R18 Preview: Melbourne United vs SE Melbourne Phoenix

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Jock Landale and Melbourne have owned the past two Throwdowns, but with Keifer Sykes and Mitch Creek back on board, the Phoenix are ready to beat big brother.

When: 3pm (AEDT), Sunday 16 May

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time
Melbourne 93 (Landale 27, Hopson 15, Lual-Acuil 12) d South East Melbourne 82 (Le’Afa 19, Te Rangi 17, Adnam 14), Round 17, John Cain Arena

In the words of Simon Mitchell, Melbourne were the “superior team” in this Throwdown, weathering a fast Phoenix start before unleashing a 44-16 run surrounding half-time that put the result well beyond doubt. South East Melbourne didn’t throw in the towel, but they had no answer to United throwing the ball to Jock Landale, who finished with 27 points at 76 per cent, while the Phoenix starting frontcourt managed just nine points on 2/16 shooting.

The now
Melbourne bounced off that W and into Perth, where they produced their most impressive display to date, making a mockery of the vaunted Wildcats defence en route to 99 points, 22 assists and 15 triples to move two games clear of the 'Cats atop the Hungry Jack’s NBL ladder. That was just the third time in three months they have left Victoria, however, and this will be the third time this season they have travelled to play the second leg of a round, meaning the travel and quick turnaround will be an unfamiliar test for the pace-setters.

The Phoenix passed the first two legs of their Round 18 test with flying colours, defeating New Zealand on Wednesday and smashing the Taipans two nights later. They too have been well-settled though, with just one interstate trip in the past month and a pair of single-game rounds leading into this week, suggesting there will still be gas in the tank for the clash with big brother. The challenge for coach Mitchell will be to manage the minutes of Keifer Sykes, Cam Gliddon and Ryan Broekhoff, all of whom are returning from injury layoffs.

The stats

- South East Melbourne have averaged 26 points in the first quarter of the past two Throwdowns, but just 45 points over the next three quarters

- The Phoenix have averaged 82.3ppg against Melbourne at 43 per cent, compared to 90.8ppg at 47 per cent against the rest of the NBL. Perth is the only other team to have kept them to less than 88.5ppg

- United actually gave up 93.5ppg in the first two Throwdowns – including an overtime period – allowing 58 two-point baskets at 54 per cent. They allowed just 71ppg in the next two meetings on 38 two-pointers at 42 per cent

- Melbourne have won bench scoring 73-49 in the past two Throwdowns. They rank first in the league in bench scoring (30.3) while the Phoenix rank third (27.6)

The key men

Yanni Wetzell – In his past three games against United, the impressive Kiwi rookie has managed just 5.3ppg on 5/21 shooting, a non-factor offensively for a Phoenix team that has won eight of the past 10 games where Wetzell has scored in double figures. After Landale’s dominant performance in Round 17, SE Melbourne need their big man to set up, and need their troika of point guards to show poise under pressure to get him the ball.

Chris Goulding – In Melbourne’s Round 17 loss to Perth, CG43 went a cold 2/8 from long range. In 11 wins surrounding that game he has averaged 3.7 threes at 41 per cent. He’s averaging 19.8ppg at 45 per cent from deep against the Phoenix this season, and after landing six trifectas against Perth on Thursday he shapes as United’s key spark plug, and will be looking forward to his battle with familiar faces Cam Gliddon and Ryan Broekhoff.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">CG cooking early in RAC ? <br>He's just got three of these in a row ? <a href="https://t.co/eSODkzjpWo">pic.twitter.com/eSODkzjpWo</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1392807530498199553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The quotes

When you play Melbourne, you’ve got to bring your best to get the W, and the Phoenix simply didn’t do that for long enough last time around.

“I thought we were beaten by a superior team on the day, we didn’t really have many answers for them in that third quarter,” coach Mitchell said.

“We got our arses kicked tonight, I thought we were humbled, but I liked the fact that we ran to the finish line, we didn’t stop, we didn’t walk, we didn’t fall over the line.

“We continued to compete as best that we could.”

The Phoenix looked every bit Melbourne’s match earlier in the season, giving them a fright after returning from Perth, then taking them down in a brilliant overtime win in Round 9.

Mitch Creek was the difference that day, racking up 31 points at 56 per cent, including 20 inside the paint, as he dominated the United defence.

He missed the Round 11 Throwdown disaster, then took just six shots in the most recent instalment to be -18 in 29 minutes on court.

“I think he needs to get himself going a little bit more,” Mitchell said.

“We ran a whole bunch of plays for him, his teammates were trying to get him some looks, he just didn’t have his aggression with him.

“We’ll sit down and have a chat about it, find out how we can get him better looks, because that’s not the Mitch Creek we've all come to know.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">GIVE IT TO EM MITCH ? <a href="https://t.co/UrzeIshEfd">pic.twitter.com/UrzeIshEfd</a></p>— South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1392415450374361091?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Finally, against Cairns on Friday, the Mitch of old returned, scoring 20 points on 6/11 inside and going +27 in 28 minutes.

His penetration will be crucial on Sunday, but so will his defence, as the Phoenix showed in their 31-point opening quarter last time against Melbourne.

“Early in the game, turnovers have been something that we’ve still got to fix, and I thought our turnovers led to easy baskets for them in the first quarter,” coach Dean Vickerman said.

“I thought it was a bit about their guards really digging in and if you drop the ball to a lower level they did a good job of displacing it and being able to run.”

When that pressure dropped, Jock Landale got regular supply and dominated.

“We’ve had reasonable success against Jock, he’s been good but I don’t think he’s been as good as he was tonight,” coach Mitchell said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">New season high 24 points for <a href="https://twitter.com/JockLandale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JockLandale</a> + his 11th double/double ? <a href="https://t.co/r7HHAE9M3B">pic.twitter.com/r7HHAE9M3B</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1390952863740829701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 8, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Jo (Lual-Acuil) and Jock both kicked our butts, Jo I think has done it every game we've played against them. When he’s knocking down that three-ball he’s really, really tough. He was a handful for us tonight.”

For Landale, the Phoenix’s switching schemes are manna from heaven.

“They were switching, maybe they’ve had some success in the past with that, but tonight it didn’t work out for them and I was feeding off my teammates and their coverage,” he said after his 27-point haul in 24 minutes.

“I really keyed in on watching some film before this game, coming off the back of the injury and the sloppy game (against Perth), I really wanted to try and attack offensively just knowing they were going to continue to switch, from the last three times we played them, I just had it in my head that I was going to (screen and) roll.

“I kept talking to the fours on those punches and drags, I was like hey I’m going to roll, because usually I pop a lot on that kind of stuff.

“So just having that confidence from my teammates knowing I was going to get that switch and them put the ball into me was great to get me going.”

While South East Melbourne got themselves going against Cairns, coach Mitchell is certainly not getting carried away ahead of the final Throwdown of the regular season.

“It was a little bit of a soft kill tonight,” he said post-game.

“We’ll take a little bit from it, it’s certainly a good feeling to come in and get a good win, I don’t want to be a kill joy, but we’ve got a pretty big game on Sunday and we’ll just get our preparation in.

“We owe Melbourne United one, it would be nice to present ourselves in the best light.”