R17 Preview: SE Melbourne Phoenix vs Melbourne United

When: 5.30pm (AEDT), Saturday 8 May

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time
Melbourne 80 (Goulding 25, Lual-Acuil 14, McCarron 12) d SE Melbourne 60 (Gliddon 13, Moore 12), Round 11, John Cain Arena

This one was painful to watch for Phoenix fans. After their team ran up 23 points in just over a quarter to take a five-point lead, a repeat of their Round 9 upset over big brother looked possible, but they only added another 37 for the game as Melbourne locked down the Creek-less Phoenix, allowing just 34 per cent from the field while they went 23-of-40 from two-point range themselves, Chris Goulding the chief destroyer from both inside and out.


The now
Are the Phoenix officially the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of the Hungry Jack’s NBL? Seven of their past 12 games have been decided by double figures – with an average margin of 18.9 points – while only one contest in that time has been decided by five points or less. SE Melbourne are 6-6 over that run, and have been on both sides of shellackings, but with just one game buffer between them and the fifth-placed Hawks, it’s time to find some consistency.

Melbourne were the picture of consistency until they ran into a locked-in Wildcats team who clinically picked apart their defence at key times and pressured them out of any semblance of offence. That leaves United just 1.5 games clear of the reigning champs, and with a date in Perth looming next Thursday, a W in the Throwdown becomes essential to maintain a gap on a rival that now has two-way Will Magnay coming into the line-up.


The stats

 - Melbourne are first in defensive rating (105.3) and defensive field-goal percentage (42%), second in points allowed (81.3) and third in opposition three-point makes (9.0)

- The Phoenix rank first in points per game (89.3) and field-goal percentage (46%), while sitting second in offensive rating (114.7) and three-point percentage (36%)

 - SE Melbourne have averaged just 82.3ppg against United, hitting 7 triples at 31 per cent, compared to 9.9 treys at 37 per cent against the rest of the league

 - Melbourne held the Phoenix sans Creek to just 39 points from ‘ones and twos’ in their Round 11 thrashing, but in the first two meetings with Mitch they gave up 72.5ppg from inside the arc as SE Melbourne averaged 93.5ppg

The key men

Mitch Creek – While he missed the last Melbourne derby, Creek was remarkable in the Round 9 win with 31 points at 56 per cent, 3-of-5 from deep and 10 rebounds. In the first meeting this year he flirted with a triple-double with 13 points, 9 boards and 7 assists. After just 22 points on 14 shot attempts across his past two games, expect Mitch to be a focus.

Chris Goulding – Bubbles spells troubles for SE Melbourne, who have watched the Boomers sharp-shooter nail 22ppg on 11-of-24 from deep against them this season. His Throwdown numbers in NBL 20 were even better, 23ppg on 18-of-39 from the arc. Goulding played his worst game in memory against Perth on Wednesday, the Phoenix had better be ready.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Jo ? at one end ?? CG ? at the other<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithUs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StandWithUs</a> <a href="https://t.co/O1DeyfjSrH">pic.twitter.com/O1DeyfjSrH</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1389879705243852805?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



The quotes

When Melbourne locked down the Phoenix to an NBL season-low 60 points in Round 11, allowing just 34 per cent shooting from the floor, it was like a Picasso to Dean Vickerman.

“I don’t think I ever put my hand up to say I'm going to be the prettiest coach, I want to be a great defensive team and sometimes that’s going to mean it’s a grind at different times, that’s the way I coach,” he said.

“We just held a team to 65 (then) we just held a team to 60, I'm so happy with the commitment at the defensive end right now, good things are going to happen at the offensive end for us.”

He was right. United would go on to average 91.5ppg over the next eight games, winning all of them, while remaining the stingiest defensive team in the Hungry Jack’s NBL.

But all good things must come to an end, and when they did against Perth on Wednesday, it was the offence that came crashing down.

“We’re going to be good enough defensively to put ourselves in a position to win, we still held them to 40 per cent and did some good things defensively, but all the areas of the game we talked about tonight that we couldn’t do, we allowed,” Vickerman said post-game.

“We were really sloppy with the basketball, our decision making just gifted them a lot of points, and they capitalise on their offensive rebounding as well.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Blanchfield makes it look easy! <a href="https://t.co/3NVmrjmNjf">pic.twitter.com/3NVmrjmNjf</a></p>&mdash; Perth Wildcats (@PerthWildcats) <a href="https://twitter.com/PerthWildcats/status/1389892378660544513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


“That second quarter we put them on the foul line quickly, a lot of early fouls, and that allowed them to disrupt up the floor.”

And Melbourne’s offence was listless against that disruptive pressure.

“The 60 shots we have, that’s about 15 down on what we’re trying to achieve. I'm sure 40 of those possessions we don’t even start in the right spots tonight, we just got disrupted from the start,” Vickerman said.

“The biggest thing to the game was we found absolutely no rhythm to our offence and we couldn’t get started, and it turned into a lot of trying to play one-on-one because we were broken down too quickly.”

When the Phoenix produced a stunning Throwdown win in Round 9, they did it with defence, holding Melbourne to 41 per cent from the floor and just 8-of-28 from outside.

Their injury-struck guard crew – minus star import Keifer Sykes who makes his return this Saturday – produced a quality display of pressure defence, and held firm against pressure defence, to seemingly showcase a new resilience from the expansion club.

“Really proud of the fellas, pretty difficult circumstances going into that one in regards to our roster, very low rotations through the backcourt, we just didn’t have anybody else healthy to step up other than Izayah (Le’afa) off the bench,” coach Simon Mitchell said.


“Really proud of the effort Kyle (Adnam), Cam (Gliddon) and Izayah put in, I don’t think any of them had their greatest game, but as far as just sticking in because Melbourne run all those guys through that position and their pressure on the ball is high.

“We had to sustain that, we didn’t always but we had to sustain it as much as we can and I thought those guys were pretty gallant.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Zay with the strip and finish! ?<br><br>Need to build some momentum heading to the final break. <a href="https://t.co/JMYG7z74Kq">pic.twitter.com/JMYG7z74Kq</a></p>&mdash; South East Melbourne Phoenix (@SEMelbPhoenix) <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix/status/1387722796629848070?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


That win sparked a run of seven wins from nine games for the Phoenix as they vaulted to third place, but the past three rounds have produced a 1-4 return and put them back in the pack.

Their comprehensive loss to Brisbane highlighted their regression at the defensive end, the Bullets racking up 94 points at 52 per cent.

“Just an inability to contain the ball, they just blew by us, drew the second defender, kicked the ball out, open threes, and they made us pay,” Mitchell said.

“Just one-on-one containment of the ball, being able to stay in front of your direct opponent was really poor. We’re putting a lot of work into it, but it’s not translating into games.”

That lack of defensive output is taking away the offensive strengths of their fast and multi-skilled team, and they’ll need to generate points from D on Saturday with Ryan Broekhoff and Cam Gliddon both sidelined.

“When you're taking the ball out of the net a lot it’s hard to generate any pace going the other way,” Mitchell said.

“We won’t move on from it, we've got to take our lessons from it. We've done a lot of soul searching over the last couple of weeks. We've not been happy with our performances, especially here at home.

“For whatever reason we’re finding these really flat periods and we need to generate our energy.

“For us, unfortunately, we’re stuck in a mode where our energy comes from watching the ball go through the rim, that energises us for the defensive end, it energises us for the rebounds.

“We’re trying to change the mentality of our group that we take great pride and our energy is going to come from our defence, but that’s not translating at the moment.”

The translation for this game is clear for the Phoenix; win and make a statement that they can still challenge the best, or lose and find themselves in a dogfight for fourth.

With Jock Landale and Jo Lual-Acuil going at Yanni Wetzell and Ben Moore, Mitch Creek and Scotty Hopson locking horns, Sykes and Le'afa set to dog CG43, and the wily Adnam looking to shake Mitch McCarron and Shea Ili off countless ball-screens, this shapes as a classic.