Cairns coach Mike Kelly is probably sick of seeing these Hawks.
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The Taipans have toppled some of the NBL's top teams, including the Perth Wildcats (twice) and Melbourne United, but Illawarra has had their measure this season.
The Hawks secured a win in overtime against Cairns in Wollongong on Monday night, marking their third win over the Taipans in the past six weeks.
After Monday's game, Kelly was frustrated the Hawks had "outplayed us" again.
"I think a loss is a step back and the way we came in to start the game was a step back on the momentum we had built over the past few weeks," he said.
"But Illawarra came out again, attacked and made shots, and then pushed us when we shot early balls. You hope that you can adjust and come back after losing to a team, but we haven't done that well. That's not just on the players, that's on me and us as coaches.
"It's frustrating to have been outplayed three times by them."
A LaMelo Ball masterclass guided the Hawks to Monday night's 114-106 win in overtime against Cairns.
The 18-year-old drained 32 points and had 13 assists and 11 rebounds on his way to becoming the youngest NBL player in history to achieve a triple-double.
"I thought he was fantastic," Kelly said.
"He controlled the tempo and passed the ball very well, made really good plays and then shot the lights out."
The Hawks led 59-47 at half time but the visitors, led by DJ Newbill and Scott Machado, came surging back in the second half.
Cairns took a 99-96 lead late in the game before Ball sunk a three-pointer with five seconds left to take the game into overtime. Newbill led Cairns' scoring with 27 points while Machado accumulated 22 points and had 13 assists.
Kelly said he was proud that the Taipans never gave up on Monday night.
"I expect it [that effort] because this group has always fought, winning or losing by how many points. But being proud is not good enough... I love the fight, but it's expected," he said.
"The guys never quit. They make big plays but I think probably the biggest positive for us [from the Hawks game] is that we can see what has been successful, and what's not been successful for us. We need to double down on what has been successful and start doing it every possession. If we learned something like that out of this loss, that would be a positive."
The Taipans sit in seventh spot on the NBL ladder. When asked if Cairns could still make the playoffs, Kelly said "definitely".
"We won two games in a row and everyone felt great and was looking forward to trying win three in a row," he said.
"It just takes one win and then you're going."
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