Melbourne Tigers coach Al Westover believes it is his side, and not the red-hot Brisbane Bullets, which is the team to beat in the best-of-five Philips NBL Grand Final series.

Despite the Bullets being on a league-record 20-match winning streak, Westover was brimming with confidence at the Tigers' final training session on Wednesday before the squad travels to Brisbane for Game One on Friday.

When asked whether his charges were ready to go back-to-back in the NBL, Westover responded: "The players believe it."

"We won it last year and the three times we played them this year the first time we didn't have Chris (Anstey), the second we lost in double-overtime and the third time we got them pretty good - and we feel pretty good about that."

"We feel we're the team to beat. They might be getting all the publicity but we are the defending champs until proven otherwise."

Westover dismissed suggestion the pressure was on Melbourne in the opener, and captain Anstey revealed the team has only prepared for the opening match at this stage.

"It's exciting and if anything I think the pressure is on them with their winning streak and being at home," said Westover.

"We have only really prepared for Game One. We think if we can get that like we did last year it puts home-court advantage back with us, so Game One is huge," added Anstey.

Meanwhile, Westover warned raging MVP favourite Sam Mackinnon - who leads the Bullets in points (18.9 per game), rebounds (9.2), assists (4.2), steals (1.8), field-goal-percentage (55.4) and blocks (1.5) - to be prepared for a number of challenges as he tries to keep his amazing season going.

"In my mind he's this year's MVP. He does everything well, he rebounds, he passes, he defends and he scores," the Tigers coach said.

"We will start Stephen Hoare on him and rotate different players onto him, maybe DT (Dave Thomas) at times and Stiffy (David Stiff). We will also zone it up a bit."

Westover will have a full-strength side at his disposal for Game One, though he admitted there were a 'few niggles' among his playing group.

"But it's a Grand Final, so everyone will be there ready to go."