THERE were no shortage of talking points to come out of Sunday’s clash but one of the more intriguing was Adelaide’s surprisingly awful effort from the foul-line.
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It’s been the Hawks achilles heel all season but it’s been anything but for the 36ers, who went into the clash as the league best free-throw shooting team.
Illawarra shot at 66 per cent from the line while Joey Wright’s men went 18-32 on a rare dismal night from the stripe.
“Usually when teams that are great free-throw shooters miss free-throws it’s usually [due] to a lack of confidence in the group," Wright said.
“When you step to that line, it’s pretty lonely when you don’t feel like the whole group has your back. It goes back to we feel we haven’t come together as a team yet.
“When you can foul a team three-four possessions in a row and they don’t take advantage on the line, it works for the other team. I’ve been on the other side of it.
“We missed five of six at one point and they came down, couple of buckets and that changes everything.”