home court advantage in the quarter-finals.
While Leopards have won two of their three VCARS.co.uk Division One games, newly promoted Storm picked up their first top flight win at the third attempt on Saturday with an 89-52 hammering of Brixton Topcats.
However the Storm – who recently saw a change of coach as Mark Lloyd replaced Dave Titmuss – couldn't complete a winning weekend as they went out of the National Cup with an 71-68 home loss against Bristol Academy Flyers.
Before Sunday's game at Basildon, the Big Cats travel to Derby for a re-match of last season's playoff final, which saw them wrap up the treble.
After finishing third in their Trophy group with a 3-3 record to seal a trip to Basildon to face Leopards in the quarter-final, the Trailblazers have suffered a poor run of form which has seen them lose their opening five Division One games and also go out of the National Cup with a loss at fellow strugglers Worthing Thunder.
Leopards won all three meetings between the sides last season, but will be aware that Derby expect to have former BBL big-man Tom Sherlock back from injury for Saturday's clash.