Tatum: 'We expect success'

Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum wants his team to show championship characteristics and he saw that over the last two games, as they shook off an emotional home loss and a slow start 48 hours later for a gutsy road win.

Tatum was left fuming after the game on Thursday night when the Hawks lost a dramatic affair to Melbourne United in Wollongong and they lost Trey Kell III to a back injury in the process.

Last season's Coach of the Year runner-up didn’t get the immediate response he was after on Saturday night in Melbourne against the South East Melbourne Phoenix, as the Hawks fell 10 points down in the second quarter.

Tatum called a timeout and challenged his group to make a stand and they responded with the next 14 points to eventually end up winning 88-82 and improve to a 6-2 record on the season.

Tatum is fully aware that not everything will go to plan, but it's how you respond to challenges that will determine your championship credentials, and he likes the way his group is coming together six rounds into NBL25.

"For us to become a championship type of team, we have to fight through any of that adversity. As long as those guys acknowledge it and see it rather than needing the coach to enforce it, then we'll be on the right path," Tatum said.

"The expectation has to be set high when you return 90 per cent of your guys and you get two really good new imports.

"When you have that continuity, you're meant to be able to turn things all the way up and our goal when we came in for the pre-season was to win this whole thing.

"We knew if the guys did their work in the off-season that coming into this season we'd have a really good shot to make it to the Playoffs, and win the whole thing so our goal was set high from the jump."

The Hawks got the job done without Kell III and won't rush back their star guard.

"It's day to day with him. I talked to him earlier and he's just finished up with treatment, and he's doing his best to get back as swiftly as possible," Tatum added.

"We don’t want to rush anything unless he's back to 100 per cent. We're going to keep trusting the depth of our team and if our DP's need to play or guys need to play extra minutes, we'll figure that out. We want a healthy Trey instead of somebody who is 70-30."