How JLA, Melbourne shut down Phoenix

The biggest games always demand a hero to step up. Usually that’s in the form of someone making big shots on the offensive end, but in Melbourne United’s Thursday night Throwdown win over South East Melbourne, it was undoubtedly Jo Lual-Acuil Jr and his immense rim protection that proved the difference.

Lual-Acuil Jr finished the 28-point thumping with an equal-career high seven blocks, to match the total he set against the Phoenix in 2021. He was also one of seven United players to end the game in double-digit scoring and was just a trio of boards away from his third double-double of the season.

Four of his seven rebounds on the night also came on the offensive end against one of the best rebounders in the NBL, Alan Williams.

The highlight of Lual-Acuil Jr’s ridiculous night came with his chase-down block on Ben Ayre early in the fourth quarter. United led by 16 at the time, and the full-court defensive play was the straw that broke the Phoenix’s resistance.

“I saw him trying to get a layup and I tried to make a play. With those I’m living with a goal-tend if they call it, if they don’t then all good. No easy layups,” Lual-Acuil Jr said post-game.

“I think the intent is not so much trying to block it, it’s trying to be in the right spots and trying to wall up, and more often than not they just throw the ball into your hands.

“That’s what our defence is built on, having guys like ‘Shili’ (Shea Ili) – dog guys – who push them down and then we contest. It’s a mix of everything.”

Head coach Dean Vickerman added a discussion after last week’s 35-point win over Brisbane prompted Lual-Acuil Jr’s shot-blocking spree.

“We sat down and watched some clips from the Brisbane game and thought there were a couple more he could have really protected the rim with,” Vickerman said.

“He’s always to me ‘just tell me what you want me to do tonight’, it was protect the rim a little better and he was magnificent. Not only in protecting the rim on people coming down at him, but the chase down blocks on people going for layups.

“The commitment he made to just challenge those was outstanding.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It’s a JLA block party in John Cain Arena ?<br><br>Catch all the action on ESPN via Kayo ? <a href="https://t.co/PL0UXDuvGx">pic.twitter.com/PL0UXDuvGx</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1735231195519328290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Vickerman had discussed the prospect of unleashing Lual-Acuil Jr in tandem with Next Star Ariel Hukporti during pre-season, but injuries to key players across the campaign had prevented it from happening thus far – until Thursday’s Throwdown.

While it was only a short period in which the pair of centers were on the floor together, Vickerman says it’s a combination he will continue to explore as the campaign plays out.

“We still haven’t got the reps into them at practice that we need to with the makeup of practice at the moment. We thought it was a good opportunity to do it,” Vickerman said.

“We got three minutes of them playing together and we were able to shrink the floor and dominant rebounding. Rhys Vague was a challenge running around shooting threes at the end there, but it’s something we certainly want to get more reps into.”

Next on Melbourne’s list of opponents is a new-look Adelaide side still finding its feet under interim coach Scott Ninnis.

Ninnis commented during the week that he expects minimal changes to the game plan the 36ers implemented against Melbourne in Round 1, but Vickerman is prepared for the potential necessity to make adjustments on the fly come Saturday.

“Looking at the game the other night against Cairns and probably most of my scout it going to come from that game,” he said.

“Scotty’s talking about how he’s had another week to prepare so we have to be ready for anything. We saw mixes of zone the other night, them trying to play a little bit faster, different lineups than we’ve seen on the season.

“They could throw anything at us but tonight gives us good confidence to say whatever was thrown at us, we handled it pretty well so I’m sure there’ll be some in-game adjustments once we see some different things.”

Melbourne will face Adelaide on Saturday at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.