Hawks season hits new low as red-hot Phoenix run riot

A week after falling a buzzer-beater short of a stunning upset win over Sydney, the Hawks fell back to unfortunate form on the raw end of an offensive clinic from the hosts in Melbourne.

The 36-point margin made it the young franchise's biggest ever win as the hosts went a rampant 56 per cent from the field and 10-20 from long range.

The Hawks simply had no answer for Alan Williams in the paint, the imposing big-man finishing with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while triple-centurion Mitch Creek had 27 points, six rebounds and three assists.

Trey Kell also had 24 points, with Gary Browne contributing 11 points, eight assists and five boards.

It was another major step backwards after a game effort just seven days earlier, something becoming a torturous trend for coach Jacob Jackomas.

"From the get-go the buy-in was bad," Jackomas said post-game.

"It was our worst defensive effort by far and that affected our offensive output as well because we kept taking it our of the basket and they did a pretty good job slowing us down.

"It could've been a little bit of too much schemes at practice and not enough guarding. This happened to us in Brisbane where we get a new guy in (Michael Frazier) that's coming to help us and we just think 'we arrive now'.

"We played well against Sydney with one American, now we've got the two back [we think] the effort stuff doesn't need to happen. There could be a bit of that.

"The one good thing is, in the history of us, we've responded when it's been like this. That's not who we are."

There were some green shoots for the Hawks in the performance of newly arrived import Frazier, who sparked an 11-1 first quarter run when injected from the bench and finished with 17 points.

Tyler Harvey also had 17 but was kept to just 10 field-goal attempts, with Peyton Siva the only other Hawk in double digits.

The defeat sees the Hawks overall ledger sink to 1-10, just one loss away from equalling the club's horror 1-11 start to the 2015 season under Gordie McLeod.

Jackomas' outfit will need to drop two more games on the bounce to match that team's win-less streak, but they will equal the 10 straight losses the Hawks copped to close their 2020 campaign should they drop next Monday's clash with Melbourne United in Wollongong.

That season petered out to a 5-23 finish and, on its current trajectory, the current outfit would be content to simply better that mark by season's end.

With their toughest two-game swing of the season looming on the other side of the United clash, the question moves to just how ugly things can get.

"As mad as I could be right now with the guys, I do love all the guys in the room," Jackomas said.

"We do have good days and I'm not lying to anyone [when I say that]. As soon as that starts to slip, and we've made a commitment to each other that it won't, that's when I think it'll start to be unenjoyable.

"Right now the challenge is really enjoyable and, as a competitor, I've got to hone in on that."

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After a clunky start for the visitors, Siva's second foul saw Frazier injected to completely flip the tempo, draining a triple with his second touch to set in motion an 11-1 run that turned a 6-1 deficit into a 12-6 lead and forced Mitchell into a timeout.

It had the desired effect, the hosts going 21-5 out of the resumption, a Jackomas timeout doing nothing to dent the hosts momentum led by Creek, who had 10 for the term as his side led by 10 at the first break.

The Phoenix looked inside to start the second, Williams grabbing six of his 10 second-quarter points as the lead went out to 15. Triples to Siva, Harvey and Frazier pulled things back to single digits, with Jackomas calling time when Broekhoff fired back from deep.

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It steadied the contest briefly, but the hosts closed the term 11-5 on a monster three from Broekhoff with seven second left to lead by a healthy 16 points at the break having cruised past 50 first-half points.

Siva had five, including his third triple, on a 11-4 run for the Hawks that pulled the margin back to single digits early in the third and prompted Mitchell to burn a timeout four minutes into the third.

Once again it did the trick, the Phoenix piling on 30 third-term points to lead by 26 points heading into the final stanza.

It was a training run from there as the hosts cruised past three figures with more than three minutes to play.

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