Tatum lifts lid on turnaround week

Justin Tatum backed his Illawarra Hawks players and they repaid his faith in Perth.

Two home losses last week to Sydney and Brisbane, by a combined 43 points, had left the Hawks at 2-8 and pressure mounting on Tatum to find answers.

He didn’t like where the team was at or how it was performing, but he stuck by his players and they knuckled down for a tireless week of practice ahead of Saturday night’s game against the Wildcats.

What they produced was a standout 105-98 win. Davo Hickey posted a near triple-double, Kelan Martin hit 5 threes for 23 points, Makur Maker imposed himself inside and Wani Swaka Lo Buluk had his best impact at both ends, before Johny Narkle produced a brilliant fourth quarter.

Tatum had a feeling a performance like that was on the horizon after the week on the training court, but he was still nervous coming into the game.

“I don’t normally be nervous of games, but I was nervous today,” Tatum said.

“In my opinion, that’s a good sign for me because I knew my team was going to come out here and be way better than they was the last previous weeks.

“We had a really great week of practice, guys really got on the trust train and started trusting each other more and figuring stuff out. You then had a really good Hawks team play today.

“It was just the nerves about us playing well, it was just competitive nervousness. I was just excited and couldn’t wait for the game to start but we’re all the way on Perth so it was 9:30 where I’m from.

“I was ready to get this game going but just so happy with how the boys came out and played.”

Locked in defensively, smoother on offence and outrebounding Perth 37-29, the Hawks have now shown what they’re capable of. Tatum knows that must become their benchmark – not an outlier.

“That’s the norm and that’s what we’ve been trying to set all year,” Tatum said.

“You have different personalities, different players on your team, guys trying to find a way and trying to make an impact, but we have to let them see what the bigger picture is.

“The bigger picture is playing together, playing to our strengths and trusting each other. That’s why I used that word trust earlier and yes, that’s the norm and the guys see how we can play.

“We had 25 plus assists, 14 at the half and we have a lot of people that can put this ball in the hole. We just have to make sure that everybody understands to do their job.”