United start on fire before holding off Sixers

There is just something about Melbourne United and Adelaide 36ers games at John Cain Arena. They were some of the most dramatic ever Grand Final games three years ago and little changed on Thursday night with United coming out 82-73 winners.

A lot has changed since that 2018 Grand Final series, but one thing that hasn’t is that games between United and 36ers are never short on entertainment and drama.

Thursday night's NBL Cup encounter started off dramatically on the sheer nature of Melbourne likely delivering the best basketball seen this season at both ends of the floor.

The defence was as stifling as their offence was smooth as they scored the game's first eight points, put up 31 in the first quarter and held the 36ers to just eight.

The Sixers had no answer for the pressure applied from United and couldn’t stop them scoring to the point where early in the second quarter Melbourne led 36-10 and it was time to dive for the record books for winning margins.

But to Adelaide's everlasting credit, they showed enormous character the rest of the way and in fact from that moment, the 36ers won the final three quarters to claim three NBL Cup points and outscored Melbourne 63-46 the rest of the way.

They even had a brief glimmer of what would have been a comeback for the ages too when Jeremy Kendle shot them to within four points with a minute to go with his third triple of the fourth quarter.

But Melbourne got the job done at the foul line to hold on and win by nine with the game even finishing dramatically with a hard foul from Tony Crocker on Jack White in the dying seconds. That was Crocker's second unsportsmanlike of the game while White had a nasty dislocated finger as a reward.

It was another even performance from Melbourne with Mitch McCarron the standout with 18 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Scotty Hopson moved to the bench but responded well with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists while Jock Landale added 12 points and seven boards, and Jo-Lual Acuil 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman had some mixed emotions when reflecting on the performance.

"We hadn’t won the first two quarters in the Cup so far so it was nice to see that change. Going into the game it wasn’t a massive focus, it was about making sure we were locked in defensively and when you hold a team to eight points in a quarter you are doing a lot of good things," Vickerman said.

"I loved that part of it and I thought in the rest of the game there were elements we have to get better in. One of the big ones was how we pass the basketball and especially into the post. 

"That's just a massive area of the game that we need to make a skill improvement on and then there's special moments as a group we have to better at getting on the same page with. You don't want to lose a game for not executing a play correctly. 

"I do like how we ground it out, though, to limit their opportunities in the last few minutes."

It was a fascinating night for Adelaide. It started as badly as you could imagine but then they played well for three quarters against the league's best team.

Daniel Johnson finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, Josh Giddey 13 points, eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks, Tony Crocker 13 points, Jeremy Kendle 12 points, and Isaac Humphries nine points and eight rebounds before fouling out.

Adelaide coach Conner Henry was proud of his team for the fight they showed but saw a chance they could have even closed it out better.

"They came out with a blistering pace, sharing the basketball and went big on big, and were getting great shots," Henry said.

"We got two good looking threes early and an inside touch, and missed all three of them and next thing you know it's 8-nothing and spiralling out of control. All in all, we fought back and that should be the story of this game. I'm proud of the fellas for doing that. 

"We kinda wrestled the tempo back to our control and then were able to keep it close throughout the third and into the fourth. We had numerous looks in that second half which we missed but it was a tough, physical hard fought game and we'll rest up and get ready for the next one."

It's hard to imagine a more emphatic start to a game than what Melbourne produced. Their offence was clicking beginning with the first eight points including a Jack White triple and then another eight consecutive points as they led 16-3.

Their defence stopped Adelaide getting anything going either and when Dave Barlow came on and nailed a couple of triples and Jo-Lual Acuil was a livewire, Melbourne led 31-8 by quarter-time and 36-10 by early in the second period.

Tony Crocker and Josh Giddey scored to stem the tide in the short-term but it was Adelaide's defence that picked up a gear allow them to turn things around.

They held Melbourne to just 11 points the rest of the half while scoring 24 themselves in that time including a couple of big threes to Giddey to mean the gap was just 13 at half-time.

Adelaide continued to work further back into the game during the third quarter on the back of improved defence and the margin was just eight when Jack McVeigh scored before Scotty Hopson steadied Melbourne with six quick points to keep them up 12 by three quarter-time.

Melbourne was able to stretch back out to a 14-point lead early in the fourth but Adelaide wasn’t lying down. A three ball from Sunday Dech and then a couple from Jeremy Kendle helped them close the gap to just four.

Four points on the one possessions helped steady Melbourne but again with a minute left Kendle shot Adelaide back within four points but they couldn’t quite get any closer.

Both teams back up in the NBL Cup on Saturday with United taking on the Sydney Kings and the 36ers facing the New Zealand Breakers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 7
NBL CUP WEEK 2

MELBOURNE UNITED 82 (McCarron 18, Hopson 14, Landale 12)

ADELAIDE 36ERS 73 (Johnson 14, Giddey 13, Crocker 13) 

POINTS AWARDED – Melbourne United 4, Adelaide 36ers 3

BOX SCORE