Bench depth key to champs' charge

The Illawarra Hawks bench outscored the Brisbane Bullets on their own on Monday night, with the defending NBL champions gearing themselves to make a run at sixth position.

While other teams are suffering a horror run with injuries, including the Brisbane team they beat on Australia Day, and other sixth-placed contenders, Tasmania and New Zealand, the Hawks are the healthiest they've been all season.

During a week of practice ahead of four games in a week, coach Justin Tatum settled his starting five and second unit.

Two games and two strong wins later, it's worked a treat.

The Hawks got back to winning in Hobart on Saturday, beating the JackJumpers 101-91, before dominating the hapless Bullets 113-75 in Brisbane on Monday, on the back of getting 78 points alone from the bench.

With his starters not getting off to the start he was hoping, Tatum called an early timeout against the Bullets, put on his five second-unit players who instantly put up 10 straight points, and the rest was history.

"My second unit is pretty much a starting five anywhere in this league, that's the blessing we have when we start having healthy guys, and guys start buying into where they can make their best impact at," Tatum said in Monday's post-game press conference.

"In any game, both teams can start out well, and those first five minutes don’t overly concern me as long as we find a way to keep a good pace, and set the tone, and we know the guys are going to start subbing in and keep it going."

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After losing to the Perth Wildcats at HoopsFest, the Hawks had a full week of practice at home, which is where Tatum settled on his first and second five units.

The biggest decision was to split centres JaVale McGee and Sam Froling, along with prolific scorers QJ Peterson and Tyler Harvey, with the starters topped off by Biwali Bayles, Mason Peatling and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk.

The second group then includes Dan Grida, Todd Blanchfield and Davo Hickey. In both games the past three days, the move has worked a treat, highlighted by 78 of their 113 points against Brisbane coming from the second unit.

"That's something that I wouldn’t say planning all year, but we've just been having guys in and out of the line-up, and had some inconsistency because of injury and things like that," Tatum said.

"But the last couple of weeks we've started to understand our team more, and where we can put guys in positions, and right now our backs are against the wall, and everyone is playing with a sense of urgency, and is trying to find a way to do winning plays.

"Our bench did a really good job today, and I'm just as proud of our starters for setting the tone and doing their best to maintain our tempo the best they could, so it's a team effort for sure."

The Hawks next travel to Qudos Bank Arena on Thursday to play the red-hot Sydney Kings from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.