Delly Shoots Melbourne to Sixth Straight Win

The reigning champion Melbourne United are officially the hottest team in #NBL22 and Sunday's 88-84 win in Wollongong over the Illawarra Hawks was all about a career-best shooting night from Matthew Dellavedova.

On the back of a championship winning NBA career on top of being an Australian Boomers stalwart and bronze medallist, Dellavedova was a huge signing for United as they looked to defend their title this NBL season.

However, it was the leadership, the hustle, the defence and playmaking ability that were the major things he brought that United would be banking on. It wasn’t necessarily the shooting and scoring, but he had the hot hand at WIN Entertainment Centre on Sunday in remarkable fashion.

With his shooting having not been a noted strength, Dellavedova drew on the aura of his captain Chris Goulding on Sunday and incredibly made his first five three-point attempts, seven of his first eight and put up career numbers right across the board in the four-point win.

He finished the game with 33 points and nine assists including shooting 7/11 from deep and 11/18 overall. It goes without saying it's the best night of his NBL career but it surpasses by far anything he did in his 499-game NBA career too.

Dellavedova's career-high was 21 points for the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Detroit Pistons on March 26, 2014. That same game he made five threes and seven field goals, both the best he managed in the NBA.

The 11 field goals, seven threes and 33 points all surpassed that and Dellavedova was instrumental in United winning a sixth straight game and doing it impressively against a tough Hawks outfit.

Afterwards, Dellavedova was just happy that the work on his shot is starting to pay off.

"I might not have had that feeling since college or in a few NBA games so it's been a while," he said. 

"I have been working on my shooting for a while and even though I hadn’t been making a lot of shots, it had been feeling good. I'm always just going to keep shooting.

"It's just about trying to get open for a look and especially in that second quarter out of transition, our bigs did a really good job of running the floor. I just trailed in for a couple of threes and Caleb and Shea Ili found me. The boys did a good of finding me as well."

Jack White added 14 points and 11 rebounds for the winners, Caleb Agada 13 points and 15 boards, and Jo Lual-Acuil 11 points, 11 boards and four blocked shots.

Justinian Jessup also made his first five three-point attempts of the game for the Hawks on his way to 18 points while Harry Froling broke out with 14 points on 4/5 from deep. The pair combined for 9/12 from beyond the arc.

Duop Reath added 14 points and six rebounds, Antonius Cleveland 14 points and nine boards, and Xavier Rathan-Mayes 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Hawks coach Brian Goorjian lamented those three late offensive rebounds that robbed his team of a late chance to snatch it.

"It was critical and it was a guard in that position, but we probably had periods where it came to that. We fell down 10 with some bad shots and missed block outs, missed rotations and they just don't make those mistakes," Goorjian said.

"The key one that was in vision for everybody was that last possession from the foul line with the offensive rebounds, and that was a big miss. That was the game over and you just can't do that. 

"We lick our wounds and learn, but I don’t think this is anything to hang our heads about. I'm still trying to figure some things out and I know my group is going to get better. I don’t think you are going to play against any better than them."

The Hawks started well with an early Justinian Jessup three and holding Melbourne scoreless for almost three minutes, but they weren’t quite able to take full advantage despite leading 9-3 soon after thanks to Duop Reath.

Reath and Matthew Dellavedova soon traded three balls but it was Melbourne who finished the opening term better with a 6-2 run to lead 22-20 even though both teams were struggling from the field. The Hawks went 5/16 from two and United 6/16 in the opening quarter.

Even though the Hawks stayed close in the second with Jessup nailing a couple of threes on his way to 12 points for the half on 3/3 shooting from deep, the quarter was all about Dellavedova.

In what could very well have been the hottest shooting half of his life as a pro, he nailed back-to-back threes early in the term to put Melbourne up 32-28. He then nailed another to regain Melbourne's lead before scoring on a floater and then connecting on yet another three-pointer to go 5/5 from deep to put United on top by seven.

He might have missed a three on the half-time buzzer, but he had 19 points for the half on 5/6 shooting from beyond the arc while captain Chris Goulding had zero points on 0/5.

United was up 47-42 largely on the back of Dellavedova's heroics before Jack White opened the second half with his own triple to stretch that lead to eight. It would soon be 10 when Caleb Agada also connected from downtown.

The first half stars, Jessup and Dellavedova, then traded another three apiece before Goulding nailed his first triple of the game and Dellavedova his seventh to restore a nine-point edge heading towards three quarter-time.

The Hawks weren’t lying down, though, and three-pointers to Harry Froling, Antonius Cleveland and Duop Reath tied scores up at 68-68 going into the fourth period.

It was Dellavedova who would play game breaker in the fourth too firstly setting up Mason Peatling to finish inside, then hitting free-throws and scoring inside to put United up seven.

Harry Froling was keeping Illawarra in touch but then a huge Jo Lual-Acuil block on him at one end led to a Jack White finish up the other. That would give Melbourne an eight-point edge which they were able to consolidate into the four-point victory to give them six straight.

The Hawks remain in Wollongong to host the Perth Wildcats on Saturday while United stay on the road to take on the Adelaide 36ers on that same evening.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 7

ILLAWARRA HAWKS 84 (Jessup 18, H Froling 14, Cleveland 14, Reath 14)

MELBOURNE UNITED 88 (Dellavedova 33, White 14, Agada 13) 

BOX SCORE