NEW YORK (NBC News/WCMH) – While Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are preparing for Monday’s presidential debate in different ways, both view the meeting as a pivotal point in the race.

Ahead of the debate, Clinton has undergone extensive preparations working to portray herself as the candidate with experience, also releasing new campaign ads attacking Trump. Clinton’s team told NBC News they don’t know “which Donald Trump will show up” for Monday’s debate, so they are preparing several lines of attack.

Meanwhile, Trump has taken a more laissez faire approach to planning, but received a big endorsement Friday from a former opponent, Senator Ted Cruz.

“Trump has resisted planning for this debate so it’s very hard to know what he is going to do. It’s not clear he has a plan going into it,” said Politico Reporter Kevin Robillard.

While his team has been quiet about what his debate preparations entail, he is spending the weekend with advisers including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Flyn and Rudy Guiliani.

Experts say that unpredictability could a Trump’s strategy to try and throw Clinton off. Trump however told Fox News host Bill O’Reilly that he plans on being respectful.

“If she treats me with respect, I will treat her with respect,” he said. “It really depends. People ask me that question, ‘oh you’re going to go out there and do this and that.’ I really don’t know that. You’re going to have to feel it out when you’re out there. She’s got to treat me with respect. I’m going to treat her with respect. I’d like to start off by saying that because that would be my intention.”

The first presidential debate will air on NBC on Monday at 9pm. Lester Holt from the NBC Nightly News will moderate.