Championship mentality on show  

He’s a triple-double threat every time he takes the floor, but it was the late poise of Illawarra star Tey Kell that got the Hawks home in their Christmas Day showdown against the Kings. 

After trailing for much of the opening half the Hawks looked home and hosed when leading by 13 with eight minutes left, only for a spirited Kings comeback to make it a one-point ball game with 2.33 on the clock. 

Enter Kell, who came up the floor on a must-score possession and forced his sixth trip to the line for the game. He cooly went 2-2 (7-7 on the evening) before burying a three next time up the floor for a four-point cushion. It made the climb too steep for the Kings and saw the Hawks hold on 111-108. 

It came just days after Justin Tatum labelled Kell and captain Tyler Harvey the best back court in the NBL and, despite neither notching a point in the opening term, they’re doing little to embarrass their coach. 

Harvey had 17 points in the second term after his side trailed by 10 in the first quarter, with Kell drawing the Hawks level with a buzzer-beating triple that squared the ledger at 58 apiece on the stroke of halftime. 

Kell finished with 26 points, eight assists and six rebounds, with his ability to grab his scores from deep, mid-range, with both feet in the paint, and from the foul-line, a headache for which rival coaches appear yet to discover a remedy.

Harvey had 22 points and four dimes on a night the Hawks had 25 assists on 35 field goals, while Sam Froling also had three shrewd assists to go with his 14 points and six rebounds.  

It was the Hawks fifth straight win over the Kings, with Tatum yet to lose a game the Hawks fiercest rival, while the 3-0 run through this year sealed the Freeway Series with a game still to play.  

Championship mentality on show  

Beating Melbourne United, Perth (twice) and Sydney, three of those four wins coming on the road, is no way to go under the radar. Tatum’s making no attempt to, challenging his team at three-quarter-time to show its championship bona fides to get home. 

It did just that and, while the opposition and manner would be blistering at any time of the season, with the schedule tightening heading toward New Years’ Eve, shrugging off fatigue to get it done against an arch-rival on their floor was all the more impressive. 

“It was a game that showed us our grit,” Tatum said. 

“If we want to become a championship team, this is the type of game we needed to win. “Not because it’s the Sydney Kings, not because it’s on Christmas Day, but mainly because we played a couple of nights before, we know what was at stake with this game trying to get the Freeway Series back down to the ‘Gong, and at the end of the day we’ve got to fight through with resilience. 

“You see some of my guy's missing layups, or a foul prone first quarter ... we talked about, ‘hey, these are the type of things we’ve got to fight through to become a championship team’, and we did pretty well.” 

Bench big for Tatum in gruelling run 

A short turnaround from Sunday’s big win over Perth, which followed a stretch on the road, looked to have an impact in the Hawks sluggish start, particularly that of the big guns scoreless in the opening term. 

Kell and Harvey showed their class as the contest progressed, but Tatum got some valuable contributions from his second unit. 

Will Hickey provided a timely reminder of his Sixth Man of the Year claims with 12 points five assists and four rebounds. Tatum also extracted some value from import big Darius Days. 

Fully unlocking the multi-tooled big man shapes as the final piece of the puzzle for Tatum, but shifting him to the bench has paid off in ways perhaps not immediately discernible. 

Foul trouble continues to be an issue, the 25-year-old fouling out with seven minutes left. It made his 10 points and five rebounds in little more than 15 minutes an efficient use of time, while he also led all Hawks in the +/- stakes at +23. 

“It was probably just [trying to] get different bodies in,” Tatum said. 

“Once I see Trey missing lay-ups and Tyler can't get nothing going, I'm like ‘man my guys’ legs are pretty much down, let me find somebody else to give a flow’. 

“That's when Lee came out and made a shot here and there, Davo (Hickey) got out and put pressure on the rim. That was me just trying to find a way. 

“I told guys that ‘your minutes might be short a little bit because I know we just got done playing, so it played out that our bench came in to help us out a lot.”  

Hawks halfway through not-so-festive period 

The managing of his stars’ minutes while still getting the job done was a major plus for Tatum midway through a brutal stretch of games. 

After knocking off Perth in Wollongong, the Hawks faced a quick turn into the Kings clash and even shorter into Friday’s road showdown with Brisbane. Beyond that they’ll return to the WEC for the traditional New Years’ Eve clash with South East Melbourne. 

“They're pros,” Tatum said.  

“We talked about it in [the locker room], do what you need to do to be prepared. I'll make sure that I can handle what I can handle, but when that ball goes up in Brisbane, I want to see the same team, no excuses.”