Justin Tatum kept faith with Illawarra after consecutive home defeats by a combined 43 points. On Saturday night in Perth, his players gave him something more persuasive than a promise to improve: a 105–98 road win built on shared scoring, hard defence and a late response when the Wildcats threatened to run away with it.
The Hawks had dropped to 2–8 after losses to Sydney and Brisbane, and the coach admitted he was unusually nervous before facing Perth. His account of a demanding training week, published by the NBL on Sunday, centres on players trusting one another rather than a dramatic reshuffle. That distinction matters. Illawarra's problem had not been a shortage of individual talent; too often, its pieces had looked disconnected.
Perth tested that newfound cohesion. Illawarra led by as many as 15, only for the Wildcats to open the final quarter with a 17–6 surge and move two points ahead. The Hawks' own match account details the answer: Johny Narkle converted a four-point play, followed it with three free throws and helped turn a wobble into a 21–12 closing run. A team that had been losing its grip on games found a way to regain it on the road.
The contributions were spread across the floor. Kelan Martin scored 23 points and made five threes after managing only four points across his previous two outings. Makur Maker supplied 21, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk added 15 while making life difficult for Brandon Knight, and Davo Hickey finished with nine points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Tyler Harvey's seven assists offered another route into the offence. The official NBL match report records Knight shooting 4-of-13 for 12 points.
Tatum pointed to Illawarra's passing and willingness to play together as the standard he wants repeated. The Hawks also won the overall rebound count 37–29, according to the league's post-match coaching report. Neither statistic belongs to one star. Both describe the collective effort that was missing during the two heavy defeats, and both help explain why Saturday felt different from a narrow win stolen by a hot shooter.
There is an immediate test of whether that effort travels. Illawarra's official fixture sends them to Cairns on Thursday 5 November and Adelaide on Saturday 7 November, giving them two games in NBL27 Round 8. The road win moved the Hawks to 3–8, but they still have ground to recover. Tatum's challenge is to make the Perth performance ordinary rather than memorable.
For fantasy managers, the clearest signal is distribution rather than a sudden new pecking order. Hickey and Harvey both created for teammates; Martin's shot-making returned; Maker produced inside; and Narkle delivered when the game tightened. Those roles are worth tracking across the Round 8 double, but one balanced win does not establish a permanent minutes or usage shift. The Buckets NBL SuperCoach hub has the wider fixture context for managers planning their next decisions.
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