Goulding and United stay undefeated in Brisbane

On paper, it may look like a heavy defeat for the Brisbane Bullets but the reality is they pushed Melbourne United harder than the championship favourites would have liked in their 109-96 win at Nissan Arena.

Flying into Brisbane with a stacked roster and three wins in their pocket already, United would have been confident of victory against a hot and cold Bullets outfit still trying to establish their identity with a largely new roster in #NBL21.

What they encountered was a furious resistance led by snubbed former Australian Boomer Nathan Sobey (27 points including five three-pointers) who took out his frustrations on missing the plane to Tokyo on United. 

Vic Law was also enormous with 20 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks.

There were also contributions from St Mary's recruit Tanner Krebs (11 points) in his biggest NBL game to date, Matt Hodgson (11) on the comeback trail from injury and import Orlando Johnson (10 points, seven rebounds) who is also playing under duress.

For the most part, the Bullets were warriors that refused to say die. But there was nothing that could stop Boomer Chris Goulding on Friday night. 

The guard put on an offensive exhibition with 27 points that included 7/11 shooting from long range, including four clutch triples in the final quarter that beggared belief. 

Import Scotty Hopson started slowly but warmed to the task with 16 points, four assists and three steals while big-name recruit Jock Landale finished with huge numbers, including 20 points, 12 rebounds and five assists.

The sheer number of stars on court meant there were too many weapons for a Bullets side that did not play poorly and any team that tastes victory against United this season is going to need contributions from their entire bench.

Melbourne came into the match with their much-vaunted roster, but their depth was tested early when Tall Blacks guard Shea Ili hobbled off the court with a suspected ankle injury.

United coach Dean Vickerman said that Ili's injury was actually the catalyst for the win as it unlocked Hopson who had not lived up to his form from last season to date.

"Having Shea Ili go down early, he has been so good for us. He was someone with some semblance of a chance of containing Nathan Sobey who is playing at such a high level right now," he said.

"Scotty Hopson needed something like that to happen for him today. He grabbed it in the second half and looked like the Scotty Hopson that played in this league last year. We knew the way they pack the paint that we had an opportunity to shoot the ball and Chris and Jock made massive plays for us ... down the stretch."

Unfortunately for United, Vickerman said they are bracing themselves for the worst with Ili.

"He is quite certain that he has done a good one," he said.

"I feel for him, he was playing such great basketball right now but now there are opportunities that allow other people to step up."

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis who said there were still many positives they could take out of the match.

"You can play well and still lose as well," he said.

"There will be some learnings, some improvements related to what we do offensively. They definitely made some plays and Goulding did some Chris Goulding stuff, but some of that was generated by what we were doing on the offensive end.

"They are a good basketball team but for the most part we played pretty well and it was a decent game of basketball."

Lemanis also expressed surprise that Sobey missed out on Olympics selection but said his star player had responded well.

"He deserved his spot in the group but there are a lot of good players there," he said.

"I think Sobey has done a really nice job of dealing with that and moving on, it is part of what makes him such a good player."

United was doing a job in defence, restricting Law and Sobey to just two points between them late in the quarter so Brisbane had to find looks elsewhere. 

Krebs was the man they needed, pulling off two late clutch plays to sell a pass fake and also cut through the United pack to get to the rack and lead his side to a 31-26 quarter-time lead.

Johnson has lacked punch thus far in #NBL21, partially hampered by an elbow image, but he came out firing in the second quarter with seven rapid points. The home side was flying but all it took was a minute for United to show their class and steal the ascendancy back with a 5-0 run.

Again Brisbane was able to adjust to lead by one at the main break as they showed they were not going to lead Melbourne to get off the leash. That was until United started getting hot and again in the blink of an eye the visitors led by eight early in the third quarter. 

You couldn't fault the tenacity of Brisbane who managed to grind their way back once again to trail by just a single point at the last break in a see-sawing encounter. Again Melbourne jumped out by eight, again Brisbane came back - it was going to be a thrilling finale.

United needed a star and luckily for them their roster is full of them, Hopson and Landale burying crucial daggers that slammed a mountain in front of the valiant Bullets.

But Sobey was everywhere, slotting home a triple and forcing a stop at the other end in a furious display from the shunned former Boomer. Even when Goulding nailed a crucial triple with two minutes to go, Sobey immediately answered with an off-balance three-pointer of his own.

But the laser shooting of Goulding was just relentless. Four three-pointers in the final quarter at crucial moments were the tale of the tape and put to bed a brave Brisbane resistance.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 4

BRISBANE BULLETS 96 (Sobey 27, Law 20, Krebs 11, Hodgson 11)

MELBOURNE UNITED 109 (Goulding 27, Landale 20, Hopson 16) 

BOX SCORE