Hawks forward Oscar Forman has had other hot nights when the shots kept dropping, but none as good as his near-perfect display on Saturday night against the New Zealand Breakers.
If it wasn’t for one missed lay-up on a fast-break in the first half, he would have set a club record that might never have been broken.
As it was, his stunning 11/12 shooting performance in Wollongong’s 80-64 blitz of the NBL titleholders was one of those nights where the ring must have looked as big as a hula hoop to Forman.
Remarkably, seven of those 12 shots were fired from the three-point line and he didn’t miss a single attempt. Every one of his field goals hit the net.
Full coverage of the Hawks Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said Forman was the beneficiary of unselfish team-work.
‘‘Ossie did a great job of knocking them down, but his team-mates did a really good job of executing and opening things up and getting him the ball in the right position.
‘‘That’s what we need to do because that’s what team basketball’s all about. The guys got him the ball and he did a good job of finishing them off.’’
When the full-time siren sounded, Forman’s points tally was a career-best 29.
That it came against the team that dumped him two years ago made victory all the sweeter.
Forman realised he was cooking midway through the opening quarter.
‘‘It wasn’t until after the third three that I thought ‘I’m shooting pretty well tonight’, because I was on my way to ask for a sub and [Hawks guard] Rhys [Martin] threw it to me and I was completely off-balance and it went in,’’ Forman said.
‘‘As Gordo said, I don’t get any of those shots unless guys get me open. Everyone did their part. It felt like it was back to last year when we were moving the ball a lot. We had 15 assists to their six, and that showed.’’
Forman had four years at the Breakers and coach Andrej Lemanis is aware of the 30-year-old’s shooting prowess.
‘‘He’s listening to all the good coaching I did with him,’’ a grinning Lemanis said at the post-game media conference.
‘‘We all know Oscar can do that and when he gets like that we have to be smart enough to make our adjustments accordingly.’’
Forman will be crossing his fingers that he carries his hot streak into Thursday’s clash with the Breakers in Auckland.
Wollongong (eighth) hold a 2-1 edge over New Zealand in their four-game regular season series.
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