Lowery blasts “complacent” Hawks

Damon Lowery has slammed the Illawarra Hawks for being “complacent” after their loss to the Cairns Taipans on Thursday night. 

Despite sitting in first place, the Hawks’ 100-94 defeat was the second time they’ve lost to the bottom placed Taipans in the last three weeks. It has led to 2001 Illawarra championship player Lowery questioning the mindset of the Hawks, warning they need to avoid getting comfortable with regular season success.   

“You guys have not done anything. You’ve achieved nothing. All you happen to be is the top of the ladder right now. You guys are so complacent, and I think I know what it is,” Lowery said on NBL Now.

“These dudes feel so good about themselves, they celebrate minor victories like they’ve won a championship. I love the camaraderie this group has, they clearly love playing with each other, as evident by the 37 assists they had against the Brisbane Bullets. 

“Fast forward a couple of days and now you got no assists in the first quarter, one assist at halftime, you guys feel way too good about yourselves when you’ve won nothing. 

“You are in a position to do something, you need to check yourselves, don’t believe all the hype. Get your heads out of your a**es and just get the job done – it’s business. 

“Yes, get in the locker room and high-five and hug, but don’t be throwing parties after every game on the court like you’ve won the championship, you don’t even know what it feels like to win one of those and the way you’re going, you won’t know what it feels like.  

“Get back to the basics, get back to the essentials, and just play the game, win the game, get off the court, high-five the crowd, and get in the locker room.” 

Illawarra trailed by as many as 22 points to Cairns on Thursday, before a late comeback fell short.

The Hawks travel to Tasmania to face the JackJumpers next Thursday at 7:30pm AEDT live on ESPN.