Don’t be fooled by 1-6 Hawks, United warns

Slow starts are nothing new for the Illawarra Hawks.

They’re 1-6 to open the Hungry Jack’s NBL27 Season, almost the same record they held at this point last year (2-6). Two seasons before that, they were 2-7.

If there’s any solace for Hawks fans, it’s in that NBL24 campaign. The 2-7 start ended with Justin Tatum stepping up to head coach, and it turned into a run to the semi-finals.

A year later, they were champions.

That title run feels a long time ago, but it was only around a year and a half back. Seven players from that championship roster are still at the club: Tyler Harvey, Will Hickey, Sam Froling, Daniel Grida, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk, Todd Blanchfield and Mason Peatling, although Blanchfield and Peatling are both currently out.

That’s why Melbourne United coach Jacob Chance says the Hawks deserve plenty of respect when the teams face off on Sunday.

“I think records at this time of year, people can get caught up in that and they’ve had different things going on as all clubs have in injuries and player availability and whatnot,” Chance said.

“But you know, they’re a team that won a championship ... and know what it takes to do that and have a lot of talented guys over there that can get that done.

“So, we know we’re going to have to be at our best.”

Illawarra has had no trouble scoring. In Friday’s loss to Tasmania, Kelan Martin posted 23 points, Will Hickey 21, Milton Doyle 20, Sam Froling 12 and Kyle Adnam 11, and the Hawks piled on 39 points in the final quarter. Two days later, they put up 100 in a 110-100 loss to Cairns.

The problem has been at the other end. The Hawks sit last in the League for defensive rating (132.1) by a significant margin. They are also 10th for opponents’ field goal percentage (51.1) and opponents’ three-point percentage (38.3).

Even so, Chance is wary of what they can do in the open court.

“Their transition game, you know, they’ve got threats all over the floor,” he said.

“When you talk about Hickey and Doyle with able to push the ball and Tyler for a long time has been a threat in transition with his ability to shoot and Adnam, the list goes on.

“We want to continue to play fast. We want to continue to control the tempo of the game and certainly with Illawarra you have to be on point in your defensive transition.”

United have their own momentum after coming from 15 points down to beat the Phoenix 104-99 in last Saturday’s Throwdown. Melbourne is now 3-3 and still finding its groove with one of the most talented rosters the club has assembled in recent years.

Sunday’s game is an NBL25 Championship Series rematch and tips off from 5pm AEDT, live on ESPN.