The Wollongong Hawks want their offence to revolve more around interior players Cam Tragardh and Larry Davidson in tomorrow night's second game of their best-of-three grand final series with the Perth Wildcats at WIN Entertainment Centre.
Tragardh scored five points on 2/9 shooting in Friday night's 75-64 game one road loss to the Wildcats, while Davidson also managed just five points on 2/8 field goals.
Davidson's normally reliable shooting touch also deserted him at the free throw line (0/4), while fellow starter Glen Saville (five points, 2/10 shooting) was another Wollongong player to struggle offensively.
SLIDESHOW: All the on-court action from Game I Full coverage of the Wollongong Hawks Wollongong's tidy three-point shooting (11/24, 46 per cent) kept them in the contest for most of the night, but they were a dismal 10/33 inside three-point territory.
"Their bigs bumped us and pushed us off the blocks a lot, and we have to work harder inside to get some good touches," Hawks coach Gordie McLeod said.
"We have to make some adjustments and find ways to loosen up our offence and get our bigs involved."
The Hawks started game one strongly before the Wildcats took over with a 21-2 run.
Fighting back from 15 down in the second quarter, Wollongong trailed by three at half-time and had Cats fans nervously chewing at fingernails when they briefly hit the front midway through the third quarter.
But the home team cranked up the defensive intensity and nailed a couple of key shots down the stretch.
McLeod was noticeably upbeat after the game and was looking forward to returning home for game two.
"We showed a lot of character," he said.
"We kept fighting and hanging in there. We played with a lot of aggression and were positive in the way we played for most of the game.
"It was a bit disappointing that a few guys were down from the level they've been at during the season. We were a bit sloppy around the basket with our finishing at times and there were times when we were looking to the referees to bail us out, but overall we have to take the way we played as a real positive, especially compared to the last time we were in Perth (when the Hawks lost by 34)."
The Hawks returned to Sydney on Saturday night and trained yesterday morning.
They also spent an hour studying film of game one and like their chances of sending the series back to Perth for a deciding third game on Friday.
"The turnaround between games is all about recovery, evaluation and adjustments," McLeod said.
"We have a few little adjustments to make but we can take a lot of good things from game one.
"The key to our success is the sum of what we get from each player, and it's been that way for us all year. If we get contributions from everybody, we can beat anybody.
"But if we don't get that on Tuesday and don't get guys playing to the level they're capable of, being at home doesn't mean anything."
Tomorrow night's game is certain to draw a capacity crowd of just under 6000.
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