Illawarra Hawks: Harvey returns but Bairstow in limbo

The MVP candidate missed Saturday's road loss to Adelaide after first suffering bask spasms in his side's home win over Brisbane last week - not before dropping 28 points at 8-10 from deep. The niggle kept him to just 17 minutes in a follow-up loss to South East Melbourne three days later and kept him out of the road trip to Adelaide.

His return is much needed for the Hawks, who've dropped four of their last five games and head into Wednesday's clash staring down the barrel of three straight defeats.

"Of course we welcome him back with open arms," coach Brian Goorjian said.

"He's so important, we run so much of our offense through him and it showed when he got hurt against the Phoenix how much we rely on him.

"He's obviously a huge threat from the perimeter as well and I think he's been one of the best players in the league this season."

Emmett Naar grabbed 16 points and five rebounds in the starting role, something Goorjian hopes the noted play-maker can build on in tandem with Harvey on his return to action.

"Emmett got the start in Tyler's absence and he did some really nice things over in Adelaide," Goorjian said.

"Hopefully he got some confidence from that and we can now play the two of them together a bit more. I'd love to get Emmett bringing the ball up a bit more and creating better looks for our shooters,"

The news is not so good for Cam Bairstow, who's looking at an indefinite stint on the sidelines, with the club offering no timeframe for his potential return.