Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum confident his team can take down Melbourne United in NBL grand final

It’s been more than 20 years since one of the NBL’s proudest teams has won a grand final, and now they have their chance they won’t let it go.

Illawarra Hawks coach Justin Tatum will not be satisfied with his team’s record-breaking season until they secure the club’s second National Basketball League championship.

The Hawks soared into their first NBL grand final series in eight years with a ruthless 126-96 rout of South East Melbourne Phoenix at WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong on Wednesday night, setting up a best-of-five showdown with Melbourne United.

Game one of that series between the league’s top two teams will be in Wollongong on Saturday night, and Tatum wants the Hawks to feed off the energy they generated from their dismantling of South East Melbourne.

Frontrunners and favourites for most of the season, the Hawks have qualified for just the fifth grand final appearance of their 47-year history and are chasing a second banner after winning in 2001.

Hawks head coach Justin Tatum celebrate with Sam Froling. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

A mid-season replacement last year, Tatum took the Hawks to the semi-finals only to suffer a 2-1 defeat at the hands of United in the best-of-three series.

In his first full season in charge at Illawarra, Tatum oversaw a 20-9 regular-season win-loss record and first place on the ladder for the first time in the club’s existence, earning NBL Coach of the Year honours for his efforts.

“I feel confident, especially after the display of my guys playing today and knowing that we’ve got three more games to finish the job that we’ve had in mind for the whole season, to win the whole thing,” Tatum said after finishing off Phoenix.

“Melbourne is a professional, really good, great team. They have the same aspirations that we do, to win the whole thing, but they’ve got to come here first.

“Hopefully, we can build off this game and find a way to pull one out on Saturday.

“Any type of memory in Illawarra that you create is going to be great, like we did in the regular season, being No.1, and having all the accolades that we did.

Hawks celebrate winning game three. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“So anything we can do, we want to be part of history with these guys, but at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we finish it up. And we want to finish off with a ‘chip’.”

Phoenix squared the semi-final series with a 101-94 win in game two in Melbourne last Sunday, forcing the decider in Wollongong, but Tatum was confident the Hawks would bounce back to their best on their home court.

Illawarra led 70-44 at halftime – the most points in a first half by any team all season – and their total of 126 points and winning margin of 30 were the most in a playoff game by any Hawks team in history.

“It came from a bad performance on Sunday,” Tatum said.

“The guys really wanted to find a way to get it back, play well, play together and play to win, and not play to have good stats individually, so that’s kind of what we talked about.

Tyler Harvey takes it to the hoop. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“They didn’t want to let themselves, our season down, the crowd down … the performance was all on them. They knew that today was going to be a slugfest and we came out punching.”

Hawks import Trey Kell III set the standard, posting a game-high 30 points, five assists and four rebounds, shaking off his substandard eight points on one-of-10 shooting in their game two loss in Melbourne.

“Honestly, the positive we took from game two was that we played awful, and we lost by seven points,” said Kell, whose first-quarter energy inspired his teammates and engaged the sellout Sandpit crowd.

Kell was a perfect five-of-five in posting 16 first-quarter points and he had 26 by halftime.

“It ignites us,” Tatum said.

“Seeing him with that energy, getting the crowd going, finding his spots and getting shots early, it does nothing but ignite us and gets everybody else going … When he gets going like that, man, we’re unstoppable.”