"Free-minded" Days embraces bench role

The Illawarra Hawks returned from the FIBA break in emphatic style, with a massive home win over the New Zealand Breakers on Thursday night.

“We wanted to build off that last Sydney game ... there’s a lot of things that went right for us,” coach Justin Tatum said post-game.

The Hawks started the game on fire and by quarter time had a sizeable lead to their advantage.

“We had everyone back for our one and only practice on Wednesday and it was intense ... I’m glad it resulted into a win today.”

Illawarra was unable to practice at full strength throughout the break, with five players away playing for their country.

“I’m really happy that our guys who were able to play for their national team and got that experience to kind of bring back that hunger that they learned,” Tatum said.

When asked about the challenge that New Zealand posed to his team, Tatum was quick to turn his attention back to themselves.

“We are still focusing on us,” he said.

“It was something we wanted to do in this game. We worry about us first and worry about the scout later.”

One of the biggest talking points to come out of the game was Darius Days being moved to the bench in place of Mason Peatling.

“It was great. It was an experiment that we had talked about doing at some point in the season, but we wanted to wait until after the FIBA Break,” Tatum said about the decision.

“Mason is a low demand, high reward type of guy. He’s a great communicator and a leader. He started in Melbourne and won a championship for them, so he has that experience.

“Darius now coming off the bench is much more free-minded in scoring the ball and doesn’t have to worry about fouling or defensive matchups.”