R13 Preview: Illawarra Hawks v Brisbane Bullets

When: 7.30pm (AEST), Wednesday 7 April 

Where: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong 

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time

Illawarra 96 (Harvey 28, Bairstow 12, Naar 11, Adel 11) d Brisbane 72 (Cadee 17, Froling 12, Krebs 11, Sobey 11) – Round 11, WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong

The now

These are interesting times for both the Illawarra Hawks and Brisbane Bullets as they prepare to open Round 13 in the NBL on Wednesday night in the 'Gong.

The Hawks come into the clash having slipped to a 10-10 record having lost their past two matches while the Bullets have struck a horror run of injury which has helped result in three consecutive losses and them now holding a 9-10 record.

Not only have the Hawks lost their past two games to South East Melbourne by 32 points and then Adelaide by 12, but since the conclusion of the NBL Cup the Hawks have lost four of their last five, and there remains doubt over the availability of Cam Bairstow and Tyler Harvey for Wednesday's home clash with the Bullets.

The Hawks have struggled to look the same offensive threat these last two games without Harvey running the point and nor have they had that go to presence in the block without Bairstow, so with or without them on Wednesday night they will look to see an improvement in their offensive flow having just scored 63 and 72 points in those previous two matches.

Meanwhile, the Bullets have been without imports Vic Law and Lamar Patterson the past three matches before Tanner Krebs and Anthony Drmic joined them as outs for Saturday's 19-point defeat at the hands of the Sydney Kings.

The result has been three consecutive losses now since the NBL Cup and that was after a period of form in Melbourne where the Bullets were just about the form team of the competition having gone through a run of winning five of six games, including against Perth and Melbourne, and indeed the Hawks.

But the loss of the all-round talents of Law and still awaiting the fitness of Patterson who has replaced Orlando Johnson has been a challenge. Brisbane has still fought valiantly but it has proven too much to overcome against the Breakers, Hawks and Kings. They will be hopeful, however, that Patterson, Krebs and Drmic will all be available to take on the Hawks in Wollongong on Wednesday night.

The stats

- This will be the fifth and final meeting between the Hawks and Bullets this season. Illawarra won the first two games up in Brisbane before the Bullets got one back inside the NBL Cup in Melbourne, but last Monday night saw the Hawks hammer Brisbane 96-72 so they are 3-0 outside the NBL Cup in the series.

- Prior to Tyler Harvey getting hurt for the Hawks, they were shooting at a league-best 38.0 per cent from three-point range as a team. In his absence, they've gone 10/47 at 21.2 per cent.

- Brian Goorjian has not coached a team in the NBL that has lost three consecutive matches since it happened with his Sydney Kings in December in 2002 after they started the season with a 9-2 record.

- In Brisbane's first 16 games of the season, they were shooting at 46.6 per cent from the floor, taking 73.7 shots a game and putting up a league-high 93.9 points. Over the past three matches without an import, they have shot it at 33.9 per cent while taking a league-high 79.7 shots and only putting up 73.0 points.

The key men

Deng Adel – He was signed by the Hawks this season to be a difference-maker and based on what he's done on his career there was every reason to suggest he could deliver. He's played in the NBA, he had some impressive college numbers at Louisville and he has all the athletic gifts and basketball skills you could hope for. But so far it hasn’t translated into the NBL. He is only averaging 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists a game while struggling to shoot going at 32.2 per cent from the floor and 22.6 per cent from three. But he is capable of so much more and any night could be his breakout game, and what better time than this Wednesday with Illawarra looking to avoid a fourth consecutive defeat.

Lamar Patterson – Without putting too much pressure on someone playing his first game for the club of the season and first game overall since his last game with the Breakers that just happened to be against the Hawks in the NBL Cup. He hadn’t looked the same player he had been the past two seasons with the Bullets, but it just might not have been a good fit for him at the Breakers. He already knows he likes playing under coach Lemanis, he knows his teammates like Nathan Sobey, Jason Cadee and Matt Hodgson well already, and with the Bullets needing another weapon on the floor especially in the continued absence of Vic Law, he could just be the tonic they need to add to the group to avoid four losses in-a-row.

The quotes

Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis remains unsure on the diagnosis on star import Vic Law but he will hope to have some more clarity on his potential return date once they get this game out of the way on Wednesday night.

But he has continued to find positives from the performances albeit losing ones while they have been down on manpower while knowing he will continue to lean heavily on his Boomers pair Jason Cadee and Nathan Sobey.

"Because it was over Easter it was very difficult to get the experts that you need to give you that sort of information so we now hope to be able to soon sit down with the appropriate experts to sit down with Vic and our medical team to sit down and hopefully get more clarity on his situation," Lemanis said.

"We did take plenty of positives out of the fight that we showed despite missing some key players so we hope that gives us some confidence moving forward. Tyrell had 19 rebounds, Blake Jones came in and held his own as a starter when he's a development player, and Tamuri Wigness came in and gave us some good stuff.

"The reality is with Jase and Sobes, those two guys are national team players and they were with me on that journey for four or five years as we qualified for the World Cup and went through all that, won the Asia Cup together and we have to lean on those two guys now. 

"They were certainly guys I wanted on the team and we went hard to recruit them because not only are they good players, but they are good people. Again I think the attitude they came in with to approach that last game knowing they were going to carry a huge load was the thing they were able to maintain a good mindset through to continue to be positive and help those young guys get better. 

"We are going to ask a lot still of those two over this next period of time and I look forward to going through that journey with him."