Hawks' road heavy schedule tips-off against Breakers

Fresh off a home-heavy February, in which the Illawarra Hawks went 3-2, Brian Goorjians side will hit the road to keep their top-four hopes alive.

First up is a trip to Hobart to take on the New Zealand Breakers - a fixture the Hawks are keen to overturn following their 90-67 loss to the opponent on February 2 at MyState Bank Arena.

A win by Goorjian’s troops would move them back into the top four above the Sydney Kings, while a victory by the Breakers will slide them ahead of Cairns on the table.

Heading into Tuesday’s round 13 fixture (which is the third and final time the teams will lock horns in NBL22), both sides have won four of their past eight matches - with the teams splitting the all-time match-up 34-34, as well as this season’s games 1-1.

The Hawks, who will be without Boomers' Emmett Naar and Akoldah Gak, won the first match 96-95 in double-overtime in round three, before New Zealand recorded a season-high 23-point win (90-67) in round 10.

The latter was the only time the Hawks had been behind by 20 points in any game – being behind by 24 (41-65) in third quarter. 

The Breakers, who have gone loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss through their past nine matches,  have only scored 90 points twice this season and both have been against the Hawks,

The Breakers' average margin this season is minus 9.3 per game which is their lowest in franchise history. 

Only three players have scored 20 points twice against the Hawks this season in Bryce Cotton, Vic Law and Yanni Wetzell. 

Wetzell is averaging 23.5 points at 68 per cent from the field and 12.5 rebounds against Illawarra which is his best against any team he has played multiple times. 

Unfortunately for the Breakers, Wetzell (back spasms) is one of four players that will miss Tuesday’s game, along with Rob Loe (Tall Blacks), Will McDowell-White (delayed on-set concussion symptoms) and Ousmane Dieng (wrist).

On the flip side, Tyler Harvey averages 21.5ppg against the Breakers which is his highest against any opponent.  

Harvey has not scored more than 12 points in his past four games shooting 15-from-45 from the field (33 per cent) including 5-from-22 threes (22 per cent). 

Duop Reath has led the Hawks in scoring in their last four games in a row at 19.3 points per game with eight boards per outing. 

Over that span, Reath has shot 6-from-13 threes at 46 per cent.  

Brian Goorjian has coached against New Zealand 24 times for 20 wins and four losses.

He has won seven straight season series against the Breakers and never lost consecutive games – both records will be broken if the Hawks lose this game.  

In their last 11 games to play after this one, Illawarra still has the Kings twice, the Phoenix twice, United twice as well as a trip to Perth of the teams in the top four before this game.

They also have two more against Tasmania and Brisbane. 

The game will be broadcast live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel from 7.30pm AEDT Tuesday.