Phoenix is missing Ryan Broekhoff.

The Hawks are missing Justin Simon.

Hawks for me. By 7

Hawks by 5 at half. Reath v Creek good contest. Crowd looks very sparse.

Good game at the end, hawks were always better. Phoenix to hot and cold.

Hawks exploited Qi in the P&R all night. Qi was great with the ball and the Hawks has no answer for him in the post but just was not mobile and the Hawks found it very easy to run their stuff.

Big difference than the aggressive switching D that the JJ's threw at them last week which took them completely away from their systems.

I haven't watched much Hawks the last couple months. How's Antonio Cleveland going defensively?

Cleveland goes ok, XRM is the problem

Peter Hooley has Xi in his best defensive players awards watch list but if that is what the leagues best defender is going to give up then there are plenty of teams licking their chops eager to take him on after that performance.

XRM is most definitely the problem, in a league with Machado and Magette, Illawarra definitely needed a pass first point guard as the team is loaded but he thinks he needs to be more of a star than he is.

That was a fun contest and well done to the Hawksheads that actually turned up, I hope there is more support next time

Big win by the Hawks! This could be the one that turns their season around. Still a long way to go but SEM looking shaky to secure a finals spot and Sydney next opponent..

Yeah the Phoenix are spluttering right now. Defensively they are in a similar boat to the Hawks, but offensively the Hawks' ceiling is higher. I think they are a real risk of finishing #5 at this point, but there's still a bunch of critical games left and anything could happen. The two Kings/Hawks games near the end of the season are going to be massive.

Phoenix run too much out of Adnam and LeAfa. You've got Xavier Mumford there looking lost while back up point guards basically steal his minutes and possessions. The cure to Phoenix offense is simple - give the best players on the team the fucking ball - Mumford, Creek, Broekhoff, Qi.

I thought Harry Froling played his best game of the season last night.

Are teams starting to figure out how they can expose Xi?

I can see he is capable of blocking / changing shots, getting rebounds and be a target for lobs, but when good teams go small with mobile and stretch bigs like Cooks / Martin he could be a liability .

Last night was the perfect example. Put his guy in a P&R. When he dropped the ball handler made short jumpers. When he tried to show they either blew right by him or the big outpaced him to the O boards on a miss.

Can't block shit when you are spending so much time on the 3 point line.

He also looked gassed a lot last night from the effort to show and recover.

As I said though he was very effective at the other end. He scored almost every time he received the ball in the block.

But on the whole more downside than upside IMO.

I agree about Xi. Everyone raves about his blocking shots and altering shots but they aren't noticing how much of a liability he is out there in the PnR. Most bigs are getting big numbers against him and even career highs (JLA getting 30 against him).

Offensively he is a beast. Luckily he isn't playing for the Sixers because instead of being on the post they would have him running dribble hand offs like they are doing with DJ, Bairstow and 7'3 Sotto which is ridiculous. Unfortunately because Xi struggles to guard the PnR, foul prone and general fitness means he is limited in court time

Yes you would think on the other end that they can punish teams that match up Vic Law or Jarrel Martin on him.

With his height its almost guaranteed to be a 2 or a put back or foul.

Phoenix +7 with Qi on Thursday, -13 in 15 minutes without him.