Hawks coach Rob Beveridge has no concerns his in-form troops will suffer a Christmas hangover as Illawarra look to launch into the New Year against the Brisbane Bullets on Monday evening.
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Illawarra were given an extended break over the the festive season, but Beveridge believes the Hawks are ready to fire on all cylinders at WIN Entertainment Centre.
“I thought we might have a bad first session, because you always do [after a break] but it was really sharp," Beveridge said.
“It is very rare that we give players three days off because usually after two days you sort of drop off a bit but [Kevin White] and particularly Dave [Andersen] said to the guys make sure you get a session in.
“We ended up having an informal session on the 27th which was really encouraging.
“The next session there was a really good attitude and it was refreshing.
“It was hard and they got after it. They did a conditioning session beforehand as well so I thought they were ready to go.”
Illawarra came into Christmas with an outstanding come-from-behind 81-77 victory over the Perth Wildcats.
Beveridge is desperate to carry that momentum into their clash with Brisbane after failing to do so after similar performance throughout the campaign.
“We have done it a couple of times this season where we think we’ve turned a corner,” he said.
“Against Sydney, I thought we went backwards in that game and then against the Breakers I thought we went further backwards.
“So right now it is about putting a couple together. Brisbane will be desperate. They were arguably one of the form teams and then it showed against Sydney how damn good [the Kings] are this season.”
The Bullets were in the best form they’ve been in since returning to competition heading into Christmas, but fell to the Kings in the first leg of their double header on Saturday afternoon.
Kings star Andrew Bogut produced another starring performance to consign the Bullets to a 75-68 defeat.
Bullets coach Andrej Lemanis was left searching for answer after the loss and wondered if his men had felt the effects of the Christmas break.
“I thought we looked sluggish,” Lemanis said.
“People looked tired more quickly than when I am used to seeing them tired.
“That first half seemed to be a grind for us at both ends of the floor. We couldn’t get any pace into the game.
“Defensively we couldn’t do some stuff up the floor that we were used to doing.”
The New Year’s Eve clash tips off at 5.20pm in Wollongong.
