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The Illawarra Hawks will be out to keep their run of form going and move closer to cementing a spot in the playoffs when they take on the red-hot Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night at the WIN Entertainment Centre.
This shapes as a battle of two sides who have come from the bottom of the table to the top with a mix of offence and straight out aggression, making it one of the more exciting match-ups in the competition.
The story of the 36ers is quite an incredible one, given they looked out of finals contention at the halfway point. Jerome Randle has lit up the competition though to sit inside the top five for scoring and assists, and with assistance from Nathan Sobey and Daniel Johnson, the 36ers are on fire.
The club have won 13 of their last 14 matches in an insane run to the top, knocking off every club in the league and having the minor premiership sewn up with a few rounds to spare.
What the 36ers still need to work on ahead of the grind that is the playoffs is their defence, which hasn’t matched the dizzying heights of their offence.
The Hawks are very similar to the 36ers, in that their offence has been on fire and helped them run from the bottom to where they sit now, second place but still well of the pace being set by Adelaide but their defence is still lacking a little bit.
With a record of 12 wins and 12 losses, the Hawks are only just fending off the pack and still in danger of missing the playoffs, so they need to keep winning but this might be a bridge to far for Rotnei Clarke and his troops.
Worryingly for the Hawks, their form has just taken a bit of a tumble with the club struggling to put wins on the board last week and losing to both the struggling Cairns Taipans and New Zealand Breakers at home.
The losses brought their defence under serious scrutiny and it begs the question whether their offence has enough options to take them all the way to the finish line – something that can’t be questioned of Adelaide with backup options all over the court.
Prediction
The 36ers are just too good at the moment. Everything they try in offence is coming off for them, and it would take a brave man to back against them.
The Hawks aren’t playing bad Basketball themselves and this game will go down to the final seconds, but the 36ers, led by Jerome Randle who is going to be in for another monster performance as he pushed for MVP honours, will get the job done down the stretch.
36ers by 2.
Start time: 7:30pm (AEDT)
Venue: WIN Entertainment Centre, Wollongong
TV: Live, Fox Sports 503
Online: Live, NBL.TV
Betting: 36ers $1.85, Hawks $2.25
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