The Hawks allowed themselves to be bashed and bullied by the 36ers, particularly under the boards.

Centre Larry Davidson worked hard for his 14 rebounds, but his Wollongong teammates grabbed just 18 collectively.

Adelaide were far more aggressive, finishing with 46 rebounds as a team, 16 of them at the offensive end.

"Possession was the thing that really dug a hole for us for a fair part of the game - we gave up way too many offensive boards," McLeod said.

"Their mobility and physicality makes it tough. It's hard to rebound when you're getting pushed off balance - but we have to take a leaf out of their book.

"If it's going to be called a certain way you have to play that way.

"You have to get into that wrestle and make it happen. Rebounding is about effort.

"Sometimes when you're off helping and doubling [defensively], it makes it hard if a shot goes up to box someone out and they get some guys swooping on the boards.

"But a lot of times it's not that, so we have to get better in those areas."

After losing to the Sixers by five in Adelaide the previous Sunday, the last thing the Hawks wanted to see was their opponents getting comfortable in the first quarter on Friday.

The 36ers flowed freely offensively, taking a 28-24 lead into the second period.

"One of the disappointing things was - the big thing we spoke about - was the effort areas of the game," McLeod said.

"Basically their first 10 points were all point blank in the paint. It took us a long time to really address that. Twenty-eight points in the first quarter, we were asking for trouble.

"We did a pretty good job offensively considering how physical and disruptive they played us. It was a struggle to get through our offence. They made it really tough for us to cut, they made it really tough for us to do anything. It took us a while to adjust to that.

"I'm really disappointed with the fluency and how we played as a group. There were times when it was very disjointed how we played.

"At times we didn't have a plan of how we wanted to attack and what we wanted to do.

"We took a team that's going pretty well and took them very close, but close is not good enough."

Wollongong have lost their past seven games, all by single figure margins.

They are 3-19 with six games remaining and seem destined to set a new club standard for least wins in a season.

The 1997 Hawks team holds the record with seven wins from 30 games and is also the only side in the club's 36-year history to finish last.

Life doesn't get any easier this week with Friday's home game against Melbourne and Sunday's road clash with Cairns.

"We need to have a good week at practice this week because we've got two tough ones," McLeod said.

"We're going to play against the big boys and that's going to be a real challenge for us."