R11 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix v Melbourne United

When: 8.00pm (AEDT), Saturday 27 March

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time

South East Melbourne 97 (Creek 31, Adnam 18, Te Rangi 12) d Melbourne 92 (Goulding 22, Landale 22, McCarron 12) – NBL Cup Week 4, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

This was a remarkable performance in a lot of ways from South East Melbourne and as it turned out the start of their current four-game winning streak while it was in the middle of Melbourne losing four in-a-row.

What made this a remarkable win for the Phoenix was that they did it without Keifer Sykes, Adam Gibson, Kendall Stephens, Dane Pineau and Ryan Broekhoff. They had just six full roster players available but Mitch Creek put the team on his back for 31 points and 10 rebounds but the game still went to overtime. Melbourne had the momentum heading into the extra period having fought back but Creek and Reuben Te Rangi were instrumental in securing the win.

Along with Creek's huge game, Kyle Adnam had another 18 points and eight assists with Te Rangi adding 12 points and nine rebounds, and Ben Moore 10 points, eight boards and two blocks. While United trailed for much of the night, Jock Landale and Chris Goulding still led their side with 22 points each. Mitch McCarron also had 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals for Melbourne with Jo Lual-Acuil adding 10 points, nine boards and three blocks.

The now

Both teams now come into Saturday night's Throwdown on winning streaks, both are getting closer to being at full strength and the stakes are high as the Phoenix and United lock horns for the seventh time.

The Phoenix did win the first ever Throwdown to open the 2019/20 NBL season but United won the next four including the last three of last season on the way to the finals and then the first clash of #NBL21 back on January 31 when they prevailed 96-90. Their last meeting was that Phoenix win at the NBL Cup and it's been an interesting ride for both Melbourne teams since.

The Phoenix had lost three of four games prior to that and were right down on manpower, but that win game them great confidence with Kyle Adnam, Izayah Le'afa, Reuben Te Rangi, Ben Moore and Cam Gliddon among those to step up further. The result has been follow up wins to close the NBL Cup against Cairns and New Zealand, and then a come from behind overtime win last week against Adelaide.

Now South East Melbourne could have all their players available at the moment ready to play on Saturday night. Keifer Sykes looks ready to return and with Dane Pineau, Adam Gibson and Ryan Broekhoff having worked their way back in, coach Simon Mitchell will like to have so many options at his disposal for the first time this season on Saturday night even with the continued unavailability of Mitch Creek.

Meanwhile, Melbourne's loss at the NBL Cup to South East Melbourne was part of a four-game losing streak. United went on to lose to the Hawks in Melbourne and the Kings in Sydney after that, and then found themselves having to battle hard to overcome Illawarra last Sunday. But they managed to pull out the 75-65 win with a strong second half and it was a similar case on Thursday night against the New Zealand Breakers. 

Melbourne rebounded from an 18-point deficit to dominate the tiring Breakers in the second half to secure the thrilling 82-79 victory. That gave United consecutive wins to bring with them into the Throwdown and while they can still play a lot better, the contributions from point guards Yudai Baba and Shea Ili was especially pivotal in the eventual victory.

United could very well be back to full strength come Saturday night with the possibility of both Jack White and Scotty Hopson being available to make their returns from injury.

The stats

- The Phoenix are attempting to win five consecutive matches for the first time in franchise history. The streak started against Melbourne at the NBL Cup and has continued with wins against Cairns, New Zealand and Adelaide.

- South East Melbourne is also attempting to beat Melbourne in consecutive Throwdowns for the first time. Their first win was to start their life in the NBL but Melbourne beat them the next four times. Now the Phoenix are looking back up that win a fortnight ago at the NBL Cup this Saturday night.

- Taking better care of the ball will be another focus area for Melbourne United. They have led the league in turnovers at 13.6 per game since the start of the NBL Cup.

- Chris Goulding needs three three-pointers to reach 500 of them with Melbourne United. He has currently hit 497 for United at 38.3 per cent. His career numbers have him on top in terms of current players having knocked down 775 three-pointers in his 328-game NBL career.

The key men

Cam Gliddon – Let's be honest we could have picked Keifer Sykes on his return, Ben Moore for his impact down low and potentially against Jock Landale or Ryan Broekhoff as he looks for an increased role, but nobody might be more important to the Phoenix than Cam Gliddon. That's for the all-round package he provides. He is cementing himself as one of the league's better defenders and he'll have the task to try and limit the impact of Chris Goulding in particular while when he's aggressive offensively and looking for his shot, and also willing to make plays, it's rare that the team doesn’t benefit positively.

Scotty Hopson – You don't want to put too much pressure on him right away if he does in fact get cleared to make his return for Melbourne United, and he might even be on the now infamous minutes restriction, but the fact remains they look a vastly different team with him in the line-up. He might not have necessarily shown the offensive output that we saw of him last season with the New Zealand Breakers, but he was warming to the task nicely and just made the team better at both ends of the floor. It was no surprise that with Hopson in the line-up Melbourne's record was 10-1 and it's now been just 2-4 without him so they'll be excited to welcome him back.

The quotes

Ryan Broekhoff is getting ready to play his fourth game in the NBL and first for the Phoenix against United as he tries to build on his minutes and role in the team after a year-long layoff from competitive action on the court.

He was sitting courtside last time the teams met with the Phoenix prevailing at the NBL Cup and now he's looking forward to being part of it with South East Melbourne hunting a fifth consecutive win.

"We are going in confident and believing we can win obviously. We are full of confidence but both teams have been playing well recently and it's going to be a really tough, tight contest. Hopefully we're able to come out ahead," Broekhoff said.

"It's a fierce rivalry that has been built already over the last two seasons and I kind of got a really good idea of what the passion is like during the NBL Cup only a week or so ago. I think I got an idea of the intensity and the passion that is the rivalry game, but for me to actually step on the court and be part of it is going to be really fun, and I'm looking forward to it.

"We're just trying to improve one game at a time, we've had a lot of guys coming in and out so we're adjusting to new rotations and new line-ups, and making sure everyone is on the same page. The guys have done a tremendous job so far of stepping up when those things happened and right now we're just focusing on United, and then we'll move onto the next game. 

"It has very much been a team approach so far with guys in and out, and other guys stepping up to fill that role. It has been a collective team effort to get those wins and I've done very little over that period, but it's been a fun streak for us and hopefully we can continue that now on Saturday night."

Broekhoff is also looking forward to welcoming back Keifer Sykes for the Phoenix and to get to play with him for the first time after their college battles when he was at Valparaiso University and Sykes at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

"It will be good to play with him instead of being on the opposite end like we were in college days," Broekhoff said.

"It'll be great to get another body back and obviously Keifer is a fantastic player at both ends of court offensively and defensively. It's going to be fun getting him back and we'll have a bit of time to get used to each other and how we play, but he's a big addition."

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman was relieved to come away with the win over New Zealand on Thursday but knows they'll need to start significantly better against South East Melbourne on Saturday if they hope to prevail.

"They've obviously reloaded right now and they have done well covering for Sykes with the way Kyle has played and now Izayah Le'afa has been a great find for them as well, and the contribution that he's made," Vickerman said. 

"Gibbo coming back now gives them that support and we obviously haven’t played against Broekhoff and his minutes have been a bit lower at the moment so we'll see what contributions he makes. They play great pick-and-roll basketball, they make good decisions and their bigs are great screeners, rollers and decision-makers. If you allow them to get some early advantages with their screening they can make life hard for you with the amount of shooters that they put on the floor. 

"In some ways this game was a great preparation for playing them and they did something similar to us last time we played by getting a big lead early on, we made our fightback but it wasn’t good enough. We've still got to find a way to play the way are in third and fourth quarters by getting a jump on teams, and putting some scoreboard pressure on their shooting. But lately people have been feeling pretty comfortable against us early on."

Mitch McCarron is having a tremendous season for United and he had another standout performance on Thursday against the Breakers, and he's looking forward to the challenge of taking on the Phoenix in Saturday's Throwdown.

"There's a little bit of passion for the city rivalry but we do have different guys coming in throughout the season, and we've had our ups and downs as both squads so I think this will be a competitive game for sure," McCarron said.

"Both teams know how they want to play and how we want to try and disrupt the other team, but we've both also both ins and outs with injury and illness. But hopefully everyone is at full strength for the most part in this game and we can go at it.

It would be huge to get those guys back. Both are great character guys who have been working their butts off to get back so they would certainly add to our group.

"They've got lots of guys stepping up and with guys stepping out with injury for them, they've had guys who really showed they can really play bigger minutes and bigger roles. That changes a little bit what we'll try and do with certain guys but we'll just see how it goes in the game now."