Ili-inspired United plot Snakes downfall

Shea Ili ensured Melbourne United continued to enjoy visiting Perth on Friday night, but now they quickly turn their attention to attempting to beat the Cairns Taipans for the first time in 22 months.

Melbourne highlighted how dangerous they are to play coming off a loss, along with continuing to thrive on travelling to Perth, with their 29-point hammering of the Wildcats on Friday night.

The win is the biggest ever by a visiting team since the opening of RAC Arena in 2012 with United continuing their impressive bounce backs after defeats after averaging wins by 11.3 points following a loss throughout NBL24.

The only time they lost consecutive games was during the Championship Series to the JackJumpers, and they hit back emphatically from last Saturday's loss to the JackJumpers.

United also did it without four-time Olympian Matthew Dellavedova, who had remained in Melbourne following the birth of his daughter.

What they produced was a stunningly dominant performance to lead by as much as 33 points, and win by 29.

Melbourne now returns home to prepare for Sunday's first home game at John Cain Arena for NBL25, against a Cairns team they lost three times to in NBL24 and haven’t beaten since December 23, 2022.

The Taipans are also coming off wins at home to Adelaide and Tasmania, so United coach Dean Vickerman is fully aware of the challenge they will present.

"Any time you beat the JackJumpers it's a good win and they're playing really good basketball, and now they've got (Taran) Armstrong back as well," Vickerman said.

"We didn't beat them last year and it was something in the review of the season that we really dug pretty deep into as well about, what was it that didn’t allow us to beat Cairns?

"Hopefully the three or four things that came out of that review we do better at this time, but they're playing really good basketball and (Adam) Fordey's a hell of a coach.

"But most importantly, we're just looking forward to playing this first home game on Sunday, and we want to treat our fans and get back in there and play well."

The importance of Ili to United has always been clearly evident in games that he has missed in recent seasons, but his presence was never more stark in the absence of Dellavedova on Friday night in Perth.

Ili produced one of the best individual performances at both ends of the floor you are likely to see in NBL25. At the offensive end, he was instrumental in Melbourne piling on 64 points in the first half on 64 per cent shooting.

That didn’t quite keep up in the second half, but Melbourne still cruised to the 29-point win and Ili finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists on 6/8 shooting himself.

Not only that, but he spent a lot of the night hounding four-time MVP Bryce Cotton and limited him to 5 points on 2/10 shooting.

In fact, Cotton's 5 points came midway through the first quarter with Ili out of the game.

Cotton wouldn’t score the rest of the night and Ili continued to set the tone for United in every way, much to the delight of his coach.

"I thought he was brilliant tonight and with Delly out we put a lot of weight on his shoulders as well as IC (Ian Clark), Foxy (Joel Foxwell) and other guys who came in and played," Vickerman said.

"Shea wears a massive part of that load, guarding Bryce and we did a solid job there, and Shea was brilliant."

Clark had a huge night for Melbourne too, making 5/8 from three-point range on his way to 25 points with the NBA and NBL champion also crediting Ili for his part in Melbourne's big win.

"Playing with Shea, that's big for us and he's the guy that pushes the pace and he's one of the best guys in the league that once he gets the ball if you run with him, he'll find you," Clark said.

"He opens up so much with his ability to get downhill so we kinda followed his lead tonight and it led to good things."