Preview: Adelaide v Illawarra (Round 14)

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Friday 6 January, 2023
Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Foxtel; Sky NZ
LIVE SCORES & STATS

Who won the last time?

Adelaide 96 (Johnson 28, Franks 25, Drmic 16) d Illawarra 80 (Harvey 25, Swaka Lo Buluk 12, Siva 11) – Round 6 at WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

Adelaide’s players rolled into Wollongong without Craig Randall and with a point to prove, and they whipped the Spalding around at dizzying speed, racking up a season-high 25 dimes as they clinically utlilised the inside-outside games of Robert Franks and Daniel Johnson. Tyler Harvey (25 points) and Peyton Siva (10 assists) helped the Hawks close back within a basket in the third term, but Johnson and Anthony Drmic caught fire to slam the door shut.

What happened last game?

The seventh-placed Sixers wish they could have slammed the door shut in Cairns when they led by 18 in the final term, because they’d be in fourth with the chance to put serious heat on second with wins over Illawarra and NZ this weekend. The undermanned Hawks lost no respect with their performances against Perth and the Snakes in Round 13, challenging both late before falling short, but they are running out of time to add to their two-win tally.

What’s working?

Not 22/23 – The news that Siva’s shoulder injury would keep him out of the rest of NBL23 was yet another blow to a Hawks' season that’s never got off the ground. Justin Robinson and then Siva were brought in to be the glue for this young team, but will end up playing 12 of 28 games. Add to that injuries to George King, Michael Frazier and Daniel Grida and it’s been a tough grind, but the improving form of the much-loved Grida is bringing some hope.

Playing at home – After a shaky start, the 36ers are starting to make the Adelaide Entertainment Centre a fortress. From their move out of Findon until Round 10 this season, the Sixers were a middling 24-24 at their new home, but have now won four-straight in front of growing crowds. They’ve done it with defence and board dominance too, giving up just 82.7ppg at 42 per cent in that streak and winning the rebounding percentages 55-45.

What needs stopping?

Playing timid – Adelaide showed they're a high-level team by dismantling the Taipans 83-52 in 31:55 outside of two stunning Snakes runs. It’s those dry stretches where they need leadership, and while Ian Clark is already making an impact in that respect, this entire roster now knows their sets, their strengths and what to execute at both ends in tough moments. It’s time to deliver rather than stepping back and waiting for someone else to lead.

DJ & Robo – The Hawks simply had no answer for Adelaide’s big men in Round 6, Franks dropping 25 points on 10/11 inside, while Johnson went 7/8 inside and 4/6 outside en route to 28 points. Impressively, they dealt four dimes each to beat whatever counters were thrown at them, and while Illawarra forced them into eight turnovers, in the rematch they need to put heat on Adelaide’s guards and limit inside supply or it will be too late.

Who’s matching up?

Kai Sotto v Sam Froling – Adelaide are 4-1 with Sotto starting, and should be 5-0. He fits the first unit better and allows DJ to unleash off the pine, where the 36ers won bench points 44-11 in Cairns. Froling is rolling right now with 20.3ppg at 52 per cent and 10rpg in his past four games. Expect Sotto to drop and stay between Sam and the hoop to force finishes over his length. The challenge doesn’t end there though, Froling collecting 20 o-boards in his past four games, and if Kai and Co can clean the d-glass Adelaide are on their way to victory.

Sunday Dech v Tyler Harvey – T-Raw has averaged 20.5ppg on 8/18 three-point shooting against Adelaide this season, and his past two games have delivered 49 points on 8/22 from deep. Unfortunately for the Hawks, their skipper went 9/24 from inside the arc in those two contests and has shot under 40 per cent on twos this season as his trademark floater game has waned, and the job for Dech and Co is to get on his hip all night long.

Antonius Cleveland v Michael Frazier – There is some good news for Hawk Heads, with Frazier cleared to play after suffering hamstring tightness. He went 12/23 from deep in his opening four games as a Hawk, but has made just 2/15 in the past three, and needs to knock a couple down or else Cleveland will use his length to make finishing at the rim a tough prospect. In Adelaide’s home winning streak, AC has averaged 7.8 d-boards and 3.3 steals to dominate the possession game and spark the 36ers’ running game. Frazier better be ready.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="lt" dir="ltr">???tonius! ?<br><br>? - <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/uARqWD4BkF">pic.twitter.com/uARqWD4BkF</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1609121305630216192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 31, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


Who’s saying what?

How will the Adelaide 36ers respond to their epic final-quarter capitulation in Cairns?

“If we can rewind the clock and redo it we would, but we can’t, we’ve got to look at Illawarra and learn from those mistakes that we made,” Sunday Dech said on Tuesday.

New import Ian Clark – who logged 24 points in 38 minutes in Round 13 – has the same mindset.

“It's tough honestly, at the same time we can't hang our heads," he said.

“This one hurt tonight as we were on a roll and we were gaining ground and building blocks to be the team that can put teams away, but we let them back in.”

For Mitch McCarron, it’s reinforced the need for his team to get better in the grind-it-out moments, rather than rely on the flow of the game to pile on enough points to win.

“We need to continue to get better and executing at the end of the game, whether we have a lead or if it’s tight,” he said.

“The biggest mistake would be to dwell on that though and carry that onto the next weekend, we have another double header …

“It's not all doom and gloom, we had a very bad five or six minutes and it cost us the win, but if we go back, review it and fix it this week at practice, then we can get back to where we were going.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">That&#39;s a ??? shot...<br><br>? - <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> + <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> <a href="https://t.co/iS8XOy1KTW">pic.twitter.com/iS8XOy1KTW</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1608408934423093254?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 29, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The 36ers had dominated Cairns for the vast majority of the contest, running up 78 points in 34 minutes at 49 per cent and only committing 11 turnovers.

Then, things got tight, the crowd got loud, the Snakes upped the ante and Adelaide went 2/8 on the run home and burped up seven passive turnovers to lose the unloseable.

“We played not to lose, and it's not the way you play the game of basketball,” coach CJ Bruton said.

“We did have a patch from eight to two minutes we were playing not to lose a game. Things you've got to learn and keep getting better at, we missed some easy bunnies.”

However, the feeling in the 36ers’ camp is positive, knowing back-to-back home wins in Round 14 will propel them back into the top six.

Coach Bruton put his team through a tough video session early in the week and then moved on to the Hawks.

“He was frustrated but he put his hand up and said we all could have done a better job collectively,” Dech said.

“It’s what we needed, we needed someone to give us a rocket and get us back on track.

“Since then we have all watched the film and we know what we need to get better at and try to work on that every day.

“We hope it doesn’t get to those late stages again, but the next time it does, we will be prepared.”

The Cairns game is irrelevant now, and with only two of their seven games from Round 15 onwards at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Antonius Cleveland knows this weekend is crunch time.

“We want to take care of home court, we want to keep protecting this place and make it hard to play here and giving our fans a good outing so they keep supporting us,” he said.

“These two games this weekend are going to be huge. We are ready to get out there and get a W, get that taste out of our mouth from last game.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">OK MANGO! ??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HawkNation?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HawkNation</a> <a href="https://t.co/YlWVS2SpKR">pic.twitter.com/YlWVS2SpKR</a></p>&mdash; Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1609855354657198081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Standing in their way is an Illawarra team that played their hearts out against Cairns but faced their own final-quarter issues as a golden chance for win number three went begging.

“I thought our young guys, the mistakes that made today are the mistakes you need to make to learn,” a pragmatic Jacob Jackomas said.

“When I looked at our starting line-up, it’s Lachie Dent, 21, Wani, 21, Sammy, 22, Tyler’s the old one at 27 and Deng, I don’t know how old Deng is.

“There’s a lot of youth we’re relying on right now, people can be critical of them but they need to remember they are young guys.”

How close his young team got, and how hard they played, has Jackomas hungrily hunting another victory, with no let-up for the professionalism he’s demanding from his squad.

“We will get into the video, there were some mistakes we made that cost us victory, they're young mistakes and we always seem to be right there, I don’t think anyone’s taking us for granted right now,” he said.

“We do have a chance to win basketball games, they do want to win, the good thing is I'm still able right now to get after them in the video pretty hard and they respond … we’ll do the same thing today because they know they're close.”