Tatum lauds 'unselfish' Hawks

The unselfishness of his Illawarra Hawks team led by Tyler Harvey and Trey Kell III most impressed coach Justin Tatum in another big win, but he doesn't want to see another slip up against the Cairns Taipans. 

The Hawks have plenty of players whether it's Kell III, Harvey, Sam Froling, Darius Days, Hyunjung Lee, Davo Hickey or Lachlan Olbrich all capable of offensive explosions, but Tatum knows the key to their success is playing as a team. 

That was never better illustrated over the past 48 hours where they shook off a loss in Adelaide to the 36ers to hammer Melbourne United by 22 points, and then back home to decimate the Brisbane Bullets by 34. 

Winning two games at home by a combined 56 points was the perfect response to a tough loss to the Sixers, but what was even more impressive for Tatum was the 56 assists and 14 turnovers across them. 

Illawarra put up 238 points in the big wins and the 37 assists against the Bullets on Monday night was a franchise record, and the most by any team in the current 40-minute NBL era. 

Kell might have scored just five points on 2/9 shooting, but he had a huge say in the win by dishing out 11 assists. Harvey also just had 10 points on 5/9 shooting and for just the second time this season, he failed to hit a three-pointer, but he also had seven dimes.

For Tatum to see his two highest scorers turn into playmakers with Froling finishing with 17 points, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk 16, Mason Peatling 15, Olbrich 14 and Lee 12 left him a content coach afterwards. 

"It's satisfying because I feel that now they understand they can trust each other more than they could before we had 37 assists," Tatum said.

"We were getting the type of shots we wanted and the unselfishness of these guys seeing other guys who was open, and to make that pass and trust their team, and to have that reciprocated was the best part of this game.

"For us to have 37 assists and two of my top players barely scored in double-figures, but had 11 assists and seven assists that's just what this team is about – unselfish characteristic type of guys.

"For them to see how they can impact the game more than just by scoring and the other things they do was just a beautiful thing to see."

The only downside for the Hawks out of Monday night's big win was what looks to be a hamstring injury to import forward Darius Days.

He hit the floor midway through the first quarter, completed a three-point play, knocked down a three ball and then in less than two minutes had to come out after feeling hamstring tightness.

Tatum is hoping that's all it is but the signs weren’t overly encouraging.

"Unfortunately it's a hamstring injury, it's just tightness right now as far as we know," Tatum said.

"We'll get a scan in the morning to see if there's anything really more to it. Right now I just know it's tightness and we took him out for precautionary reasons."

The Hawks now head to Cairns to take on the bottom placed Taipans on Thursday night, but there's going to be no complacency that Tatum will let creep in.

After all, they are fully aware of what the Snakes are capable of having lost to them on their home floor three weeks ago in the upset result so far of NBL25.

It might be Illawarra's Summer Shootout contest with them needing 112 points to take the lead off the same Cairns team they are playing, but that'll be the last thing on Tatum's mind.

"It's my job as a coach to make sure there's no complacency, but it's their job as players too to still show up and play," Tatum said.

"Us staff will everything we can to push them and they know there's a bitter taste in the back of their mouth for how Cairns came in and beat us in our own place.

"We just want to go out and do the same thing that we've done with Brisbane by playing hard, setting the tone early and playing unselfish basketball."