Hawks eye bounce back performance against Phoenix

The Illawarra Hawks are eyeing a return to form on Monday when they host the South East Melbourne Phoenix at the WIN Entertainment Centre.

A win for the Hawks will keep them in fourth place but a loss will have them drop to fifth, with the Tasmania JackJumpers leapfrogging them into fourth.

This is the final game of round 10 and in the last four seasons, the teams in the top four at this point have been the ones that have played in the playoffs.

Funnily enough, if the Hawks win this game, the ladder will be exactly the same order as it was at the end of round 10 in NBL21.

Monday's visitors, who are currently dealing with some COVID issues, have won six of the seven fixtures between the two sides - with the Hawks taking out the last fixture 82-80 at Wollongong in round 13 last season, after coming from 17 points down thanks to 48 points combined from guards Tyler Harvey and Justinian Jessup.

Both of NBL21's semi-finalists come into the showdown on the back of their heavy defeats of the campaign, losing to New Zealand and Perth by 23 and 22 points respectively.

For the Hawks, it was the first game this season they had trailed by more than 20 points, thanks largely due to a season-high 15 turnovers.

Another issue for Brian Goorjian's troops was the bench scoring, with Xavier Rathan-Mayes (nine points) being the only player to record a point in Hobart against the Breakers.

Goorjian made note of the lack of free throws for his team, with their opponents taking more shots from the charity stripe than the Hawks in 10 of their 11 games - equating to 72 extra shots over the season.  

Despite their best efforts, the Hawks have lost three of their past four home games to Perth (twice) and United - meaning they are the only team that has not yet beaten a team in the top half (five teams) as the ladder stands before this game. 

Harvey still is the barometer for the Hawks - when he makes three or more three-pointers, the Hawks are 6-1 but when he makes two or less, they are 0-4.  

A match-up to watch on the night will be between Australian Boomer Reath and Chinese star Zhou Qi, 11.29 points, 6.86 rebounds and a league-leading 3.14 blocks.

The game, tipping off at 7.30pm AEDT, will mark Jessup's 50 with the Hawks.

Tickets for the game are available via Ticketmaster, with the game also broadcast live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel.