Hot Toddy shines at the pointy end  

Could that loss to Cairns cost the Hawks top spot on the ladder? 

It’s the question everyone was asking three weeks ago when the last-placed Taipans stunned Illawarra in Wollongong.  

The Hawks appeared to have found an answer in the performances that followed, but Justin Tatum’s team is wrestling with a painful sense of déjà vu after suffering a second loss – 100-94 – to the cellar dwellers in less than a month on Thursday night. 

In a first half where defence seemed optional, the Hawks allowed the Snakes to run up their biggest quarter-time, and halftime score of the year, which saw them lead by 17 at the break. That margin ballooned to 22 early in the third term. 

Tatum made no secret of his disdain for the effort of his starting group, benching it almost entirely in the third quarter.  Trey Kell (18.39) played his lowest minutes of the season barring an injury-forced early night against Melbourne in October, while Sam Froling’s 15.08 on the floor was also his lowest of the season.  

Both were re-injected to start the fourth but were subbed out less than three minutes in without returning. The second unit repaid their coach, cutting the 22-point deficit to just seven at three-quarter-time on the back of a 23-8 scoring run.  

Skipper Tyler Harvey made better use of his final-quarter reprieve with 10 of his 17 points coming in the final stanza as the Hawks levelled up at 82 apiece with 5.42 on the clock.  

It proved too late, the hosts steadying to see out a deserved win and leave the Hawks facing a wake-up call after seemingly failing to heed the first at the hands of the Taipans. 

One imagines that most of the straight talking – or “putting a foot up each other’s butts” as club legend Damon Lowery put it on the call – will take place among the starting group. Harvey suggested that will be the case. 

“It’s on me, I’ve got to get the starting five going,” Harvey said. 

“It's not the coaching staff, it's not our bench, it's on me to get those guys going early on in the game and just to realise how important the start is.  

“The game will flow off how we start, and I didn't do a good job of getting us ready for that. The coaches did. It won't happen again. [The bench] did their job, we didn't do our job as starters, so we'll take care of it.”  

Hot Toddy shines at the pointy end  

The veteran sharpshooter has played sparing minutes for most of the season, but with Darius Days out for the remainder of the regular season with a hamstring injury, Tatum had a void to fill in the stretch-four spot. 

Blanchfield delivered with 17 points at 5-9 from three, including a run of 5-6 to get his side back within striking distance. It showed he still has the ability to take hold of games, and it may be the major boost Tatum can take out of the fact he’ll be without import big Darius Days for the remainder of the season.  

The Hawks were ultimately +9 with Blanchfield on the floor, while they were +11 through Will Hickey’s time, which ended with a foul-out and a tally of 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists. 

The latter stat stood out among a combined 12 assists for the game just four days after sharing a record 37 dimes against Brisbane. There were silver linings in the bench’s grit, but Tatum wasn’t all that keen to discuss them in his shortest post-game presser for the year. 

“Todd shot the ball well. That's what he does,” Tatum said. 

“He hit some shots keep us in the game. I was thankful for him to make some shots.  

“My bench competed, they always have. Our first five have to start the game better, but our bench competed and we’re proud of them. 

“Our bench guys know what to do, they're going to get opportunities to play, our team just has to play better. There's no individual, no matter that Darius is out, no matter what, our team has to play better.”  

The Hawks will have seven days to ponder the effort before heading to Tasmania to take on a JackJumpers outfit playing for its post-season life, and then across the ditch to face a New Zealand team with as little to lose as the Taipans had on Thursday. 

The eventual ride could set up a mouth-watering final-round clash with the Kings in Wollongong in the final game of the Hawks regular season, one that could see stop spot go on the line.  

“I think everyone's disappointed at this stage [after] all that we've worked for to get to this point, but it's been a roller coaster of a year for us,” Harvey said. 

“Every loss we've taken, we've gotten better. You’ve got to win these kind of games, but they played better tonight, they got the win. Of course it's disappointing but the ball’s still in our hands.  

“We’ve got three more games, so that's all we can do. I think collectively as a group, we just all have to look at ourselves in the mirror, figure out how we want this season to end and go from there.”