COVID adversity builds Hawks' resiliency ahead of finals charge

It's fair to say we've got pretty used to rolling with COVID punches over the last two seasons.

Still, losing a coach like Brian Goorjian days out from a crucial road game like we did this week was a suckerpunch we didn't see coming. 

It's far from ideal at any point of the season but, when you're fighting for your life at the pointy end of a finals race, it can be a really big blow.

Initially, we thought Goorj might be able to fly in the morning of the game and coach us. Things didn't quite work out that way but the group has so much respect for Jacob Jackomas.

He's been with Goorj for a long time and knows his system so well. It was just a matter of Goorj stepping aside and Jacob stepping into that role.

He did a really good job of making sure it wasn't about him. There was naturally some talk in the media about this being his big shot and his chance to prove himself.

He nipped that in the bud from the start and made a real point of saying 'this isn't about me, this is about our team, this is about us winning games and making the finals'.

Without Goorj there, he emphasised that we had to take a bit more ownership of what's happening individually, but that wasn't a stretch for this group.

In teams I've been a part of in the past it could have gone a little bit awry, but we've got a team of guys who are extremely professional and have a singular focus on making the finals.

Everyone's focused on that goal and trying to make our team the best it can be.

We didn't need Goorj there to motivate us or make sure we were locked in. We knew what was on the line.

We'd take any win against Melbourne United, I think any team in this league would, but to do it under the circumstances and with the stakes as high as they are was exceptional. 

I think we've really found our style of basketball over the last eight weeks. There was a lot of criticism of our defence early on but I haven't heard much of it lately.

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When we're locked in defensively, teams struggle to score against us and we're pretty hard to stop when we get downhill offensively. 

I think we've really turned a corner and there's been a lot of praise for how we're playing at that end. That's a credit to Goorj more than anyone else.

His teams have always been strong defensively and it's what we built our finals platform on last season.

We were letting ourselves down in that area and Goorj was pretty frank about that. He showed us plenty of video and was pretty clear in his assessment.

He said 'look, if you guys want to keep playing like this you can, but you're not going to get anything done this year'. He was right.

We were letting teams put up numbers on us and just hoping we'd score more points than them. That's no way to win basketball games - especially the ones that matter down the stretch.

We dropped a few at home that we shouldn't have, but we've put a few together on this little run of away games.

It's been a good turnaround but we're determined to bring that brand of basketball back to our home floor on Thursday.

Brisbane is a dangerous team, they've got nothing to lose and they can come out and play freely.

That's when the Bullets are at their best and if you let them get out and shoot the ball and give them open looks they're a tough team to beat.

We need to really lock in and make sure their shooters don't get hot because if we do they become a real handful and a difficult team to put away. 

It's been another strange season schedule-wise. We had a bunch of home games back to back to back in a way I don't think any of us have really experienced.

It can leave you a bit stale coming into the same environment over and over again.

I think it showed but, having been away for a while now, getting back to the WEC gives us the boost you normally get on your home floor.

It's really important that our fans get out and support us so we can take advantage of these last two home games of the season.

Hopefully, we see a packed WEC on Thursday night.