R12 Preview: Illawarra Hawks v SE Melbourne Phoenix

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Thursday 1 April 

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
South East Melbourne 93 (Creek 25, Moore 22, Gliddon 17) d Illawarra 76 (Harvey 14, Simon 13, Deng 10, Bairstow 10) – NBL Cup Week 2, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

The Phoenix have dominated the Hawks in their first two meetings in #NBL21.

The first one was a 98-82 victory back on February 7 at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre and then during the NBL Cup at John Cain Arena, South East Melbourne was too strong for Illawarra once again, winning 93-76.

The absence of Keifer Sykes pushed fan favourite Kyle Adnam to start and he'd end up with 13 assists to set the tone for a commanding performance. In fact, it was the Hawks’ inability to get to the free-throw line compared to the Phoenix that would be the biggest difference-maker. In all, the Phoenix had 30 attempts compared to the Hawks’ seven. 

But when Tyler Harvey (14 points) made back-to-back three-pointers halfway through the second quarter, the Hawks began to find some groove and were fighting back from a 16-point deficit. A red-hot Mitch Creek (25 points, 10/17 shooting) punctuated an impressive first half with a three-pointer on the stroke of half-time though.  

The third quarter was where the Phoenix put their stamp on this one. The Hawks had no answer on defence for Creek, and import big Ben Moore (22 points) was also on target as the Phoenix extended their three quarter-time lead to 18 points. It would have taken the biggest comeback of the season to pull that back, which proved too much for even the high-scoring Hawks. When Cam Bairstow (10 points, five rebounds) threatened with a pair of three-pointers, the Hawks pulled it back to 11, but that was as close as they got late. 

The now
Illawarra gets to play consecutive home games for the first time in #NBL21 as the Hawks try to string wins together while the Phoenix arrive in the 'Gong desperate for a bounce back performance.

While the Phoenix have won the first two meetings this season against the Hawks, this is their first clash in Wollongong and the first time that Illawarra gets to play consecutive games in front of their home fans this season.

The Hawks played just their second home game from 18 matches on Monday and they were impressive in hammering the Brisbane Bullets 96-72. It was an impressive showing on the back of a trip to Perth on Friday with Tyler Harvey brilliant with 28 points while Emmett Naar, Deng Adel and Cam Bairstow all scored in double-figures, and Justin Simon had a tremendous all-round showing.

That was a first home win for the Hawks since New Year's Eve 2019 and improved them to a 10-8 record on the season having played just the two home games so far, and preparing for a third on Thursday night against the Phoenix.

Speaking of South East Melbourne, they just can't get a clear run in terms of their personnel right now. While they will regain Mitch Creek to take on Illawarra on Thursday, import point guard Keifer Sykes goes back out of the team with a hamstring twinge following his first game back from an ankle and foot complaint. Dane Pineau remains sidelined as well as does Kendall Stephens.

The Phoenix will also be determined to respond to their 20-point loss against Melbourne United on Saturday when they were able to only score 60 points for the game. Only Cam Gliddon (13) and Ben Moore (12) managed to score in double-figure points.

That snapped a four-game winning streak for South East Melbourne so they will be keen to respond straight away and to improve on their current 10-8 record on the season. 

The stats

- The Hawks should feel comfortable to attack the rim with the Phoenix ranked last in blocked shots a game this season, at 2.0. In contrast, Illawarra ranks second in that category averaging 4.4 per game.

- Illawarra is also leading the league in rebounds at 40.3 per game while South East Melbourne is ranked second last in that category at 34.1. The Hawks are also second in defensive boards at 27.7 a game while the Phoenix are last at 24.1.

- The Phoenix also concede the second most fouls a game this season at 18.3 while the Hawks are only being called for 15.3 a game. However, South East Melbourne is taking the third most foul shots a game at 18.7 while Illawarra is only taking a league-low 13.9.

- The Hawks' numbers are ugly in the first two meetings against the Phoenix. They averaged just 79.0 points a game with 14.0 turnovers and shooting just 42.7 per cent from the field, 36.4 per cent from deep and 58.8 per cent from the foul line on just 8.5 foul shots a game.

- Things look much better for Phoenix across those two games with them putting up 95.5 points, 19.5 assists and shooting 47.2 per cent from the floor, 39.6 per cent from deep and 81.8 per cent from the charity stripe on the back of 22 attempts a game.

The key men

Tyler Harvey – He didn’t complete Monday's win after hurting his back on a layup late, but he had 28 points on the board by that point including going 8/10 from three-point land and coach Brian Goorjian sees no reason he won't be 100 per cent healthy by tip-off on Thursday. And he is going to take some stopping from the Phoenix who will be without Keifer Sykes right now. Harvey has only scored a total of 27 points in the two games against South East Melbourne so far this season, but he's in hot form right now and if he is feeling it anywhere close to the way he was against Brisbane on Monday, good luck to the Phoenix for stopping him without their best defender.

Ryan Broekhoff – The former NBA sharpshooter of 59 appearances and regular Boomer could be just about ready to breakout and show the NBL what he's truly capable of. He hadn’t played since suiting up for the Dallas Mavericks against the Charlotte Hornets back on February 8 last year, then had to go through two weeks of quarantine and then get back in game shape. So it's been a slow start over his opening four games, but the signs were encouraging despite the team's performance on Saturday against Melbourne United. He played 20 minutes for eight points, two rebounds and two assists. This could be his chance to catch fire shooting the ball and what better venue to do that than on the famous shooting rims in the 'Gong.

The quotes

Illawarra coach Brian Goorjian is fully aware of his team's trouble against South East Melbourne in the first two meetings this season, but he's confident of a bounce back against them on Thursday as the Hawks finally get to enjoy a few uninterrupted days at home.

"That's been our bogey team, they've not only beaten us but I think we've played everyone tough other than them. We haven’t been in the game with them either time but you look at the losses and wins this season, we've been in the games against everybody else," Goorjian said. 

"We've played everybody else tough so this will be a real challenge for us but again it's a huge thing to play at home. I can't tell you how great it is and I know the players feel the same to wake up or finish the game, and walk up the hill and you are home. 

"You can go home, cook a meal, pour a glass of red wine and put your feet over the balcony, and everyone gets a day off after a win and can relax, get their groceries, see their girlfriend and then we have a couple of days to sleep in our own beds and be around the people we love and care about, and be in our community and enjoy the win. 

"Then we focus on the next game and really I haven’t met our sponsors yet, I don’t know the fans yet and our home games right now are still like road games. This is my first year here and that's how long we've been away and I'm really trying to cherish these months in the 'Gong and it's the reason why I came here. I wanted to be near the beach, I wanted this home court environment and this lifestyle that we are going to get to appreciate and enjoy over the next three or four weeks."

Now that the Hawks have a good run of home games to look forward to, Goorjian knows it's important they make the most of that if they hope to keep themselves in the NBL finals hunt.

"We need to give ourselves a cushion during this period of time but you just realise there's so many more games to play. I said this during the hub when we were losing, it's about how you are playing and it's about our development and if you are playing well, then good things are going to happen," Goorjian said.

"If you get a win here and there now, because of circumstances it's not going to get you there. Perth's playing well and I think we've moved forward even though the record doesn’t indicate that. But just the fact that we played the teams that we've played, and the grind that we've been in that I really think we're playing better right now than we were in that hub.

"The key for us is now to build on this and maybe we can get some momentum going at home to give them some confidence that will add to the growing performance from this win, and over the last few games even though there were some losses in there."

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell didn’t see a lot to like out of his team's Throwdown loss to Melbourne United on Saturday, but the most encouraging showing so far from Ryan Broekhoff was one positive. He now is looking forward to him continuing to build on that.

"I actually think he was one of the positive out of that game. I was sort of sitting down at the end of the game and trying to think about what I liked about our own performance, and it was a pretty short list let me tell you," Mitchell said. 

"But one of them was that Ryan was able to stay in front of the ball better in that game from a defensive side of things which he'd been struggling with just by getting his legs back under him. We saw a little bit of that which was good and he got his legs under himself on a couple of shots, and cuts to the rim as well and it's just going to be a slow process because he hasn’t played for a year and had to sit in quarantine for two weeks. 

"It's just going to take time for a 30-year-old body to get up to scratch, but the great thing for us is that we can see a bit of improvement there with him and we saw it during the week at practice as well. His minutes aren’t so much determined by our high performance staff, it's really just about the conversations we have with Ryan and he's communicating with us where he's at."

Adam Gibson is the league's most experienced player with 442 NBL appearances to his credit, and he wants to see the Phoenix improve on their physicality on Thursday night coming out of the loss to Melbourne on Saturday.

"We'll try and forget that game, but at the same time we'll try and look at it and work on what was not effective. But we just weren’t aggressive and physical enough. We didn’t set great screens at all and Glizzo was our best screener, and that's not really his go to," Gibson said.

"We have to be more physical and play in the front court. Melbourne had great on-ball defence and we just kind of allowed them to take us out of stuff. For us moving forward it's onto the next one and we're looking forward to playing Illawarra. 

"We'll come out and it's always hard bringing in new guys back in and Keifer playing 10 minutes makes it a bit of a challenge for us as a team to bring these guys back in the game and getting used to each other again. We'll be back on for the next game against Illawarra next question."