Tatum disappointed with effort, intent

Illawarra head coach Justin Tatum has expressed disappointment in the effort and intensity of his side in Wednesday’s Seeding Qualifier defeat to Tasmania.

The 16-point defeat means the Hawks will be forced to play a straight elimination Play-In Game on Monday night, the winner of which will advance to a best-of-three Playoff Series against Melbourne.

“Tasmania played well, they came out physically and clearly Coach Roth had them going and they set the tone with their play. We didn’t match their energy early and we got ourselves in a hole,” Tatum said post-game.

“I wasn’t pleased at all in any way. It felt like 30, but the game was at a hand’s reach. Our guys consistently did not play our style of basketball, we addressed it and talked about it, but I wasn’t pleased with the consistent effort for 40 minutes and the way we played – that is not our style.

“We have to set the tone, we have to be just as physical as these guys, we have to throw everything out the window. Everybody is at zero right now and we have to leave everything on the floor. That’s one thing I learned about this evening.”

Star guard Tyler Harvey was a leading light for the Hawks, and scored 15 points in the loss. Only fellow import Gary Clark scored more for Illawarra.

The former MVP candidate says although this defeat is a roadblock, it’s not the end of the NBL24 journey for his side.

“We just have to put up a better performance than we did tonight, but it’s all part of our journey and our story, this whole year has been a season of ups and downs for us and one thing about this team is we always respond when we’re hit with a little bit of adversity,” he said.

“I know we’re going to be ready ... our story is not over, that’s just one chapter that closed today and we’re going to go ahead and start another one on Monday.

“We have four days to see who we’re going to play and come up with a game plan. The beauty of this is we play in front of our fans now and we know they’re going to come out and rock the WEC (WIN Entertainment Centre).”

Hawks star and All-NBL First Team nominee Gary Clark appeared to have suffered an ankle injury in the early stages of the game, however he rebounded to top score for the side with 21 points.

Clark had been consistently spotted wearing a moon boot in the lead-up to the clash against Tasmania, but Tatum has allayed fears the forward will miss Monday’s Play-In Game.

“We’re managing all the guys that play heavy minutes, we’ve been managing Gary and his ankle and a couple of other things over the weeks and months,” Tatum said.

“He’s physically fine, I just know he played major minutes today and maybe had a little tweak here or there. It’s not something we’re going to manage, he’ll be fine.”