Hawkeye - Illawarra Hawks v NZ Breakers R18 Preview

THE MUST KNOWS 

When: 8pm AEST, Saturday 15 May

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre

Broadcast: ESPN, SBS On Demand and Twitch

Past meetings:

Round 6 at John Cain Arena: Hawks 102 def Breakers 88
Round 16 at Silverdome, Launceston: Hawks 75 def Breakers 67

THE PRELUDE

It's been a long and arduous campaign for our Trans-Tasman cousins and tonight they will play their final game in Australia after a marathon 29 games and more than four months on the road.

For the Hawks, it will either be an opportune time to feast on a team tired, weary and homesick, or they'll run into a side determined to finish their Aussie stay on a high note, buoyed by the fact they will be on the plane home first thing Sunday morning for the first time in 2021.

Illawarra will play six of the side's last eight matches at the WIN Entertainment Centre where they are 4-4 so far this season. 

New Zealand is the only team that has not beaten the Hawks at least once this season but the Breakers have won their past three game against the Hawks in Wollongong and four of their last five.

The Breakers are three wins and 13 losses in true ‘away’ games this season having only won in Brisbane, Cairns and Perth.

These teams will play again in New Zealand in Round 20.

THE FUN FACTS

Brian Goorjian has coached against the Breakers 20 times in his career for 17 wins and three losses. His last loss at home to the Kiwis was for the Sydney Kings in January 2006. He is 10 wins & one loss against New Zealand in Australia.

Illawarra has scored 71, 75, 75, 76 and 69 in their past five games to be the league’s lowest scoring team at 73.2 over that span.  

Over the last five rounds, Illawarra is shooting a league worst 40.6% from the field and 26.5% from long range.

These teams are almost identical in scoring this year with Hawks scoring 2293 points at 81.9 and the Breakers 2289 points at 81.8.

The Breakers foul the most in the NBL at 19.3 per game while the Hawks foul the least at 15.0 per game.

This will be Tai Webster’s first game at the Sandpit and brother Corey’s first game since February 2019 before he missed both visits last season.

This will be Tai’s last opportunity to give away Hungry Jacks cheeseburgers as he is the League leader with six servings this year. No other player in the NBL has given them away more than twice.

THE MATCH UP

Sam Froling v Finn Delany

Finn Delany posted 32-points on Wednesday night which is one short of his career high 33.

Delany has scored 30-points three times this season and all were at John Cain Arena, but he is averaging less against the Hawks than any other team (9.0ppg) with scores of just 11 and 7 while going 7/21 from the field at 33%.

The Kiwi captain has revelled on the road this season and his combination of reliable outside shooting and strong inside game will ensure he's a handful for a Hawks side down on big men.

One guy he'll have to overcome tonight is the ever-improving Sam Froling.

The sophomore sensation is edging closer towards averaging a double double this season (10.6ppg and 7rpg) and with Cam Bairstow ruled out for the remainder of the season earlier this week, he will get all the work he can handle over the final few weeks of the season.

Coach Brian Goorjian has lumped praise on Froling on several occasions since training camp, and with the Queensland product continuing to improve his long range shooting, rim protection and post game, we could see a few big breakout games as we edge towards the playoffs.

THE SPOTLIGHT

Tyler Harvey - the magic number for Harvey is 25, and by that we mean whenever the Illawarra point guard scores 25-points or more, the Hawks are undefeated from six games.

Harvey torched the Breakers last time these teams met, scoring 29-points after dropping 21 in the first half alone. The American native has led the Hawks in scoring a whopping 14 times this season including both games against New Zealand where he averages 25.5ppg.

Such has been his dominance against the Breakers, Harvey averages more against New Zealand than any other player in the league.

Harvey sits inside the top 10 in the league for minutes played at a tick over 32 per contest,  but as the Hawks schedule has lightened up a bit over the past few weeks, Harvey enters this one having only played once in the past 12 days.