R20 Preview: Illawarra Hawks v Adelaide 36ers

When: 3.00pm (AEST), Sunday 30 May

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

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

The last time
Illawarra 81 (Froling 19, Harvey 18, White 16) d Adelaide 73 (Dillon 17, Johnson 13, Teys 10) – Round 19, Adelaide Entertainment Centre

The last meeting between the Hawks and 36ers was only nine days ago back in Adelaide in a second last home game of the season for the Sixers with Illawarra coming away with the important win to strengthen their finals prospects.

The strong crowd of 6090 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre was looking forward to their home team returning home and building on their last four double-figure wins in front of them even if playoffs were out of reach.

Josh Giddey was with the team despite now having played his last game for Adelaide as he ramps up preparations for the NBA Draft and he was joined by big man Isaac Humphries who is done for the season too, and the Sixers played like a team devoid of spirit or hope in the first half.

The Hawks just blew them away with a stunning 18-0 run to close the first quarter after a scorching Brian Goorjian timeout spray. They also finished the second term with 10 straight points and led by as much as 26 at one point.

Sam Froling continues to shine in the league, as the 21-year-old had 12 of his 19 points in the first half when the game was there to be won. Deng Deng complemented Froling well at the forward spot, contributing 10 for the match and adding seven rebounds. 

The 50-28 half-time lead was an intimidating one. And if the 36ers wanted to reward their loyal home fans for their support, they had to find something. Adelaide did manage to win the third-quarter, albeit by a single point (18-17) and still staring down a 21-point deficit going into the fourth quarter. 

It was 35-year-old point guard Daniel Dillon who delivered a lone four quarter effort for Adelaide starting in place of Giddey. The 2008 championship winner under Goorjian at the South Dragons finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

 

The now

The Illawarra Hawks just simply have to win this game if they want to take part in the finals but the Adelaide 36ers still have plenty of talent and with no expectations or pressure, they won't be easy to push over.

The Hawks have been able to put themselves in a prime position to reach the playoffs now currently holding an 18-15 record to sit in fourth position but to also be only percentage now behind the South East Melbourne Phoenix in third too.

Quite simply if the Hawks keep winning they can't miss the finals and their last three games see them play Adelaide, Perth and Sydney all on their home floor at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

Having destiny in their own hands on their own home floor is a good place to be in for Brian Goorjian's men as he looks to continue his remarkable run of taking every single team to the playoffs that he's coached for a season in the NBL.

It has still been a bit of a rollercoaster year for the Hawks and the expected reliance on Deng Adel and Cam Bairstow never eventuated, and Next Star Justinian Jessup has been up and down with his scoring and shooting punch. 

But imports Tyler Harvey and Justin Simon have cemented themselves among the best offensive and defensive weapons in the league while AJ Ogilvy, Sam Froling and Deng Deng are doing well down low, and Isaac White, Emmett Naar, Daniel Grida and now the out of retirement Tim Coenraad are playing their roles well. 

The Hawks just have no option other than to win this game or the door stays ajar for the Kings who they play on Thursday.

As for the 36ers, they slipped out of the playoff race when they lost both in Wollongong and in Adelaide to the Hawks over the last two weeks, and now they are also without Next Star point guard Josh Giddey and imposing centre Isaac Humphries for the rest of the season.

But as the Phoenix found out on Friday night in Cairns, a team with nothing to lose can be dangerous for a team under pressure needing to win and the Hawks can't afford to take the 36ers lightly on Sunday in the 'Gong.

It's still an Adelaide team with plenty of talent and with the scoring power of Daniel Johnson, Brandon Paul and Tony Crocker, they can still put up plenty of points and with Daniel Dillon running the offence and Sunday Dech playing his defence up against his former Hawks team, then the 36ers would love nothing more than to snap their losing run on Sunday and make reaching the playoffs that much more challenging for the Hawks in the process.

 

The stats

- The Hawks must win at least two of their home games this week against Adelaide, Perth and Sydney to guarantee a finals appearance 

- Illawarra comes into the game as the most in-form team in the competition having won six of its last seven matches. Adelaide, meanwhile, has lost five of its last six to fall from finals contention.

- The 36ers were averaging 85.0 points a game in their first 29 matches this season but over the last five matches that has dropped to 71.6. The Sixers have not scored more than 76 points in their last three games and shot just 28 per cent from the three-point line.

- Daniel Dillon is averaging 16.6 points and 5.6 assists since taking over point guard duties from Josh Giddey for the 36ers. He is familiar with Hawks coach Brian Goorjian with the pair winning a championship together at the South Dragons in 2008.

 

The key men

Tyler Harvey – He has been in scintillating form of late for the Hawks and he is the one offensive weapon that can take Illawarra a long way still in #NBL21. He has scored 25 or more points in seven games this season with the Hawks winning all of them, and the only loss Illawarra suffered to Adelaide was without him. Against the 36ers he is averaging 21.7 points and 6.3 assists while shooting 47 per cent from three-point range. He is coming off being the only player to have five steals and knock down five three-pointers in a game this season on Friday night against the Breakers.

Brandon Paul – He remains somewhat of an untapped potential weapon for the 36ers. There are times he looks tremendous and unstoppable, and like he can be a game-winning force for the Sixers but it just hasn’t translated consistently yet. If he wants to be offered a contract to return to the 36ers next season, he's got two more chances on the floor to plead his case and he needs to do more than his previous three games against Illawarra where he has managed a total of 23 points while shooting 28 per cent from the field while going 5/22 from three-point territory and not getting to the foul line once.

 

The quotes

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian wants nothing short of three full houses at the WIN Entertainment Centre this week to cheer Illawarra into the #NBL21 finals starting Sunday against the 36ers.

"At this point in my career I've been thinking a lot about my job personally and what I'm supposed to be doing here, and really you start with when you get here, you want the name back. Then we want games of importance in this first year that you play in, and that's up to the players," Goorjian said.

"Then I feel like the third aspect to this is the stadium and the support of the community. This place can be really special and you hear it. These last three home games at home, we've got to get this stadium filled. They keep talking about triple-doubles and the triple-double for me is three games, double the crowd and let's get this place full. 

"I've been saying it all year and these kids are going to play their arses off and make the community proud, and we've laid the table. My job is to promote and if I can't get this stadium going and the place filled for the last three games I'm going to be disappointed in myself. I'm talking to Wollongong and the community, let's go. 

"I don’t care about the Red Army or anybody else, this is the 'Gong and these guys have set the table so let's make this place rock the last three games and I want some fantastic memories towards the end of my career. 

"I'm really proud of what the players have been doing and I'm thinking about these last three games in the 'Gong, and it's why me personally I came here and I'm proud to put t his team on display. We are going to claw, fight, dive, scrap and leave it all out there, and I'm so excited for the finish to the season."

Rookie Illawarra guard Isaac White also can't wait to now get back in front of the home fans in Wollongong and try to secure that finals spot for the Hawks.

"It's really exciting. It's something we have been kind of aiming for the entirety of the year is to control our own destiny, that's what we want going down the stretch," White said.

"I think for a while there we were chasing trying to get the feeling right within the group, but now it's in the back of our heads that we know it's crunch time and we need the results. 

"We're excited to go home and play in front of what we are hoping will be almost a full house and every game we are playing for our lives. We'll bring our intensity to it on Sunday and go from there. We're happy that we are in control of all of this ourselves by winning games and we are confident."

Sixers coach Conner Henry will continue to back in his group to turn up and fight hard the rest of the season, and if they can cause an upset along the way they certainly won't complain.

"We keep showing up and we keep putting together a pretty hard effort with out depleted roster. We have to go deep into our bench now even though I relied on our first seven or eight guys in that last game," Henry said.

"We'll continue to fight and we've got two games left. We'll rest up and go to Illawarra where we can just try and be spoilers in this. We came in with a mentality of let's play for ourselves and for our teammates, and put a good effort out on the floor, and we'll continue to do that."

Henry would like to get a little more production from his imports Tony Crocker and Brandon Paul to close out the season especially in the absence of Josh Giddey and Isaac Humphries, but it's not just up to those two to make that happen – it has to be a team effort.

"Our imports go 7/20 and 3/11 from threes, and we're trying to get them looks. Good teams are focused on not letting them get quick looks off of threes so some of our threes are contested, and they are bottling up the paint any time they are getting downhill and making them finish," Henry said. 

"The focus for a lot of teams is to take Tony and Brandon out of our offence, and make Dill and other guys make shots or play the pick-and-roll a certain way and staying home on the shooters and scorers. We are trying to get them going and get them as many minutes as they can physically handle, but they are going to play 30-plus minutes as much as we possibly can. We're trying to get them a few easier looks to make it less work for them."

Since Giddey was shut down for the season in preparation of the NBA Draft, Sixers 35-year-old veteran Daniel Dillon has been handed the keys to run the offence and Henry couldn’t be happier with what he's got from him.

"Dill has been playing well for us ever since he's been backing up Josh throughout the season, and now as he's moved into the starting line-up. One thing about Dan that I keep impressing upon is that he keeps pushing the basketball because we're a team that doesn’t get a lot of easy baskets," Henry said.

"We're trying to get out and run a little bit more, and Dan's the only guy who can really push us and everybody needs to be dragged along with that. They were impressive minutes again and he was able to get to the foul line a few times, getting on the rim and made some shots from the outside. 

"I thought his overall effort was fantastic and you look at his numbers and he's 9/12, he's got 22 points, six assists and zero turnovers in 34 and-a-half minutes. He took care of the rock, tried to get us into our system and was able to get on the rim and push the ball."

Adelaide captain and now starting point guard Daniel Dillon is enjoying the increased role and is just doing whatever he can that's best for the team whether it's looking to score himself or to set up his teammates.

"It has been a while since I played 35 minutes but I was just trying to push the ball and the tempo," Dillon said. 

"The way they were playing the pick, it allowed me to get in the paint and I was trying to distribute the ball a bit but most of the guys were denying Crock and BP so it kind of opened up the gap for me to get the basket. 

"I was able to either get to the free-throw line or take it to the rim from there. I was just trying to take advantage of my minutes when I was out there by playing hard, be that guy who was rotating off my defender and doing what I could on defence, and push it in the transition. That's what I tried to do."