Hawks aim to end two-game skid against 36ers

The Illawarra Hawks will be desperate to end a two-game losing streak on Monday when they host the Adelaide 36ers at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

Prior to these two losses to Melbourne and Perth, the Hawks were leading the NBL in scoring at 92 points per game but in their last two games, have been restricted to an average of 81.

Despite these defeats, including dropping three of their past four, Illawarra remains in fourth spot with a 4-3 record, thanks to wins against Sydney (twice), Adelaide and New Zealand – all teams in the bottom four on the ladder. 

A big factor in the recent slump has been the scoring struggles of star point guard Tyler Harvey - who only led the team in scoring just once in NBL22 after leading the team 19 times last season.  

The American import, who finished as last season's MVP runner-up, has had two substandard shooting nights with 3-from-17 three-pointers in his last two games combined (17 per cent). 

During the Hawks' three losses, Harvey has averaged 9.6 ppg and shot at 26 per cent from the field (12 from 46) including four from 26 threes (15 per cent).

The Eastern Washington alum has never played in a winning team at the WIN Entertainment Centre when he scores less than 20-points (0-6) but when he scores 20 or more, the Hawks are 10-2 - highlighting his importance to Brian Goorjian's side.

Coincidentally, Adelaide, 3-4 this season, is the only team Harvey has not lost a game against while with Illawarra (5-0) - with the guard being injured during the 36ers' round 12 win against the Hawks last season.

The other Hawks star who will be keen to rebound in the scoring column will be Australian Boomer Duop Reath, who scored just six points against Perth on 2-11 shots.

Reath is now averaging just 10.2 ppg over his last four games after posting 22 ppg in his first three games including 18 on debut against Adelaide in round one.

As well as hoping for more scoring out of Harvey and Reath, the Hawks will need a better rebounding performance, being the only team that has never grabbed more boards than their opponents in any game so far. 

On the flip side, Adelaide is the only team that has won every rebounding battle this season. 

A large part of that has been the strong play of former Hawk Cam Bairstow (who is averaging career-best numbers in points (13.6) and rebounds (7.9)), Daniel Johnson, Isaac Humphries and Filipino sensation Kai Sotto - who impressed with six points and nine rebounds against United on Saturday.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s Battle of the Birds GAME DAY <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HawkHeads?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HawkHeads</a>!<br><br>Be at the <a href="https://twitter.com/WINSportsEnt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WINSportsEnt</a> from 7.30pm to see <a href="https://twitter.com/samfroling_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@samfroling_</a> &amp; our Hawks take on Filipino sensation Kai Sotto and his <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Adelaide36ers</a> ?<br><br>?: <a href="https://twitter.com/Ticketmaster_AU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ticketmaster_AU</a><br>?: <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreIllawarra?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreIllawarra</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FlyAsOne?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FlyAsOne</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL22?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL22</a> <a href="https://t.co/FhZc55yNO2">pic.twitter.com/FhZc55yNO2</a></p>&mdash; Illawarra Hawks Basketball (@illawarrahawks) <a href="https://twitter.com/illawarrahawks/status/1485373504245891073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The 36ers side also features another former Hawk in head coach CJ Bruton, with the round eight fixture marking his first at the WIN Entertainment Centre in the role.

Bruton played 58 games for the Hawks in 1999 and 2000 where he led the team in scoring both years, which were the first two years the Hawks played at the ‘Sandpit’.

He averaged 20.8ppg in 1999 (where he was also club MVP) and 22.1ppg in 2000.

Those two years were the highest scoring averages that Bruton scored in his 17-year NBL career as a player. 

While Bruton is still in his first season, this is his counterpart and former mentor Goorjian's 23rd in the league as coach.

During that time, Goorjian has won more games against Adelaide than any other club as a coach (55 wins from 81 games = 68 per cent win clip).

"After two straight home defeats, we're now starting to play for our season," said Goorjian, who has never lost three straight games at Hawks coach.

"You can't dump two at home, and there's pressure on us to make the top four.

"We've just got to dig deep now and get these wins as we go through our process."

The Batte of the Birds fixture will also present the opportunity for club stalwart Tim Coenraad to enter the Hawks' record books.

The forward requires one more three-pointer to reach the 400-mark in his NBL, becoming just the fourth Hawk to do so behind Mat Campbell (1049), Glen Saville (680) and Oscar Forman (464).

Tickets for the game are available via Ticketmaster.