Basketball On The Internet.

ILLAWARRA clinching the NBL's 2024-25 regular season championship has set up the Hawks of likely Coach of the Year Justin Tatum for their first genuine run at a championship since being swept by arch rival Sydney in 2005's 3-0 best-of-five rout. Then last night, Taran Armstrong gave us the year's first triple-double.

It was one hell of a way to start the final round of the regular season, Armstrong's smooth 28 points, 10 assists, 10 rebound return closing Cairns' injury-disrupted season with a convincing 100-88 home win over a similarly afflicted Brisbane Bullets.

But for two late missed free throws which also would have given him a 30-point haul, Armstrong produced close to the perfect game, making the Taipans' last home game a joy for the club's hardy band of loyal supporters.

The round opened with Illawarra - missing Trey Kell with a slight groin injury, and Darius Days still out with his hamstring - in New Zealand to face a Breakers team now without Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

The match had its own distraction when Breakers import Matt Mooney had a more-than-animated ongoing row with coach Petteri Koponen after being subbed out during the second quarter.

Unsurprisingly, he did not return for the second half and the Hawks soared off for a 96-82 win, built on a 33-19 third period.

This is the best playing roster Illawarra - which is the last remaining foundation NBL club from 1979 - has assembled and winning its historic first regular season championship is a just reward.

In 2005, the Hawks went 20-12, finishing the regular season second to the Kings. It wasn't their last Grand Final Series appearance but it was one they looked capable of winning, building on the club's solitary championship in 2001.

That 2001 "team of destiny" finished 21-7, with Brendan Joyce at the helm and collecting the Coach of the Year accolade as they went on to beat Townsville for the title.

The Hawks wracked up a 25-8 season in 2004 but went out in the semi finals, just as they did way back in 1987 after posting their first 20-win season at 20-6 under another Coach of the Year in David Lindstrom. (The loss in the semis was to a Bullets outfit led by Leroy Loggins and on its way to the championship.)

Gordie McLeod drove his team to the 2009-10 GFS and Rob Beveridge got them there too in 2017 but his lineup was decimated and Perth went on a 3-0 championship sweep.

At 19-9 now, Illawarra could add a further 20-win season if it sweeps Sydney tonight.

Coming out of left field, it appears Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper is endeavouring to sew the seeds of distraction under the guise of breaking news, first by declaring the Kings' interest in soon-to-be Illawarra free agent Sam Froling, then following up with a story where Sydney centre Xavier Cooks is lauding the opportunity to play alongside him.

This reporting is such blatant tampering, the NBL should investigate and fine the sources for this nonstop barrage and attempt to destabilise Illawarra, right on the brink of the playoffs.

PS The media talking about how Illawarra has won its historic first ever "minor premiership" ... can we cut the football vernacular? Basketball doesn't have "Premiers" or minor premiers(hips). We have champions and regular season champions.

And yes, winning it DOES mean something, homecourt advantage through the best-of-three semi final series and the best-of-five Grand Final Series a valuable bonus for finishing a season at the top.