ILLAWARRA coach Rob Beveridge is admittedly at a loss to explain his side’s fluctuating fortunes this season after slumping to their second straight loss against Cairns on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Hawks have produced some remarkable 48-hour turnarounds this season but couldn’t repeat the effort against the Snakes, going down 85-79 two days after being humbled by New Zealand on their home floor.
The Breakers 86-82 win over Perth on Sunday night saw the Hawks hang on to second spot on the ladder but Beveridge said he remains baffled by his side’s in ability to string performances together.
“There’s a common theme with our group that we’re consistently inconsistent and it happened again tonight,” Beveridge said.
“You don’t know what you’re going to get from us.
“I’m very, very pleased with the fight in the guys, they never ever gave up but it comes down to the fact that [Cairns] executed and we just missed too many lay-ups, too many open shots.
“If you take care of that you give yourself a better chance. It’s really, really hard to continually try and fight back, it’s gets pretty draining.
“I don’t have the answer for that. We have different line-ups, we try different things but I don’t have the answer to why we’re so inconsistent.
“We’re not the only one, every team in the league is like that. You just don’t know what you’re going to get from night to night.
“Cairns did a hell of a job, to get in late [Saturday] night. We both played Friday night but they had the tougher preparation than what we did. The way they executed under pressure was just fantastic.
“I keep saying to our guys that we need to take a leaf out of other teams’ books. It’s pretty frustrating that we can’t execute the way other teams do when it really, really counts.”
The Hawks face the tough task of regrouping ahead of what will be a top-of-the-table clash with Adelaide in Wollongong on Saturday.
They set a new NBL scoring record in defeating the 36rs in round one this season but will certainly start underdogs on Saturday, though Beveridge remained confident his side can bounce back on their home floor.
“Adelaide have won the championship already apparently. That’s the way it’s being reported,” Beveridge said.
“They’re playing magnificent basketball but, when we go, we can beat any team in the league. We’ve played Adelaide three times and we’re actually up 2-1 so we should go into the game with some sort of confidence that we know we can compete with them.”