Lowery labels Hawks ‘too small’

NBL champion Damon Lowery has called on the Illawarra Hawks to make better use of its star bigs and look to dominate Melbourne United in the paint. 

Lowery said Sam Froling was key to Illawarra’s hopes of turning a 0-1 series deficit on its head and pleaded with coach Justin Tatum to go away from playing ‘small-ball’. 

“This small-ball lineup … it ain’t no good,” he said on NBL Now. 

“As soon as I saw them do that against the Phoenix after two minutes when the game was over, I thought, ‘please don’t make this a thing’. 

“Don’t all of a sudden try to have some small-ball lineup, when you’ve got two bigs in Sam Froling and Lachlan Olbrich, who can have their way with Melbourne United.”

Froling had 12 first-half points in Game 1, but was far less of a factor in the second. 

Olbrich had just four minutes’ court-time in the eight-point loss. 

“Justin Tatum went small … you’ve got five guards out on the floor and you’re getting smashed on the glass. Make that make sense,” Lowery continued.

NBL MVP Derek Rucker said Tatum needed to react more quickly when United started to take control. 

“I didn’t mind the small-ball lineup, because I thought in the first half they were able to create good shot opportunities. 

“The problem was, they didn’t capitalise. 

“It’s on Justin Tatum to figure out quickly, you can’t afford to let it linger and see ‘maybe it’ll work in a couple of minutes’. You’ve got to determine yes or no really quickly and make a change, because Dean Vickerman is going to be pulling all the right levers. 

“Once the net result from the small-ball lineup didn’t work effectively in the second half, that’s the end of it.”

Rucker agreed Froling could cause significant problems for United, as he has multiple times this season. 

In three prior games between the two teams, he averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds, including a massive 20-point, 11-rebound game in Round 12. 

“Froling was a problem. His percentages weren’t great, but he was productive, and they had to pay attention to Sam Froling,” Rucker reflected. 

“I started to feel a rise in confidence from Sam during the game.”

The Hawks will travel to Melbourne on Wednesday to take on United in Game 2, with tip-off from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.