Catch up on Monday Nights clash against the Brisbane Bullets

A Monday night game against a Brisbane outfit so decimated perhaps even assistant coach Darryl McDonald thought of suiting up would not seem to offer much of a test for the league-leading Hawks. 

That may have been the case were it not for their tendency to ‘play down’ to lowly opposition this season. It made the 121-87 win over the Bullets hugely satisfying for coach Justin Tatum, and a victory that epitomised the selfless mentality he has driven since taking the reins. 

“I'll take a lot [out of it], one, we were up for the challenge because we’ve let a lot of wounded teams that hadn't had all their players come to our gym and find a way to beat us, or compete in our gym,” Tatum said. 

“The sense of urgency was one thing that we wanted to make sure we played with today knowing that Brisbane was back against the wall with injuries et cetera. 

“At the end of the day, their players would come out and still have some fight because they're professionals.  We wanted to take anything that they felt but they wanted to do out early. That sense of urgency was really good for me.” 

This was a clinic in team-first basketball, and no small thing given the number of elite scorers that feature on the Hawks roster. With the smell of blood in the water, the likes of Trey Kell or Tyler Harvey could have gone out to get theirs. 

Instead, they finished with just 15 points on the evening – but the star duo had 12 assists between them by halftime. By the final buzzer they’d tallied a combined 18 dimes and the Hawks had set a new 40-minute era benchmark of 37 assists on their 52 field goals. 

Will Hickey had seven of them from the bench on a night the second unit contributed 58 points. In the starting group, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk and Mason Peatling had season-high 16 and 15 points respectively. 

Sam Froling (17), Lachlan Olbrich (14) and HJ Lee (12) were all in double figures on a night 11 of the 12 Hawks who took the floor got on the scoresheet. It left Tatum pleased to see his team take some value out of what could have been a mere box-ticking effort. 

 “It's satisfying because I feel that they can trust each other more than they did before we had 37 assists,” Tatum said. 

“I know Brisbane would’ve loved to play better defence, but we were getting those type of shots and the unselfishness of these guys seeing guys who were open to make that pass and trust their teammates, and then reciprocate it down the back end. 

“For us to have 37 assists and two of my top players barely score double figures, Tyler with 10 and Trey with five points, but 11 assists and seven assists from those guys … that's just what this team is about. 

“Trey and Tyler and everybody else are really unselfish players, but when they got a chance to see the breakdowns early and see how their impact on the game could be more than scoring the ball, it was just a beautiful thing.” 

Tatum’s comments about a sense of urgency were a clear throwback to a round 15 home loss to last-placed Cairns, one that saw the Taipans snap a 15-game losing streak in the biggest upset of the season. 

It seems fitting that the follow-up to Monday’s showing comes against the Taipans in Cairns on Thursday, with Tatum saying his team can’t afford a letdown.  

“My job as a coach is to make sure that there's not, but as players they’ve got to still show up and play,” Tatum said. 

“As a staff, we're going to do everything that we can to push them and make sure [they’re ready]. They know there’s a bitter taste in the back of their mouth [given] how Cairns came in and beat us in our own place. 

“We just want to go out there and hopefully do the same thing that we did with Brisbane, play hard, set the tone early, and play unselfish basketball. It's not about Cairns right now, it's really about us for the next four games.” 

The impressive nature of the win meant a hamstring injury that kept Darius Days to just 1.48 on the floor was largely glossed over, but Tatum said he won’t be taking any risks with his bench X factor over the remainder of the regular season. 

“Unfortunately, [it’s] a hamstring injury,’ Tatum said. 

“It’s just tightness right now. We’ll get a scan in the morning and see if there's anything to it, but right now it's tightness and we’re just taking precautionary [measures].”