R12 Preview: Melbourne United vs Cairns Taipans

When: 5.30pm (AEDT), Friday 2 April

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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


The last time
Melbourne 88 (Landale 18, Baba 17, McCarron 17) d Cairns 81 (Noi 27, Oliver 18, Machado 14), Round 6, John Cain Arena

The first 25 minutes of this NBL Cup contest were classic Cairns, with Scott Machado setting the table, Cam Oliver scoring inside and out, Kouat Noi playing the offensive part of DJ Newbill and the Taipans’ role players filling the gaps. But an 11-2 run brought Melbourne back within a bucket late in the third, then a 20-7 burst early in the fourth put the game in their control. Five quick points from Machado had the Snakes back within a trey, but Mitch McCarron picked his pocket and Jack White locked in a United win at the other end.


The now
That’s been the story of the season for Cairns, so close but yet so far. They’ve dropped two games to United by a total of nine points and have suffered six defeats by two baskets or less. But with the exception of a slow start in Perth, their recent run of form has been good, highlighted by a 14-point home demolition of Adelaide where they allowed just 65 points at 38 per cent, the fourth time in six games they’ve held an opponent to 81 points or fewer.

Since Melbourne were pummelled by Sydney in Round 10 they too have turned the defensive screws, culminating in last week’s humiliation of cross-town rivals SE Melbourne, who managed just 60 points. While this season’s NBL isn’t the high-scoring event we've become accustomed to in recent seasons, holding any professional team to 60 points is an outstanding effort, and Cairns will need to win the possession game to post a winning total.


The stats

 - In Round 10, the Kings scored 103 points at 56 per cent, dishing 25 dimes to 9 turnovers. In three games since, Melbourne have conceded just 68ppg at 36 per cent, with 33 assists to 38 turnovers

 - Melbourne have pulled in 76 per cent of available defensive boards this season. The best defensive rebounding percentage of the past decade is last season’s Sydney Kings (75%)

- The Taipans average 13.8 o-boards in wins this season, compared to 9.4 in defeat

 - Cairns are 3-9 in games decided by 10 points or less. Last season they started 1-5 in close games, then went 9-5 over the rest of the season



The key men

Cam Oliver – It’s no secret Space Cam is a key man for Cairns, his energetic best bringing a buzz to the entire Snakes team. Gaining extra possessions is crucial against Melbourne, and with Majok Deng still sidelined much of that falls to Oliver. But it’s perhaps his defensive rebounding that is most important, the Taipans 4-3 when their star centre grabs 8 or more d-boards and sparks their transition, but 1-11 on his less prolific nights. At the other end, his ability to hit threes and drive around bigger players will be key against Jock Landale and Co.

Mitch McCarron – Over the past five games Mitch has averaged a cool 13.6ppg at 49 per cent, 6.6rpg and 4.2apg as his all-court play helped steady the United ship after four-straight losses. He has pulled in 21 defensive boards in his team’s current three-game streak to get their open-court game going, something desperately needed given Melbourne have averaged just 76.2ppg on only 7.6 made triples in their past five games. Defensively, McCarron, Shea Ili and Yudai Baba will likely share the crucial duties on Machado.


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Mitch puts on the jets to find JL upstairs. We&#39;re 20pts up, 5:11 to go.<br><br>?: <a href="https://t.co/Sy5Mbw3xNo">https://t.co/Sy5Mbw3xNo</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithUs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StandWithUs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/JockLandale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JockLandale</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MitchMcCarron?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MitchMcCarron</a> <a href="https://t.co/T2Q1MdmRWs">pic.twitter.com/T2Q1MdmRWs</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1375758175530409990?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The quotes

After being the team that won over fans all around the Hungry Jack’s NBL last season with their energy and passion, the Cairns Taipans have cut a sad collective at times in 2021 with some dispirited body language.

There was none of that last Sunday as they did a job on Adelaide, and it left coach Mike Kelly a happy man.

“Even when things didn’t go well and we were up and down on the court, the energy continued to be good and I was really happy about that,” he said.

“I think if we have that consistently the other stuff is going to work itself out as we continue to work … the whole first half we couldn’t get in a flow and turned the ball over, but we continued to work with good energy.

“I was super excited just to play with that energy consistently, we've been up and down with that and things have affected us when we haven't played great.

“It was great to see the guys battle through and have each other’s backs as we fought.”

While Scott Machado is undoubtedly the team’s on-court leader, there is no doubt Cam Oliver is the spiritual leader, and it was no surprise he was behind their resurgent approach.

“The past two games I played I wasn’t satisfied with myself and I'm pretty sure it wasn’t (good enough) for the team and the coaches as well,” he said.

“So I really took a big look in the mirror and figured out what I needed to go to get things going for myself and get the team going for everybody else.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Space Camm knows how to finish off a great pass ? <a href="https://t.co/dSNpBZLqkX">pic.twitter.com/dSNpBZLqkX</a></p>&mdash; Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1376075983606882304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


That process started early in the week ahead of the Sixers clash.

“It was noticeable this week at practice he was more vocal, telling teammates where they needed to be in a positive way, and it just made him active and attentive to scout, it was all positives,” Kelly said.

It’s enough to give Snakes fans hope ahead of this week’s away-home double against the second-placed United.

“It’s been one game at a time for us for a while, and there’s a bunch of games coming up now where we’ll be on flights,” Kelly said.

“Flying out to Melbourne to play against a really good Melbourne United team, so for us it’s play with that great energy and scrapping, and then taking the right shots.

“I thought we scrapped (against Adelaide), we didn’t always make the shots but I thought we tried to take the right ones, and the more we scrap and fight and grind the more good things that will happen for us.”

The words scrap and fight will be like music to United coach Dean Vickerman’s ears.

“I don’t think I ever put my hand up to say I'm going to be the prettiest coach, I want to be a great defensive team and sometimes that’s going to mean it’s a grind at different times, that’s the way I coach,” he said.

“We just held a team to 65 (then) we just held a team to 60, I'm so happy with the commitment at the defensive end right now.”

While FIBA last year clarified the definition around an offensive player’s cylinder to provide better protection for the O, Melbourne aren’t going to pay any attention to that until it is whistled in the NBL, as their physicality buys time for their bigs to protect the paint.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr">??? <a href="https://t.co/09h5ce3p8Y">pic.twitter.com/09h5ce3p8Y</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1375030552495984643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 25, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“There’s situations where we need to be into the body and climb into guys and be aggressive with them,” Vickerman said.

“I thought as the game wore along we just had a really good understanding of who we needed to switch, when we needed to switch, when we could fight through, and our rim protection when people got deep into the paint tonight (was good), and that’s what Jack White brings to our team.

“When you’re trying to shoot over Jo and Jock and Jack White, and Mason was such a great rebounder for us as well tonight, so there was great rim protection.”

With White and Scotty Hopson now back in uniform, and Chris Goulding hot off a 25-point night, the pieces are in place for Melbourne to make a charge at Perth for home-court advantage, and Vickerman is confident the O will match the D soon.

“When we can get running and flowing offensively that’s going to be a big part of the way we play defence,” he said.

“Good things are going to happen at the offensive end for us, we’ve still got pieces to add, it was great to have Jack back tonight, we had good contributions from a lot of people.”