Vickerman hails open-air spectacle

Melbourne United will host its annual open-air game this weekend, and head coach Dean Vickerman believes the spectacle of playing under the stars serves as a brilliant advertisement for the “innovation” of the NBL.

The ladder-leaders will welcome the Perth Wildcats on Boxing Day for a near-top of the table clash. United currently boasts a 13-3 record, while the Wildcats are third and are behind the second-placed Kings on percentage alone.

“As a promotion for the sport I think it’s magnificent,” Vickerman said on SEN. “People in the NBA have spoken to me about what this game is about and different things.

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“It gets a recognition for our league being innovators and being able to do different things.

“Then the actual game to walk out there with light in the stands and then to see the stars, get a bit of a different feel and feel the breeze coming through, there’s an enjoyment about basketball for me playing outdoors in summer and that’s part of this game.”

A key component of United continuing its league-leading run will be the ability for its defence to stop Wildcats star Bryce Cotton.

Cotton was restricted to just seven points in Perth’s recent blowout loss against Illawarra, but rebounded to drop 28 in the Wildcats’ nail-biting one-point win over Tasmania last week.

He hit a heavily contested turnaround three with just 40 seconds remaining to give Perth the lead, and then hit a pair of clutch free throws that proved to be game-winning.

Vickerman says he’ll likely look to a pair of Melbourne guards to try and stop the import superstar getting into his groove.

“Shea (Ili) is going to be huge in that, and Delly (Matthew Dellavedova) also, just stopping Bryce from getting catches,” Vickerman said.

“He’s so good that limiting his number of touches is really important, and then trying to keep him off the foul line, because when he makes his free throws and makes a couple of threes he’s going to find the way to get his 20 points.

“I think we categorise why people have been great – do they win championships? Do they deal with adversity well? Do they have a really high motor and keep going? Do they make their teammates better around them? He ticks a lot of those boxes.

“[There are] so many different areas you have to be able to guard him, we’ll spend a lot of time this week on him.”

Melbourne and Perth will tip off on Saturday, December 23 at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.