Justin Tatum has warned the Illawarra Hawks will be “unstoppable” in the NBL championship series if Melbourne United allow Trey Kell to get off the leash.
Tatum is in a confident mood heading into the best-of-five title series opener on Saturday night after witnessing his free-scoring team smash records to get there.
The Hawks qualified with a 126-96 demolition of South East Melbourne in their playoff decider, posting the highest-scoring first half (70 points) by any team this season.
Import Kell (30 points) and veteran Todd Blanchfield (28) put on a clinic as Illawarra – an NBL foundation club in 1979 – also recorded the biggest score and winning margin in their finals history.
Now only Melbourne stand between Tatum’s Hawks and the club’s second championship, following their only title success so far back in 2001.
“I feel confident, especially after the display of my guys playing today,” Tatum told reporters after Illawarra’s thrashing of the Phoenix.
“We know that we’ve got three more games to finish the job that we’ve had in mind for the whole season – winning the whole thing.
“Melbourne’s a professional, really good, great team and they have the same aspirations that we do to win the whole thing.
“But they’ve got to come here first, so hopefully we can build off this jgame and find a way to pull the win out on Saturday.”
All-NBL First Team member Kell will be key to his team’s fortunes, after torching the Phoenix with 26 first-half points in the playoff decider.
The American guard had 16 points on perfect five-of-five shooting from the field and four-of-four at the foul line in an explosive first period.
It was an outstanding response to his self-confessed “terrible” game-two performance, when he managed just six points on one-of-ten shooting.
“Seeing him with that energy, getting the crowd going, finding his spots and getting shots going early does nothing but ignite us,” Tatum said.
“It gets everybody else going because he draws a lot of attention and then he sees other guys open.
“We want to make sure that our starters set the tone and our bench guys come up and finish off whatever’s left on the plate.
“When he gets going like that, man, we’re unstoppable.”
Illawarra have won the last two of three clashes with Melbourne this season as they prepare for their first championship series in eight years.
NBL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (BEST OF FIVE)
ILLAWARRA HAWKS V MELBOURNE UNITED
* Game 1
Saturday 8 March
WIN Entertainment Centre (8pm AEDT)
* Game 2
Wednesday 12 March
John Cain Arena (7:30pm AEDT)
* Game 3
Sunday 16 March
WIN Entertainment Centre (5:30pm AEDT)
* Game 4 (if required)
Wednesday 19 March
John Cain Arena (7:30pm AEDT)
* Game 5 (if required)
Sunday 23 March
WIN Entertainment Centre (2:30pm AEDT)
https://thewest.com.au/sport/basketball/hawks-unstoppable-if-kell-fires-in-nbl-title-series-c-17941563
