Hawkeye - Illawarra Hawks v Brisbane Bullets R7 Preview

THE MUST KNOWS 

When: 5pm, Friday 26 February

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Broadcast: ESPN, SBS On Demand and Twitch

Last Time They Met: Illawarra 90 (Harvey 31, Ogilvy 14, Jessup 10) d Brisbane 82 (Sobey 24, Law 16, Johnson 11) - Round 2, January 21 2021

THE PRELUDE

The Hawks enter tonight's game with the Bullets searching for their third win in as many matchups with the South East Queensland outfit.

The two sides met earlier in the season - once in Cairns and once in Brisbane - with the Hawks taking both fixtures by an average of seven points.

The Bullets enter the game having lost three of their last four games all by double figures – by 16 vs Phoenix, 15 to Adelaide and by 13 to United. Their only win in that span was against the 36ers by a season high 19.

The Hawks come in full of confidence after a 14-point thrashing of the New Zealand Breakers - the side determined to seprate itself from the chasing pack of teams nipping at it's heels on the competition ladder.

Tyler Harvey’s 31-points scored against Brisbane in Round 2 remains their highest player score this season and the only time any player has scored 30 against the Bullets this season.

Nathan Sobey led the Bullets for scoring in both games against the Hawks with 19 and 24-points in the two fixtures.

Both former Bullet Cam Bairstow and Deng Adel missed the last game with Brisbane with injury but both are bringing form to this game with Bairstow scoring 17 and Adel 10 against the hapless Breakers.

Coach Brian Goorjian spoke about tonight's battle being more of a mental challenge than a physical one for his side.

"It's very difficult to beat a team three times in such a short brief period of time. There's a  mental side to this as well...there's the mentality and the approach to the game is just as important as the gameplan itself," Goojian said.

The Hawks enter the game with a full bill of health, while the Bullets Jason Cadee is under an injury cloud after a lower leg injury ended his night against the Phoenix last start.

THE FUN FACTS

Brisbane have not won this season with a score of less than 90-points (0 wins, 4 losses) and have 3-1 when scoring 90 or more. Another indicator is the turnovers. In every game Brisbane have coughed up ten turnovers this year they have lost (0-4)

Nathan Sobey starts this round second on the scorers averages at 23.3ppg. He had scored 20-pts in five straight games before that streak ended with 19 v Adelaide and 16 v Phoenix. Over the first six games he led the NBL in three-point attempts at 8.8 per game but shot just three and five attempts in his past two games.

The Bullets have been involved in the three biggest turnarounds this year and been on the wrong end twice led by the 32-point swing in their last game v Phoenix when they led by 16 and lost the game by 16.

Bullets first four games were decided by 8-points or less and the four games since were all 13-points or more.

The Hawks have connected on 16 made three’s in both their games at the NBL Cup so far with 16-from-30 v Breakers (53%) and 16-from-37 v Taipans (40.7%) in their past two games.

The last time they made 15 threes in consecutive games was back in December 2005.

Illawarra rank second in three-point shooting at 40.2% while Brisbane remain at the bottom on 28.8%. The last two seasons Brisbane have shot the three ball at 36.0% and 38.0%.

THE MATCH UPS

Brian Goorjian v Andrej Lemanis

This game is highlighted by the two coaches who are the only two man to have won three-peats in the NBL with Lemanis leading the Breakers to Championships in 2011, 2012 & 2013 and Goorjian with the Kings in 2003, 2004 & 2005.

Coaching head to head has been one way traffic with Goorjian 12 wins to Lemanis two wins. Lemanis won his only championship as a player under the coaching of Goorjian in 1992 for the Magic.

The Bullets coach said part of his gameplan in the opening two games of the season revolved around stopping Harvey and fellow back court bomber Jessup. It was mission accomplished on one front - with Jessup being well held in both matchups, but Harvey got loose for 23.5 per game and there is sure to be a renewed focus on the Hawks star import tonight.

Goorjian spoke about Lemanis' tactics during the week and said he expected a fired up Bullets outfit to step out tonight.

“They're a half court team, they like to play in the half court and Andrej runs good stuff. I thought game two there [when the Hawks faced the Bullets in Cairns in Round 2] we defended their system a lot better than we did in game one. Although we won both games I thoughy the second game they were really pumped up and got on top of us and I think we got on top of them in the half court and defended their half court well," Goojian said.

Sam Froling v Harry Froling

The Froling boys have gone head to head four times in their career.

Harry won both contests last year (with Adelaide) but Sam has evened the ledger with two wins this season - with the boys probably splitting the count in terms of individual honours.

Harry has grabbed 12 rebounds and 11 rebounds in both matchups with the Hawks (and brother Sam) but has only managed to pull down just 19 in total in the six games since.

Sam Froling had seven and four rebounds v the Bullets [amd Harry] in the first two games but since has averaged 8.7 per game over his last seven games since.

Sam is leading the Hawks in rebounding at eight per game to go with 10.9 points

THE SPOTLIGHT

AJ Ogilvy - The captain will lace them up for the Hawks for the 150^th tonight - and in doing so becomes the 12^th player to reach that milestone for the club.

AJ is ranked third all time in Hawks blocks with 204 only behind Melvin Thomas (317) and Glen Saville (423).

"All those milestones are nice and that but I think we're just concentrating on trying to get another win and trying to keep working towards our final aspirations. That's what's most important to me," Ogilvy said.

Ogilvy fondly recounting the moment he joined the club in 2015.

"Rob Beveridge ended up getting thejob with Illawarra and I was very close with him so he called and said, "am I available?" and it kind of went from there. We had a really good run those first couple of years. Semi final year, grand final year, got to play with some great players and play a lot of fun basketball. It was a really good time in my life," Ogilvy said.

THE QUOTES

AJ on his fondest Hawks memories...

"The semi final win in Adelaide to send us to the Perth series for the grand final was pretty big time. I remember Rhys Martin making the corner three that kind of pushed us over the edge in Adelaide there, that kind of stands out. A few of the wins we had with Kirk and Kev in that first year were pretty impresive, just watching those guys play, that grand final series in Perth...that kind of stings. But there's a lot of good things."

Brian Goorjian on Ogilvy's influence...

"I just think he's been exceptional with everything that's been thrown at him. A captain's role is to make sure everybody's ready to play. I said to him, "if you can do something for me so I dont have to win one for the gipper everytime I come into the locker room", make sure the guys are ready to play. Through this I keep talking about, it's not your normal task. There's a lot to this you know, touching guys in the hallway, having a meal here or there, seeing when a guys down and how he handles himself so they'll listen,"

On his selfless approach to leadership...

"A tremendous example was the Cairns game where I went with the small lineup and he played six minutes and he did some stuff with the group that was really special. Giving up his time for other guys to use the recovery stuff in advance of him because he didn't play a lot of minutes. There was no head dropping or sooking because he didn't get to play. It was all about team, he's our most epeirenced player, he's the most experienced guy from Wollongong. He's our leader, he's been exceptional there. It's my first year with him and I'm just really glad to have him by my side as a leader."