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Adelaide Strikers coach Jason Gillespie says his players must sharpen up if they're to win Saturday night's BBL knockout final.

Adelaide Strikers coach Jason Gillespie is imploring his players to sharpen up as their BBL season arrives at the cut-throat stage.

The Strikers will host a knockout final against the winner of Thursday night's playoff game between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Thunder.

And Gillespie says his charges must improve if they're to prevail in their final on Saturday night at Adelaide Oval.

The Strikers lost their last minor-round game by 10 runs to Hobart, who smacked 1-217 from their 20 overs.

"We identified some opportunities where we could have been a bit sharper, certainly with the ball and in the field particularly," Gillespie told reporters on Thursday.

"Our run chase, we gave it a good chance, just fell a little bit short.

"Although we lost the other night, and it's never nice to lose, the positives were we were able to get so close to quite an imposing total.

"We do need to sharpen up on a couple of things.

"But overall in the tournament we have shown signs of improvement, we have learnt from our mistakes and that has been a massive positive for me."

Gillespie said while the stakes would be high, his players couldn't afford to dwell on the outcome of Saturday night's final.

"If we're thinking about results, we're worrying about things in the future," he said.

"If we just focus on what we need to do in that moment and nail those moments, then hopefully the scoreboard will look after itself."