The major factor in Hawks' loss

The Illawarra Hawks have been the best offensive rebounding team all throughout NBL25, but had that advantage turned on its head by Melbourne United in Game 1 of the Championship Series.

Dean Vickerman's team had a defining 17 offensive boards for 22 second-chance points, while the Hawks managed just nine for 11 points, as Melbourne went 1-0 in the series with a 96-88 victory.

United outscored Illawarra 53-35 in the second half alone, with seven offensive rebounds for 11 second chance points to just three o-boards for the Hawks.

"That was major because we wanted to do to them what they did to us on the offensive rebounds," Hawks coach Justin Tatum said.

"I think that was probably the factor of how they started separating themselves from us, with the 17 offensive rebounds.

"By giving a team like that multiple shots, something is bound to go in and once they gain that momentum, it kind of affected us."

Even with the Hawks leading 53-43 at half-time of Game 1, that was without their All-First Team back court of Trey Kell III and Tyler Harvey being much of a factor.

That continued in the second half with Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova making their life difficult, as the pair combined for just 15 points on 7/21 shooting from the field, 1/9 from deep, just the five assists and didn't get to the line for a single free-throw.

That pair's performance was stark in winning or losing against the Phoenix too. In the two wins, they averaged 45 points, 10 rebounds and 8.5 assists between them, while in the Game 2 loss that was just 16 points on 4/23 shooting.

Tatum has full trust that his stars will bounce back in Game 2 in Melbourne on Wednesday night.

"There's not too much you need to say to guys like that, because when they are in the locker room they are disappointed and you can see they are harder on themselves than anybody else," Tatum said.

"You just remind them that we still believe and trust in you, and you bounced back last time when you both had a horrific game, so you can do it again.

"Trey and Tyler are true professionals and I just ask them how we can do better to get them going, and motivate them to let them know everything is going to be fine. I know for sure they are going to come back on Wednesday ready to go."

Hawks co-captain Sam Froling had a strong start to the Championship Series, with seven points in the first quarter of Game 1 and 12 points to half-time.

However, he only managed another four in the second half and Tatum even decided to go small for the last seven minutes.

"We were just trying to find a way to exploit them when they (United) were starting to guard Sam solid," Tatum said.

"I'm not sure if he was second guessing himself or whatever, but as they were doing that they were coming back.

"We wanted to find a way to gain an advantage or have Rob Loe or (Marcus) Lee to come out of the paint a little bit, and see if they can guard Darius (Days) or TB (Todd Blanchfield).

"We know this is Sam's series and we still have much faith and trust in him that he's going to bounce back on Wednesday, but it was just trying to find ways to get a different rhythm out there."