"Big-time" Robinson loves big-time moments

“Big-time players step up in big-time moments”. Illawarra’s Justin Robinson is preaching his mantra following Illawarra’s three-point Play-In game win over New Zealand, and given how he performed, it’s easy to see why.

Robinson has, by his own admission, endured an up and down season for the Hawks, however he stepped up to guide them into the Playoffs with a masterful performance against the Breakers.

He starred from the bench to lead all scorers with 26 points and, perhaps most impressively, he shot a perfect 14-14 free throws – many of which came in the final quarter with the game on the line.

“I just love those moments I think,” Robinson said post-game.

“I’ve been that way my whole life, early in my career I wanted to take that moment and own it and luckily I was in that position to shoot those free throws. They went my way, we’ve been practicing them a lot in practice and I was confident in myself that I could continue to make them.

“It’s not always going to be sweet, it’s not always going to be good, it’s how you handle adversity. I’ve had an up and down year but like JT told us before it’s 28 games of pre-season and these are the big moments.

“Big time players step up in big time moments and I think that’s what I did so for them to have that trust in me and for me to execute like that down the stretch, it’s a huge testament to them and a huge testament to me as well.”

Prior to the game Justin Tatum stated he wanted the Breakers to endure “40 minutes of hell”. While New Zealand’s comeback in the second half might mean that statement didn’t ring true for the entire team, it certainly applies to Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

The three-headed defensive snake of Robinson, William Hickey and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk made the diminutive guard work for every possession he had, and although he still put in an impressive performance with 19 points and nine assists, he was hobbled in a way the Kings couldn’t manage in last week’s Play-In Qualifier.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are down to four ?<br><br>Who you got going all the way? ? <a href="https://t.co/sq1nJ0HVJh">pic.twitter.com/sq1nJ0HVJh</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1764603435549429922?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“We contained PJC to our best ability, he didn’t score 30 but he did really well and they were still in the game. I believe he had nine assists so he was finding his teammates, but we wanted to make it difficult. He had six-plus turnovers and we wanted to throw him off his game,” Tatum said.

“He doesn’t miss much but picking him up 94 feet with Davo, J-Rob and Swaka, they did a great job.

“The goal was to cut the head off the snake. We weren’t going to stop PJC getting to some of his spots every minute he was out there, so the focus is to wear him down and tire him. If you see free throws he missed or a layup he could have had and missed, that’s a testament to those guys picking up full court and putting pressure on him.

“Our bigs did a good job showing on the screens, and that’s something we didn’t do against him before, so we wanted to make everything difficult for him.

“We made him into a passer tonight and made other guys have the ability to make shots and they did it here and there, but PJC could not get 30 if we were going to be able to pull this game out.”

The Hawks will now face a well-rested, top-seeded Melbourne United in a best-of-three Playoff Series which tips off on Thursday night, live on ESPN via Kayo at 7:30pm AEDT.