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Cairns Taipans vs Illawarra Hawks Tips, Preview & Live Stream - Hawks to seal big win in NBL

Ryan Tucker

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Last updated: 22 Jan 2025

Ryan Tucker 22 Jan 2025

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Cairns Taipans vs Illawarra Hawks expert predictions for Thursday’s Round 18 NBL matchup
Hawks to record a dominant win against Cairns
Lachie Olbrich is expected to surpass his average points against Cairns

Expired

Olbrich for Overs in this matchup (Getty)

Cairns Taipans vs Illawarra Hawks Preview
Head to Head
Cairns Taipans Form
Illawarra Hawks Form

Cairns Taipans vs Illawarra Hawks Preview

Illawarra can score big against struggling Cairns Taipans and claim a dominant victory. The Hawks can score 100+ with Lachie Olbrich leading the way.

Illawarra lead the league in scoring with 102.2 pts per game.
The Hawks average 51.7 pts in the Paint (1st), and 35.3 bench points (2nd).
Cairns allow 3rd most points in the paint and 4th most bench points to their opponents.
Lachie Olbrich is averaging 9pts on the season but is averaging 12+ points against Cairns.

Head to Head

2024/25 Match Results

Sep 21st 24: Cairns 75-102 Illawarra

Oct 19th 24: Cairns 75-87 Illawarra

Jan 3rd 24: Illawarra 105-108 Cairns

2023/24 Season Series

Cairns Taipans won 2-1

Cairns Taipans Form

Cairns followed up their win over the Bullets with a 99-75 loss at home to the 36ers on Sunday. The Taipans shot just 35% from the field which was always going to hamper their scoreline despite putting up 81 shots in the game, 11 more than their season average.

The 75 points from Cairns was their lowest score in their last five games after seemingly turning a corner offensively. Sam Waardenburg had just four points on 2-5 shooting while Taran Armstrong and Rob Edwards had 11 pts each.

Defensively they were able to restrict second chance points to Adelaide giving up just four over the course of the game. The interior defence struggled with the 36ers scoring at a 63% clip from 2pt range.

The Taipans are the seventh ranked scoring defence allowing 95.1 pts per game to their opponents.

Illawarra Hawks Form

The Hawks gave their title hopes a massive shot in the arm with their two most recent victories over Melbourne United who were sitting in second spot in the standings, and Brisbane who now are out of the race.

The win propelled Illawarra further away from the rest of the league with twi more wins and one less loss than the Wildcats who have taken over second.

The 121-87 win over the Bullets secured a season sweep for Illawarra and once again it was the usual suspects attacking the rim and scoring at will.

The Hawks scored 80 of their points in the paint hitting 62% of their 2pt attempts. Six players scored in double digits with a further two players reaching nine points.

All 13 players saw court time with coach Tatum giving his main players some rest ahead of a predicted deep finals run.

Illawarra have been dominating teams on the interior this season and average 51.7 points in the paint, 7.7 points more than SE Melbourne who sit 2nd in that statistic. They also have the fourth best 3pt% showing they can attack you from anywhere on the court.

Star import Darius Days left the game early with hamstring tightness, it is still yet to be determined if he will miss significant time.

Verdict

Cairns Taipans v Illawarra Hawks

Illawarra can score 100+ in a dominant victory. Lachie Olbrich has scored in double digits in all three games against the Taipans so take him to go Over his total in this one.

Illawarra -11.5

Line

@9/10 - 1 Unit

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Illawarra Over 106.5

Team Total

@9/10 - 1 Unit

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L Olbrich 10+

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L Olbrich 15+

Player Points

@31/10 - 1 Unit

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