R21 Preview: Melbourne United vs Adelaide 36ers

When: 3pm (AEST), Sunday 6 June

Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre

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


The last time
Melbourne 92 (McCarron 21, Landale 19, Goulding 13, Lual-Acuil 13) d Adelaide 78 (Paul 20, Johnson 16, Giddey 14), Round 15, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

After trailing for most of this Round 15 clash, the 36ers made their move early in the fourth term, three buckets in 90 seconds tying the scores at 69. However, United upped the physicality, shut down Adelaide’s offence and at the other end Mason Peatling was everywhere to turn the tide. Chris Goulding then got involved and the contest was done, the hosts running out 14-point winners after what had been a hotly-contested game.


The now
Adelaide’s season has somewhat emulated that contest, a roller-coaster ride that was in touch with the top four for most of the year, only for it to peter out in the home stretch with Josh Giddey and Isaac Humphries no longer in uniform. Their final game of NBL21 has been shifted to their home court, so they’ll be desperate to turn around their recent form and avoid an embarrassment against the minor premiers in front of their loyal fans.

Melbourne’s recent form is starting to look better as the playoffs approach, having won six of their past eight games, including two Ws over Perth. Pleasingly for miserly coach Dean Vickerman, they have allowed just 140 points across their past two games, showing no mercy for depleted Cairns and Wildcats teams, and they’ll be merciless again on Sunday. The big question is will any stars rest entirely and who will play limited minutes?


The stats

 - Adelaide have held United to 43 per cent from the field and 31 per cent from three, both their lowest conversion rates of the season

 - Melbourne average 13.7 o-boards against the 36ers, up from 9.9 against the rest of the Hungry Jack’s NBL

 - United have held the Sixers to 72ppg at 37 per cent this season. Adelaide average 84ppg at 46 per cent against other teams

 - Games between Melbourne and the 36ers have averaged 28.7 turnovers. The league average is 23.4. United lead points from turnovers 52-38 in this season series


The key men

Scotty Hopson – United are 23-4 with Hopson in the line-up and 8-0 when he nails two triples or more. The problem for is Hop has only dropped more than 13 points once in his past seven games and has gotten to the foul line just nine times in total across those seven contests. Hopson scored 21 points at 50 per cent in his middle meeting with Adelaide, but only 5 points on 2-of-15 in the other two contests, something he’ll be keen to remedy.

Sunday Dech – After a superb start to the season Sunday’s scoring game evaporated, averaging just 3.8ppg on 4-of-22 from range in his six games leading into last round. He rediscovered his offence against the Hawks, attacking the basket hard for 15 points at 63 per cent. It’s not his offence that matters most on Sunday, his ability to restrict Goulding – who has shot 6-of-28 from deep his past three games – crucial to limiting United’s offence.


The quotes

It was a time-out that will long remain in NBL folklore.

“Crock gets it, dribbles there, there’s the first roll, it’s there, you over-dribble,” Conner Henry said in the fourth quarter of Adelaide’s Round 1 loss to Melbourne.

He was just getting started, as he pointed out players seemingly at random in his huddle.

“You’ve over-dribbled, you’ve over-dibbled, you’ve over-dribbled, you’ve over-dribble. I’ve over-dribbled. You’ve f____ over-dribbled and you haven't even f____ played.

“Share the f____ basketball.”

It was a not-so-subtle mid-game culture session to get his outfit playing the team-first basketball that is required in a league as good as the NBL.

If there was one positive for Melbourne United being stuck in their city’s world’s-longest lockdown, it was the opportunity to have those conversations away from the cameras.

“We had a lot of time in pre-season when we were in quarantine in Melbourne to have Zoom chats and set some standards and talk about how do we want to play, what do we want it to look like, when people leave the stadium what do we want them saying?” point guard Mitch McCarron said.

“We knew we had some guys who could get the job done defensively and we were excited about that so we set a standard, if you don’t want to play defence it’s going to be hard to stay on the floor in this team.

“Offensively we've got a lot of guys who can score the ball and (it’s) the same thing, we’re saying it might not be your night every night but do the right thing, play the right way and eventually your time will come to step in a and make a big shot.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">J?CK. Needed that one. <a href="https://t.co/Su7nsvefkD">pic.twitter.com/Su7nsvefkD</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1398605407342325764?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

From a raft of their players testing positive to COVID and training being shutdown, to lockdown, to Jock Landale’s prediction of going undefeated, to a run of four straight losses coming out of the NBL Cup, to a pair of wins over Perth to lock in top spot, and being forced out of Melbourne by another lockdown it has been an eventful year for the pre-season fancies.

They now enter the playoffs as post-season fancies after winning 27 games, and coach Vickerman is intent on making that 28 on Sunday in Adelaide, albeit with a slightly different approach.

“My experience is, it’s not a dead rubber it’s an NBL game,” he said.

“One time in New Zealand we rested some players and we lost the first game, so it’s not going to be a resting of our guys, it’s going to be a good sharing of minutes.

“We want to come out of there with good form and playing the right way, that’s certainly the goal for the game in Adelaide.”

That change-up is no issue for or McCarron – who has excelled in his first season as a full-time point guard, sitting fifth in assists at 5.1apg – fully confident in his team’s array of players who can score out of their system.

“We put a lot of trust in a lot of different guys to make plays and the end of games and that’s a really fun way for me to play,” he said.

“I've enjoyed seeing each and every one of them at different times step up and have big games and I think it makes it harder to guard.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">Coast to c?o?a?s?t? POSTER! ? <a href="https://t.co/zmPqUm61DH">pic.twitter.com/zmPqUm61DH</a></p>&mdash; Adelaide 36ers (@Adelaide36ers) <a href="https://twitter.com/Adelaide36ers/status/1398870844290461708?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Probably the biggest question of the day is which Adelaide will show up? They have been brilliant, clinical, athletic and dynamic at times this season, while at others the same old issues have presented.

The absence of Giddey and Humphries hurts, but if Daniel Dillon and Sunday Dech can absorb Melbourne’s pressure, there is enough scoring punch in Daniel Johnson, Brandon Paul, Jack McVeigh and Tony Crocker to give the minor premiers a shake.

“We can at times put together a collective physical effort and execute at a pretty high level and get on runs and have momentum, but our decision making and our turnovers continue to haunt us all season long,” coach Henry said.

“We want to come out and put a good effort on the floor, so the approach won’t change … Our workouts have been good, we’ll just continue to do that this week.”