Preview: SE Melbourne v Melbourne (Round 9)

When: 8pm (AEDT), Saturday 3 December, 2022

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Foxtel; Sky NZ

Who won the last time?

South East Melbourne 84 (Creek 23, Williams 18, Browne 16) d Melbourne 69 (Tucker 22, Goulding 15, Rathan-Mayes 13) – Round 7 at John Cain Arena

Never before has South East Melbourne put a beat down on big brother quite like this one, leading by as many as 24 and holding United to 46 points in the opening 30 minutes at a putrid 33 per cent. Gary Browne, Mitch Creek and Alan Williams were all dominant at the offensive end, while only Melbourne’s perimeter troika had an impact on the scoreboard, the rest of their roster combining for just 19 points on a wayward 7/27 from the field.

What happened last game?

The Phoenix were on the other side of that kind of barrage on Thursday. They were 6-1 with their full starting five heading into Christchurch and were tied late in the opening term, but were outscored 92-66 over the final 33 minutes thanks to some seriously reactive defence. Melbourne were much-improved against the JackJumpers, leading for 37 minutes before capitulating at both ends down the stretch, outscored 17-6 in the final six minutes.

What’s working?

The Trio – Over Melbourne’s past four games, Chris Goulding, Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Rayjon Tucker have averaged 54.3ppg at 53 per cent. Since Shea Ili’s side-lining after the Round 6 Throwdown, that trio have accounted for 66 per cent of United’s total score, with the supporting cast contributing just 9.7 field goals at 34 per cent. While the big three firing is welcome news, Melbourne must find ways to use their form to get others involved.

Alan Williams – 'Big Sauce' is averaging 22.8ppg at 61 per cent and 10.4 boards in his past five games – including 24.0ppg and 14.5rpg in two Throwdowns – and he needs more of the ball. In the first quarter against New Zealand, Williams touched the ball on eight possessions, which delivered 15 points at 83 per cent and no turnovers. South East Melbourne’s other 12 possessions produced just eight points at 42 per cent and four turnovers. Going the other way, NZ scored 12 points at 38 per cent after Williams’ eight possessions, compared to 25 points at 89 per cent from the other 12, showing how the stability he brings to their O also helps their transition D.

What needs stopping?

The defensive roller-coaster – Buckle up Phoenix fans for the ride of your life. Get picked apart by Melbourne, then set a club-best Throwdown defensive mark the next round. Lock down Illawarra, then don’t bother at the defensive end against New Zealand. Until defence is a constant South East Melbourne won’t be a genuine contender, and giving up 110 to Melbourne, 103 to Perth and 110 to the Breakers in the space of four rounds isn’t getting it done.

Possession pansies – The Perth and Breakers dynasties were built on possession dominance, and Dean Vickerman brought that philosophy to Melbourne and claimed a pair of titles. How he would despise seeing his team going -30 in the possession game in their past four outings, including -19 in a pair of Throwdowns. That XRM and Tucker are United’s best rebounders over that span tells you some bigger men need to step up, while only forcing 10 turnovers per game shows the team hasn’t stood up to replace Ili’s intensity.

Who’s matching up?

Phoenix v Chris Goulding – In the Round 6 Throwdown, Goulding went off for 30 points on 17 shot attempts and 7/12 from long range to be the game-breaker. Two weeks later, Bubbles managed 15 points on just five three-point attempts thanks to the full-court pressure sparked by Gary Browne that disrupted supply, and improved off-ball efforts of Trey Kell, Junior Madut, Ryan Broekhoff and Browne. With Kell injured and Browne potentially hampered this time around, it will take another huge team defensive effort to subdue CG43.

Gary Browne v Xavier Rathan-Mayes – XRM had 13 points at 50 per cent, eight rebounds, seven assists and Melbourne were +2 with him on the floor in their 15-point loss to SEM, and while coach Vickerman was critical of his point guard, in reality the Phoenix took the ball out of his hands and he didn’t get it back in dangerous spots often enough. Without Humphries inside, the time is right to make the most of Rathan-Mayes quality post game.

Mitch Creek v David Okwera – Melbourne may not have 99 problems, but Mitch certainly is one. He was unstoppable in Round 7 with 23 points and nine boards, the Phoenix +22 with their skipper on court and -7 in the other seven minutes. The challenge for United and Okwera is avoiding switches on the downhill screening action SEM run for their star, while still being able to get a hand on his jumpshot, which is dropping at 39 per cent from deep.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">????? ?? ?? ?????? ?<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ESPNAusNZ</a> ?? <a href="https://twitter.com/kayosports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kayosports</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/Foxtel?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Foxtel</a> <a href="https://t.co/qvpl1HSgrv">pic.twitter.com/qvpl1HSgrv</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1593876299906711558?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 19, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who’s saying what?

Take away Game 3 of the NBL21 semi-finals and it’s hard to remember a Throwdown with a more intriguing build-up to this one.

Just three rounds ago, United seemed to have blown away their early-season frustrations as they ran up 110 points on little brother to win by 25.

Shea Ili was back in uniform with an impressive 15 points and four assists in 19 minutes, the ultra-energetic point guard getting Melbourne’s speed game back on track.

Chris Goulding was a chief beneficiary with 30 points, as was Isaac Humphries with all his 20 points coming at the cup as he and CG formed a deadly inside-outside duo the Phoenix didn’t know how to defend.

Xavier Rathan-Mayes didn’t have to carry so much of the load, taking just 11 shot attempts and dishing eight dimes to just two turnovers.

It was a masterful performance, so much so it’s hard to imagine United have gone 0-3 since then, including a Throwdown humiliation of the highest order where their offence didn’t get going until junk time.

“Credit to the Phoenix, they disrupted tonight and our biggest offensive problem was getting started with people in spots and our point guard being able to organise,” coach Vickerman said.

“They did a good job of taking it out of our point guard’s hands, or if he was carrying it, it was disrupted and there were so many possessions where it felt like we started out of position and then people just, when the pressure came, felt they had to attack it and short-cut our offences.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">TURN IT INTO AN NFT ?<br><br>Tune in: ESPN via Kayo or Foxtel<a href="https://twitter.com/th3flighttuck?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@th3flighttuck</a> <a href="https://t.co/p62AM6SodC">pic.twitter.com/p62AM6SodC</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1596453230246236160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

After a highly-impressive showing for much of the night, a similar thing happened in the final quarter last round, Melbourne scoring just six points in the final seven minutes to be overrun by Tasmania.

“That’s been us, we can play for periods of time with good energy and sharing the basketball, then we can go through periods where we can’t,” Vickerman said, almost prophetically before the JJs game.

“It’s been a constant theme without Shea Ili, I think our offence looks so much different when he’s in the game for us. He’s our point guard, he’s our leader, he knows our stuff and I don’t think we’ve quite got that from other people at the moment.”

Now they must face the Phoenix without not only Ili, but also Isaac Humphries.

That puts added pressure on new import Marcus Lee, but he showed against the JackJumpers he can be a force with 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 17 minutes.

The performance prompted assistant coach Daryl Macdonald to describe the big man as “exactly what we wanted”.

“Defensively he was really good, that was one of the main reasons we brought him in, he blocks shots , he has active hands,” D-Mac said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Double-trouble from Marcus Lee ?<br><br>Making his presence FELT in one exceptional defensive play ??<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. <a href="https://t.co/whiNj3jZsN">pic.twitter.com/whiNj3jZsN</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1596448922838278144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“After a week, he showed that he’s pretty smart, he picked the offence up pretty easily, and down the line he’s going to be really good for us.”

Thursday’s no-show in New Zealand wasn’t exactly what the Phoenix wanted leading into a cross-town derby, but at least it might put a sting in their tail to match Melbourne’s.

Funnily enough, it was a horror road loss in Cairns that sparked United to their Round 6 Throwdown mauling, while South East Melbourne bounced back from an off-night in the Jungle to dismantle Vickerman’s men one round later.

You can bet coach Mitchell will be highlighting the passive nature of their ball-screen defence to make sure Rathan-Mayes, Goulding and Tucker can’t exploit them in the same way.

“I guess we need to respond similar from our trip to Perth before playing Melbourne United last time,” Mitchell said.

“Certainly, from a defensive stand-point we’ve got to be able to fight over screens much better than that. We’ve got to be able to communicate a whole lot better than that.

“So if we get those two things right, we have some things there that we expect of each other on any given night which I don’t think we performed well tonight.

“We’ll go back through the video have a look at those, point them out to where we can be better in those areas and that usually takes care of the rest of our game.”