Hawks' motivation to finish high

Justin Tatum just wanted the Illawarra Hawks to play at their best and was delighted they played better than their best, but Davo Hickey had some added motivation to make sure they swept the Sydney Kings.

The Hawks might have already had top spot locked away for the first time in franchise history dating back to the inaugural NBL season in 1979, but that didn’t stop them being highly motivated hosting the Kings on Friday night.

There were plenty of reasons including a sold out crowd of 5460 inside the WIN Entertainment Centre and then also the knowledge that they wouldn’t play for three weeks, with first place meaning they skip the Play-In Tournament and then with the FIBA window.

Throw in the fact that the Hawks also had the chance to sweep all four regular season games with the Kings and the result was a terrific performance even in the absence of import pair Trey Kell III and Darius Days.

Illawarra went on to win 95-75 while outplaying Sydney in all the effort areas with 52 rebounds to 42 including 19 at the offensive end, 48 points in the paint to 30, 23 fast break points to five and forcing the Kings into 14 turnovers from which they scored 20 points.

The Hawks also had five players scoring in double-figures once again with another two getting to eight. It was a performance that surpassed what Tatum hoped given their win in New Zealand over the Breakers only on Wednesday night.

"We could have laid down today. We could have just sat there and took a break, and let Sydney do what they need to do, but it wasn’t about that," Tatum said.

"We wanted to make sure that we came out here and played our best, and I think we played better than our best.

"I'm really happy with how we just had a quick turnaround and came back to give a great effort. That's what is most exciting to me with the way we played."

Hickey continued on from where he left off with breakout performances in the playoffs last year to now having the best NBL season of his career with another standout performance on Friday night.

He finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists while getting the start in the absence of Kell III. He didn’t find it hard to get motivated to beat the Kings given the ill feeling he still holds to what he felt was them rubbing in some wins previously on the Hawks.

"Well for one, we don’t like them so it starts there," Hickey said.

"The feeling's a bit euphoric right now and I definitely still remember those things very clearly, and I'm a very petty person.

"Every game now it's something that I keep in the back of my mind and that's the type of guy I am I guess."

Another big motivating factor for Hickey and his Hawks teammates was to make sure that they went into this break over the next two weeks in winning form.

They have done that now with three straight wins over Tasmania, New Zealand and Sydney by an average of 19 points to finish the regular season with a 20-9 record with Hickey already excited for the playoffs.

"I'm feeling ready. I've had that experience and all of us have so the hurt we felt last year, and just being so close and one step away means that we're all just ready for this," Hickey said.

"Especially me, my heart is beating out of my chest being ready for this.

"I just feel like everybody in that room and I could feel it before the game, I had a good feeling about today just knowing that everybody understands how much this means moving into our season as we've been calling it – the playoffs.

"We just want to make sure that we're going into that with the right mindset and I don’t think coming off a loss before a three-week break was the best thing for us. So we knew how important that was for us."

While the Hawks will enjoy the chance over the next two weeks to freshen up, to get back to full health and to work on some things ahead of a playoff series following the FIBA break, Tatum will ensure they don't let any rust open up in the break.

"We've been working on that over the past week and-a-half just in case we got in this position and the guys will definitely have some rest days," Tatum said.

"We have Darius and Trey working on getting back fully in practice next week too and we'll go a couple of days on the court, a couple of days off and hopefully simulate some type of scrimmages here and there.

"I'll definitely keep these guys sharp and ready, 21 days is a lot but we'll make sure that we keep our competitive edge."