United dig in during "rough patch"

Dean Vickerman and Fabijan Krslovic summed it up as a "frustrating" weekend for Melbourne United, and it's hard to describe it any other way.

The six-time NBL champions lost both of their Round 12 fixtures in overtime, firstly in Adelaide on Friday night (114-105), before going down 92-86 to Sydney at John Cain Arena on Sunday.

Those two results see United fall to four straight losses (including losses to Perth and South East Melbourne), a far cry from their 9-0 start to the season.

Despite the result on Sunday, in which United played without star big man Jesse Edwards due to an eye injury, coach Vickerman played down that there were any danger signs for his 13-6 outfit, who still sit second on the ladder.

"I was concerned after the Perth and South East Melbourne games, as I thought we lacked just an intensity to really compete at this level," Vickerman said in Sunday's post-game press conference.

"For whatever reason, we found that again. But we haven't got the total synergy back with the group, but we're making winning efforts. [Honestly] I coached those first two games a little bit angry, just because that's not going to get you wins.

"But these last two games, while I'm still frustrated by referees' calls and I'm frustrated by some plays a little bit, I felt really positive ... because I know the things that we're doing are going to be sustainable for the end of the year.

"We've been through patches like this before and the work you do to get through this adversity, makes you a way better team when you come out the side."

Krslovic, who produced 16 points and 12 rebounds in the loss, said it was a tough two-game stretch.

"It [the results] are frustrating. We did a lot of really good things today to put ourselves in a position to win," Krslovic said.

"We still gave ourselves every opportunity to win the game, but taking care of the ball hurt us down the stretch.

"[Honestly though] there was a lot of good things that we can fall back on and take into the next game, because this league the games just come so quickly.

"You can't really get too caught up in what's going on, so just need to do whatever we can to best prepare for the next game."

United will look to end a four-game losing streak when they host Illawarra in a NBL25 Championship Series replay on Thursday from 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.