Hawks coach takes positives from NBL loss

While Illawarra went down 90-81 to Brisbane in their NBL season opener on Sunday, rookie Hawks coach Flinn saw enough to get him excited.

Both of the Hawks' highly-touted new players seemed to be fitting in with the team, with coach Flinn happy to see the chemistry coming along.

"Everyone saw tonight that we're going to be an exciting group to watch, we just didn't execute down the stretch," he said.

"Those two guys are natural scorers, we certainly have a lot of belief in them" said Flinn, about Americans LaMelo Ball and Aaron Brooks. Both of those guys are tremendous talents."

However, despite a woeful shooting night for the Hawks, Flinn is not ready to declare an emergency quite yet.

"I feel like tonight was just one of those nights, we shot 16 per cent from three, 64 per cent from the free-throw line, I don't think that's going to happen again.

"It bodes well for where we're going, we're happy with where we're at, we have got a great bunch of guys and we're really together.

"We just need to fix up a few little things execution wise. We don't get too up, we won't get too down, and there's still a long way to go."

It was a relatively close game for the most part, with three of the four quarters being within a single point of each other.

However, a solid stretch by the Bullets to begin the second half was ultimately the decider for Brisbane, a 12-0 run proving too much for the Hawks to fight their way back from.

Brooks scored 23 of the Hawks points, providing a steady hand on offence that the Hawks went to down the stretch.

Teenage top-five BNA draft prospect Ball was seemingly everywhere on the court, with a number of highlight plays to get the home crowd buzzing.

Scoring 12 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, as well as four steals and a block, he did a little bit of everything and was involved on both sides of the court.

Ball also had a jaw-dropping double crossover against Taylor Braun, however Josh Boone was unable to finish the dunk and hand him an additional assist.

Illawarra will need to find a way to execute at a higher level next week, as they travel to Perth to take on the current NBL Champion Wildcats.

Australian Associated Press