United live up to the hype on opening night

Melbourne United have come into #NBL21 with high expectations and those were more than backed up with an emphatic second half performance to open the 2021 NBL season with an 89-65 victory over the Adelaide 36ers.

The additions of Jock Landale and Scotty Hopson and the retention of their core led by Chris Goulding, Mitch McCarron, Shea Ili, David Barlow and Jo Lual-Acuil meant there were high hopes for Melbourne come into the long-awaited NBL season, and they showed exactly why on Friday in Adelaide.

Falling a game short of reaching the Grand Final a year ago, United look hungry and motivated to go that next step in 2021 but it did take them until the third quarter to get on top of a new-look and largely youthful Adelaide team playing its first game under coach Conner Henry.

With five-time club MVP Daniel Johnson scoring 16 of his 27 points in the first half, Adelaide led Melbourne 39-37 by half-time and were still on top 45-43 early in the third when Johnson knocked down yet another three-point bomb.

But it was all United from that moment. They went on a 13-0 run to go from two points down to being up 11. 

Another run of 12 straight points either side of three quarter-time was enough to seal the deal and from there it was the release of some burnt up energy from being on the road and away from Melbourne now for several weeks. 

Japanese signing Yada Baba threw down a couple of breakaway slams, Goulding and Barlow knocked down threes as the lead got out to as much as 28 and settled at 24 in favour of Melbourne.

United dominated the boards with 55 rebounds to 39 in the finish while inside they scored 46 points in the paint to 22. Jo Lual-Acuil was a big reason for that with 16 points and 12 rebounds in a sign of how far he could improve this season.

Chris Goulding also scored 16 points while hitting five threes but the key to United was the number of contributors. Shea Ili also had 13 points and four rebounds, Jock Landale 10 points and eight boards, Yadi Baba 10 points and four rebounds, and rookie Jack White seven points and seven boards.

United coach Dean Vickerman was rightfully delighted with the performance, but especially considering they have now been away from for several weeks leading into it.

"Our reward is to now actually enjoy our families. We've been away for 17 days from our families and we tried hard to get them to Cairns, and then we thought we were going to be in Adelaide for a couple of weeks," Vickerman said.

"I am so proud of how the team has dealt with the situation and I'm so proud of our club for that they tried to do, and the information they gave us to try and put us in the best situation. 

"We all can't wait just to get back to Melbourne, see our family and spend the weekend with them. Then we'll have a normal week of preparation before going back up to Cairns which is a place that feels like our second home."

It wasn’t the season opener the 36ers were hoping for but Daniel Johnson couldn’t have done much more putting up 27 points and five rebounds while shooting 7/13 from the field and knocking down all five of his attempts from downtown.

Josh Giddey didn’t start but still played 24 minutes and the first Australian Next Star showed glimpses of what he's going to be capable of. He threw down a big dunk and made some good defensive plays for seven points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Jack McVeigh also scored nine points but overall it was an opening night to forget for Henry and his new team.

"I thought our effort in the first half was real good. We just couldn’t score the basketball so there's a lot of work to be done on the offensive end as evident in the second half," Henry said.

"I don’t know what our one pass and two pass possessions were, but we sure didn’t share it with each other enough. Combine that with 18 offensive rebounds that we gave up and they got 25 shots more than us. 

"To go 26-13 and 26-13 in the last two quarters saw us give up a bunch of points and not score the basketball. We'll watch film and it will be evident that we have to share the basketball a little bit more."

The 36ers have a short turnaround to host the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday while United don't play again until being on the road to Cairns on January 25.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 1

MELBOURNE UNITED 89 (Goulding 16, Lual-Acuil 16, Ili 13) 

ADELAIDE 36ERS 65 (Johnson 27, McVeigh 9, Giddey 7)

BOX SCORE