Four games into the 2008-09 NBL season and the Wollongong Hawks are struggling to keep up with their rivals.The Hawks dropped to a worrying 1-3 with Saturday night's 114-95 thrashing from the highly fancied South Dragons at WIN Entertainment Centre, as former Wollongong import Cortez Groves tormented his previous club with a game-high 25 points, including 6/8 three-pointers.Down by five after one quarter, the home side wilted in the second period. They failed to cope with the Dragons' aggressive defence and found themselves trailing 57-37 at half-time.The margin swelled to as many as 25 in the second half, with the Hawks hitting just 43 per cent of their shots compared to their opponents' 58 per cent clip.Coach Eric Cooks spoke with his players behind closed doors for 30 minutes after the match.Despite his disappointment with the result, he was optimistic the Hawks would bounce back for Friday's home clash with Perth."The post-game talk within the team was very positive, and if we go and do what we just said in the room, we'll be very close to winning that game against Perth," Cooks said."It ain't so much whether we win or lose, it's how we play the game, and tonight was not how we want to play."Against Perth, if we execute how we want to and play defence with the physicality and focus that we want to, if we still come up short it's a lot easier to swallow."We're still too patchy and inconsistent. There's definitely some signs there and different people playing well at different times, but we need to put 48 minutes together."Judging by some of the communication we've had since the game, it was all positive and it definitely sounds like we're heading in the right direction."While Groves enjoyed his return to his old stomping ground, the Dragons enjoyed a balanced scoring spread.Mark Worthington racked up 19 points, nine assists and five rebounds, Joe Ingles finished with 15 points and unsung back-ups Nathan Herbert and Rhys Carter combined for 28 off the bench.Dusty Rychart (22) played a lone hand for Wollongong, although Cam Tragardh scored 10 in the fourth quarter to finish with 19.Rhys Martin (11) was solid off the bench, but stars Glen Saville (9) and Kavossy Franklin (5) struggled, managing just 3/23 shooting between them."Our intensity needs to be more consistent," Cooks said."Individuals have to take personal pride in their own defence, and communication skills and effort levels, and at the moment that's not happening."Franklin is averaging five assists per game but has scored just 41 points in four matches."Adjusting to the new line-up is definitely a big part of it, and in some ways his life has changed with the arrival of his son, but at the end of the day he's a professional and he's got to lift his rate as well," Cooks said of Franklin."I don't think he's the only one, but he's definitely one of the people that needs to improve."The game against the Wildcats will be the second of three in a fortnight between the two clubs.Wollongong forward Dusty Rychart believes his side can still become a force."It's too early to hit that panic button. I know we're 1-3 but it's not the end of the world because we've got a lot of improvement in us," Rychart said."We've got a lot of talent on this team and we've just gotta get our chemistry going and get that toughness, and I think we'll come around."