R18 Preview: Illawarra Hawks v Adelaide 36ers

When: 7.30pm (AEST), Tuesday 11 May

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

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

The last time
Adelaide 84 (Johnson 26, Giddey 13, Pinder 10, McVeigh 10, Paul 10) d Illawarra 72 (Jessup 17, Naar 16, Simon 13) – Round 12, Adelaide Entertainment Centre 

The last time the two teams met was back in Adelaide five weeks ago and it was the first of four successive double-figure wins at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for the 36ers that has put them back in contention to be fighting for a playoff spot with the Hawks.

The win wasn’t without a scare for the Sixers though. They did well to lead by 14 at half-time but then memories of what happened against Perth at the NBL Cup came to life when they conceded 17 of the opening second half points to the Hawks.

But this time the 36ers were able to stem the tide and snap their five-game losing streak in some style. Point guard Josh Giddey returned from injury and NBA import Brandon Paul made his first start but Daniel Johnson’s 26 points and 15 rebounds on his 33rd birthday proved pivotal in an 84-72 victory in the team’s first game at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre for 47 days.

Giddey flirted with a triple-double yet again with 13 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists while Paul and Jack McVeigh both added 10 points each. Keanu Pinder also delivered his most encouraging performance of the season with 10 points and three offensive rebounds.

Justinian Jessup led the Hawks with 17 points and three blocks while Emmett Naar had 16 points and Justin Simon 13 points but the absence of Tyler Harvey and Cam Bairstow was tough to cover.

The now

With both the Hawks and 36ers needing to keep winning to keep their #NBL21 playoff hopes alive, the stakes couldn’t be higher for each team going into Tuesday night's clash in the 'Gong.

The Sydney Kings and South East Melbourne Phoenix still occupy third and fourth positions on the table heading into Round 18 but the gap has closed to the chasing pack just outside the top four with both those teams losing their last two games, and the Hawks and 36ers are right in the middle of that group.

Illawarra won its last game back in Round 16 in Tasmania against the New Zealand Breakers to improve themselves to a 13-14 record so a win for the Hawks on Tuesday night and they join the Phoenix and Kings on a 14-14 record.

It's the beginning of a home stand too for Illawarra in the 'Gong that they've been waiting all season for. Following on from the Tuesday night, the Hawks play six of their final eight matches on their home floor as they try to book a place in the finals.

Meanwhile, the 36ers could lay claim to being the form team of the league right now, or at least of those in the pack chasing those third and fourth positions. 

Adelaide found form on its home floor to start with winning their last four matches at the Entertainment Centre against the Hawks, Wildcats, Bullets and Taipans by double-figures, and then they brought that with them to Sydney on Sunday. They came away with a stunning overtime win against the Kings where Josh Giddey had another triple-double, and Daniel Johnson dominated the extra period with 13 points.

That sees the 36ers enter Tuesday's game on a three-game winning streak to have improved to a 13-16 record on the season and winning against the Hawks would take them to 14-16 to have them right in the mix of a playoff spot with six games to go, of which two are on their home court.

The two teams are interesting places in terms of their personnel as well with the Hawks so shorthanded now that the retired Tim Coenraad has been called upon for the rest of the season resume his 310-game with the club. That has come with the news that Cam Bairstow will miss the rest of the season through injury on the back of the release of Deng Adel.

Adelaide, though, is at all full strength and deserves to be feeling good about themselves. They have Next Star Josh Giddey having had three triple-doubles in his next four games with Sunday Dech, Brandon Paul and Tony Crocker delivering in the two and three spots. Then up front it's quite the impressive front court of Daniel Johnson, Keanu Pinder and Isaac Humphries with support from Jack McVeigh with each of them healthy and in form.

The stats

- The winner of this match will be in fifth position on the NBL table with 14 wins to their credit. It's the first of three meetings the Hawks and 36ers have over the final four rounds.

- Over the last four rounds of the #NBL21 season, the 36ers have been the highest scoring team in the league at 89.0 points a game while Illawarra has been the lowest scoring team at 73.8 points. A lot of the reason for that is the three-point shooting with the Sixers averaging a league high 10 three-point makes 38.7 per cent shooting while the Hawks are making the lowest at 5.8 per game at 26.7 per cent in that period.

The key men

Tyler Harvey – He is the key offensive threat for the Hawks and when he's on song, and aggressive looking for his shot and attacking the paint, he makes Illawarra mighty tough to stop. He is averaging 19.7 points a game on the season but he's some huge games lately including 35 points against the Taipans and 29 last up against the Breakers. In games when he scores 25 points or more, the Hawks are undefeated in those six matches this season. In his only appearance against Adelaide so far, he did put up 24 points and that also turned out to be a win. Add in the fact that he'll spend time matched up with Josh Giddey and Sunday Dech will likely try to be shutting him down, and it's going to be a fascinating evening for him.

Isaac Humphries – It's no coincidence that this run of the best form of the season for the 36ers has gone hand in hand with the big man's return from his foot injury. To start the season he was playing so well he was in MVP contention and now that he's back, he showed what he's capable of in Sunday's win over the Kings by making three triples in a game for the first time in his NBL career to go along with six match-defining blocked shots. He became the first player since Chris Anstey in 2007 to have six blocks and hit three triples in a game, and if he can something similar again on Tuesday, it'll go a long way towards an Adelaide win.

The quotes

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian continues to be proud of the heart shown from his playing group and that was especially the case in their last up win over the New Zealand Breakers, and he's looking forward to seeing how they go at home now having freshened up since.

"Through all of this and we've had our tough spots obviously, but I've said this all the way through and I just think this team has enormous character and it works hard, and there's no quit in them. We made some moves this season to bring some young guys up and play around certain guys, and those guys aren’t playing right now," Goorjian said.

"Those young guys, there's a lot of pressure on them in order for us to win. The role for guys like Grida, Froling and Emmett Naar is so important for us right now with the guys that we have out. Our only hope in this is to play off our defence and get our defence going, and against New Zealand we started a little slow and they hit some threes, but then the trapping and the rotations got more aggressive. 

"From the first quarter and-a-half on, our defence got better and better as the game went on. Now we weren’t brilliant offensively by any stretch of the imagination, but that group played great defence and the energy, desperation and fight in them was something I was very proud of. I was in the Sydney game as well even though we lost, I thought we did the same sort of thing but just to a higher level in this game."

With Tyler Harvey coming off 29 points against the Breakers and the all-round contribution fellow import Justin Simon is making, Goorjian couldn’t be happier with what he's getting out of that pair, and will look for more from Justian Jessup now that he's back to full health.

"We're playing off Tyler offensively and Justinian was on loading with his hip, and missed the Sydney game as well so there's a lot of pressure on him," Goorjian said.

"That' s our guy, he's our score and that's who we're playing off offensively, and against New Zealand his 29 points were great and when he was double-teamed, it opened things up for other guys too. And Justin Simon did a lot for us as well on the defensive end and in the open court. Those two imported player were huge for us and with Tyler, we need to have that scoring point guard and he's that for us.

"I think this game will help him and we'll now get the Justinian Jessup back that we had for this home stand that we had earlier in the season. This run of games really matter and we're really excited to get this seven or eight days with the group to get everyone healthy, and to give this home stand a real crack hopefully with a couple of bodies back."

Adelaide coach Conner Henry was especially impressed by Sunday's win in Sydney to see the 36ers bring their strong form at home onto the road with them to come away with that crucial win.

"As we were getting Crock and Ice back and trying to manage our health, we knew what the challenge was that was laid out in front of us and we've talked about it. They know what's at stake here and there really isn’t a lot of pressure," Henry said.

"We talk about that and it's just about managing our health, and the guys like to play. They are sharing the basketball and the ball is moving better, our second efforts are better and now we've come on the road and won a very important game. Now we have to try and rest up and duplicate the effort."

The Sixers will continue to take the approach of simply focusing on the game in front of them because they just have no other choice.

Look too far ahead and drop the ball on what their immediate task is and suddenly they could shoot themselves in the foot and slip from the playoff hunt, so that's going to continue to be the way Henry approaches things.

"The only course we can take and belief that we have is that it's just a one-game series every night so we have to manage our emotions the best we can, manage our health as best we can and make sure know the scout, and know what our roles are," Henry said.

"I think our roles are pretty defined right now and that guys are comfortable in those roles, and when we get to outside those roles we adjust. Everyone's found their voice now and they are communicating well. 

"It's a one-game series now for us based on where we are coming from with injuries and our roster, and we aren’t feeling a lot of pressure. We've got a good nine man rotation right now so it's just about managing our health, and the type of effort that we put out there."

The Sixers are looking a different outfit defensively during this improved run of form too and part of that has been having more rim protection especially from Isaac Humphries and Keanu Pinder who combined for eight of the team's 10 blocks against the Kings.

"Having two guys who can protect the rim who are bouncy and have good timing gives us an opportunity to use our length out on the floor with Josh, BP, Crock, Church and Dill when he comes in," Henry said.

"When we contain the basketball in our pick and roll coverages, and when they get to the rim they have to encounter those two guys, we can get stops. And if we can get stops, we can flow into our offence. Ice was phenomenal again with his timing, staying down and staying down, and using that second jump right at the last second that the elite shot blockers have. 

"He's got that and he likes the challenge of guys coming at him, and he had a number of blocks on Martin tonight that were impressive and Keanu as well. It's certainly nice to have that rim protection."