Vickerman Laments "Hero Ball" United

Melbourne United’s difficult start to the season continued last night with their 4-point loss to the Cairns Taipans last night.

United led by as many as 14 points midway through the third quarter, however the Taipans executed a 22-point swing in the final six minutes of the term to head into the final break with an 8-point lead.

Melbourne head coach Dean Vickerman says his team’s performance in that decisive quarter sums up United’s season so far.

“That’s who we are right now,” Vickerman said post-game. “We’ve got such highs and such lows and we saw it all in that one quarter.

“We actually found some good offence. We found some ways to get ‘Tuck’ (Rayjon Tucker) downhill and we found some ways for the ball to move a little bit more.

“There was a period there where we tried to take on a bit too much on ourselves and play a little bit of hero ball. Some of those we’ll show in review.”

United captain Chris Goulding echoed Vickerman’s sentiments, saying the ability for the players to see what a firing United side looks like is a big tick.

“The stops and the runs to get out to that lead, they were the positives,” Goulding said.

“Knowing we have that in us to sit down, guard the ball , come up with it and play the style of basketball we want to.”

United import Tucker players the most complete game of his short NBL career to date, registering his first competition double-double with 19 points and 10 boards.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tuck sent that thing all the way back to FNQ!!!<br><br>?: ESPN via Kayo or Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/pT7HzFOnfP">pic.twitter.com/pT7HzFOnfP</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1583037133069352960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 20, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He had the opportunity to tie the game up with just five seconds to go as he headed to the free throw line after being fouled on a three-point shot. He would, however go on to miss two of his opportunities from the charity stripe.

Cairns forward DJ Hogg then iced the game just seconds later by hitting a pair of free throws of his own at the other end.

Vickerman says he was impressed with Tucker’s overall performance.

“We wanted to find better spacing for him this game and we did,” Vickerman said.

“We did things a little bit better for him because I don’t think he had anything in the first quarter.

“He won’t be happy with going one of seven from three, but there were some good looks he had.

“I’m crazy disappointed about the loss. This is a good team that’s won four in a row on the road that we were just playing, but we put ourselves in a great winning position but we didn’t get it done.”