A belter? Surely that's a typo.

Why, to many grammar police around here. I'll move on and let others start match days then.

*too

Hawks, whilst rested, haven't had the match practice SEM have had. And they've got Walton back, but Foxwell has been great in his absence and might dog Harvey if he gets hot.
Hunter will need to stay out of foul trouble and Hurt can't have a bad game.
Hawks should win, but they have the weight of expectations on them now, if they're going to win it all they need to show they're the bullies of the league and take care of business.

Some high level execution from both these teams so far.

Both these sides got excellent benches, shoot out going down here.

Kell and Harvey trying to do too much. It's that simple.

SEM looking the stronger, Walton jnr and Foxwell so good. Hawks need something out Froling.

So far it has been a belter

Creek recommend Walton jnr to SEM, can he do what Creek couldn't and lead them to premiership, yes very early days. ::)))))

As usual spoke to early and SEM crashed in third quarter.

Disgusting. Do Phoenix have the worst rebounding in the league?

Always funny seeing the words "belter" and “Creek” in the same thread.... Allegedly…..

That was 5 seriously catastrophic minutes by SEM to go 65-54 to 65-75

Hawks should close out the series from here

Hawks just got it done despite Froling not not turning up in a big game again.

Tatum implores his side to play D in the 3rd and they delivered.

Froling didn't turn up but neither did Hurt and yes hawks turned it into a scrap and played D.
Congratulations to the refs, imo did an excellent job.

Agreed Dunkman , well officiated game.

Another reason why Hurt won't be recruited by Tassie. If he isn't scoring he wouldn't be on the court. SEM needed some buckets badly in the third as well as stops. Needless to say he did neither.
Froling did enough, Hunter was another to go missing. And if Wieskamp is one of the top scorers it's either very good or very bad.
Imagine if Adelaide had a player like Kell, oh, nevermind.

It wasn't quite a belter but a good demonstration of why Hawks should win the title if they stay healthy

Days not fit and barely played, Froling didn't have his usual imfluence, Lee wasn't used much.... and they still won with a little buffer

Hickey is awesome. If Perth had him, instead of say, Henshall or Webster, they'd be champions. It's about balance and Hawks have best balance and most weapons overall.

Good to see Blanchfield performing, felt bad about how it ended with Perth. He got a lot of hate

^ yeah, major X-Factor tonight. Love that for him.

"Hickey is awesome. If Perth had him, instead of say, Henshall or Webster, they'd be champions."

There is system and talent. Both are very important. Watching Perth unable to defend some simple Spanish action on the first play of G1 to give up a wide open Goulding three, it wouldn't matter who they have playing for them, the defensive system isn't there.

Hickey is still awesome though, some of these hawks players are well under paid for what they deliver. Olbrich, Hickey, Peatling, certainly leading the pack.

Fair point Mouse

I should've said, if they had Hickey instead of Webster or Henshall, and a better coach (possibly many other NBL coaches) they'd be champions!