R10 Preview: Sydney Kings vs Melbourne United

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Friday 19 March

Where: Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney

Broadcast: ESPN; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Melbourne 83 (Landale 20, Hopson 14, McCarron 13) d Sydney 80 (Vasiljevic 22, Ware 21, Bruce 17), Round 7, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Round 10 kicks off with a pair of 2020 semi-final rematches, and the Capital City Clash three weeks ago showed that while there are plenty of new faces for both teams, the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry hasn’t changed one bit. The Kings backcourt trio of Casper Ware, DJ Vasiljevic and Shaun Bruce piled on 60 points and the visitors raced to a 13-point first-half lead, but with Jock Landale a force inside and Scotty Hopson and Mitch McCarron making plays down the stretch, United survived Ware’s late-game heroics to claim the W.


The now
Melbourne are trying to survive the absence of Hopson and Jack White right now, dropping three on the trot without Hop’s playmaking and the defence, rebounding, shot-blocking, rim raiding and perimeter shooting their energetic rookie was providing in spades. Round 9 provided dual concerns, their interior defence being opened up by the Phoenix, then their offence managing just 9 final-quarter points as they slumped against the Hawks.

Like United, the Kings scored just 69 against the miserly Hawks in Round 9, but bounced back to unleash 119 on the blissful Bullets. That broke a run of three losses from four games, but with Melbourne and Perth bracketing their upcoming run of three home games, things don’t get any easier. Sydney have only won back-to-back games once this season – in Round 4 and 5 – and the glass is a big factor in their 2-7 record in close contests.


The stats

- Sydney have the highest true shooting percentage and the lowest defensive true shooting percentage, but pull in the second-fewest o-boards (8.7) and allow the most (11.6)

 - The Kings have the third-highest offensive rating (117) and fourth-highest defensive rating (113.3) yet sit sixth on the Hungry Jack’s NBL ladder at 7-8

  - Melbourne are -36 in scores from ‘ones and twos’ in their past three games at -12 per night. Prior to that they were +24 across the season at +2.2

 - In the final term against the Hawks, United took nine of their 18 field-goal attempts from three-point land, and grabbed just two offensive rebounds from 14 missed field goals


The key men

Jarell Martin – Against Brisbane, Martin’s 21 points on 14 shot attempts took a huge amount of pressure off Ware, Vasiljevic and Bruce. The Kings went 15-of-27 from the arc against the Bullets, and have no doubt about Martin’s influence there, the big man scoring 14 of his points right at the rim to loosen the defence and open up his shooters.

Melbourne had just 2 blocks against the Hawks, after swatting 19 shots in their previous two games and leading the league with 5.2bpg, so expect Martin to go hard at Jock Landale, who picked up 4 fouls, didn’t block a shot for the first time in seven games and played just 25 minutes against Illawarra, his lowest tally since the opening-night rout of Adelaide.

Chris Goulding – A red-hot Bubbles generally spells troubles for opposition teams, and in CG43’s first two games back from injuries he dropped 43 points in less than 50 minutes – with 9 triples at 41 per cent – as Melbourne poured in 90ppg. But with only 3-of-12 treys falling against the Hawks, his team struggled to find alternative options from range.

They also couldn’t find penetration men to fill the significant gap left by Hopson in late-game situations, launching half their final-quarter attempts from the arc and making just one. Without Jack White in there to clean up the mess on the offensive glass, the reality is Melbourne need Goulding and Co hitting first to open up the inside for Landale.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CG is feeeeeling&#39; it from deep <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithUs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StandWithUs</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZqLF09Y2YY">pic.twitter.com/ZqLF09Y2YY</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1370672309057429506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The quotes

The sacrifices of the New Zealand Breakers have been most rightly noted and lauded this NBL season, but it’s also been three months almost entirely on the road for the Sydney Kings.

Where the Breakers now head to a temporary home, the Kings are thankful to get back to the real thing, although for import Jarell Martin a Melbourne hotel has been home for longer than the Harbour City.

“Everyone’s real enthusiastic about getting home, Jarell’s going to do the Sydney Harbour Bridge walk,” coach Adam Forde said after his team defeated Brisbane in a shoot-out.

“I don’t know man,” a clearly height-wary Martin replied, unaware his coach was setting him up.


“We’ll let him swim with sharks instead, he’ll enjoy that,” Forde laughed.

“Guys are going to get to see their families, if the borders allow it I'm going to try and get a sneaky trip back to Perth too, at least for half-a-day.

“It makes the packing bags and training this week much more enjoyable and easier knowing that we came off a win against a very good basketball team and we won it the way we had to, especially in the second half.”

There was obviously a lot to like about the Kings’ 71-point second half from an offensive standpoint, perhaps most of all that their backcourt getting plenty of scoring support from their bigs.

That started with Martin, who largely put aside his jump-shooting game to give the purple-and-gold the interior presence they'd been missing.

“It's good for me to be that dominant post player down there and be able to have my teammates trust me to give me the ball on the block and for me to be able to operate and get to the basket,” Martin said.

Then Craig Moller gave one of the league’s weakest offensive rebounding teams a spark, as they pulled in 46 per cent of available o-boards and racked up 19 second-chance points.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">HUGE. ???<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/tVlQylwQw1">pic.twitter.com/tVlQylwQw1</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1370653305525792773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“Craig was really big for us, his energy on both ends of the floor was great,” Martin said.

“We had both of our bigs out for the game due to fouls and Craig stepped up, and we need that from everyone when guys go down, we need that next man stepping up and we have those guys on this team.”

Moller also teamed with fellow bench big Tom Vodanovich to score 28 points on 5-of-8 from long-range to capitalise on the attention Martin, Casper Ware and DJ Vasiljevic attract.

“(Vodanovich) is another guy who can space it and stretch it as Brisbane were trying to get after our guards , especially in pick-and-roll action,” Forde said.

“He hit one three in front of the Brisbane bench, he shot it and he started running back mid-air and it just reminded me of watching him play in the New Zealand league. When he’s putting up shots like that he feels very comfortable.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tommy Vodanovich dominating at both ends of the floor. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeTheKings?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeTheKings</a> <a href="https://t.co/hMZhpHhYQE">pic.twitter.com/hMZhpHhYQE</a></p>&mdash; Sydney Kings (@SydneyKings) <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings/status/1370647070596423685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The Kings are feeling good, but a desperate Melbourne team awaits after dropping three on the bounce.

They almost fell to Sydney in Round 7 too, Mitch McCarron, Scotty Hopson and Jock Landale just finding a way to eke out a thrilling three-point win after the Kings had shut down their offence for large stretches and exploited their D from the perimeter early.

“They were great,” coach Dean Vickerman said of the Kings post-game.

“We haven’t played DJ yet and he showed us some things tonight just how elite he is from the three-point line and his ability to get to the rim as well.

“I thought he was special in that first quarter, and Casper comes out and hits his first shot as well to give them a bit of momentum.”

In the end, Melbourne’s ability to hold the Kings to 18 two-point baskets at 47 per cent, and a miserly 28 points in the paint, proved the difference, making the battle between Martin and Landale a pivotal one on Friday.

“We protected the rim really well,” Vickerman said.

“We lose Jack White, the best shot-blocker on the team but we still come up with the six blocked shots, and I thought (because of) our verticality, the number of free throws they shot was under 15.

“I thought our defence at the rim Jock was a big part of that tonight and certainly Jo (Lual-Acuil) coming off the bench played a big part in protecting the rim tonight as well.”