Clark, United hammer 'Cats in Perth

Melbourne United arrived without Matthew Dellavedova but they were a team on a mission with Ian Clark brilliant with 25 points in the eventual 97-68 thrashing on the road of the Perth Wildcats.

United arrived at RAC Arena without four-time Olympian Dellavedova who remained home in Melbourne to welcome the arrival of his daughter, but his team handled his absence remarkably well.

Both Melbourne and Perth came into the season with high expectations, and were looking to hit back from losses against Tasmania and Sydney respectively.

There were stars missing on either side too with the 'Cats also without Dylan Windler and Tai Webster, but no matter which way you looked at it, it was a dominant and stunningly impressive showing from Melbourne at both ends of the floor.

They took the 12,287 crowd out of it from the start with a 17-2 run late in the opening quarter.

Melbourne scored another 13 straight points in the second term and it wasn’t just the outside shooting of Clark who had 17 points for the half on four threes, but Marcus Lee and Jack White dominated inside too.

Clark and fellow guard Shea Ili hit a couple more threes themselves in the third quarter with the lead ballooning to 33 points, and they went on to score the statement 29-point victory in hostile territory.

NBL and NBA champion Clark delivered 25 points with 5/8 three-point shooting in the win but it was far from a lone hand.

Ili added 16 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, Chris Goulding 12 points and four assists, Rob Loe 10 points and seven rebounds, Lee 10 points and five boards, and White 10 points and 11 rebounds.

"Credit to our guys, that was probably the best first half of offence that we've played for a long time," said United coach Dean Vickerman.

"The ball really popped around and that was the message coming in after the Tassie game when we didn’t do that well enough, and didn’t share the basketball or play for each other well enough.

"Tonight it was really positive."

Melbourne's defence was also outstanding holding Perth to 33 per cent field goal shooting while limiting four-time MVP Bryce Cotton to five points on 2/10.

Kristian Doolittle and Ben Henshall both scored 12 points, and Keanu Pinder 10 along with 10 rebounds.

Wildcats coach John Rillie felt his team desperately missed both Webster and Windler.

"The simple answer is that I think everyone saw how valuable Tai Webster is to our team tonight," he said.

"It's the defensive pressure and having another guy who can get into the paint and create a lot of opportunity on offence when you're playing against a team with that level of physicality he has a nice presence.

"Then obviously there's Windler on the glass as well so to have two guys out like that, it's tough. In saying that, we just didn't show up and play very well."

Perth did start well enough to be leading 17-14 before Melbourne took charge with a 12-0 run started with a triple from West Australian Kyle Bowen and three-point play from Jack White.

Ian Clark then hit five quick points to push the United lead out to double-digits and then it was midway through the second term where Melbourne blew the game right apart.

Chris Goulding and Clark knocked down three-pointers as part of a 13-0 run that was capped off with a huge flush from big man Marcus Lee.

Clark went into half-time with 17 points on 4/6 three-point shooting with Melbourne putting up 64 points to be leading by 23 on the back of shooting 64 per cent as a team.

Clark knocked down a fifth three ball to open the second half, he knocked down a sixth minutes later and suddenly the lead for the visitors blew out to 30.

Shea Ili got in on the three-point shooting fun to push the lead out to 33 and United were still in control 83-54 by three quarter-time.

From there Melbourne cruised to the 29-point win and now both teams have to back up on Sunday. United host the Cairns Taipans while the Wildcats face the defending champion Tasmania JackJumpers.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

PERTH WILDCATS 68 (Doolittle 12, Henshall 12, Pinder 10)

MELBOURNE UNITED 97 (Clark 25, Ili 16, Goulding 12)

BOX SCORE