R4 Preview: Brisbane Bullets vs Melbourne United

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Friday 5 February

Where: Nissan Arena, Brisbane

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

The last time
Brisbane 87 (Patterson 31, Hodgson 14, Sobey 13) d Melbourne 83 (Trimble 36, Long 15, Lual-Acuil 10), Round 18, 2019/20, Nissan Arena

In one of the games of last season, Melo Trimble responded to being benched by scoring 23 points in the second quarter to ignite a 34-15 Melbourne run across half-time and almost set up the win for the visitors. But Brisbane grinded back into the contest on the back of an astonishing 28 offensive rebounds, Matt Hodgson dominating the backboards and Lamar Patterson sparking a 20-6 final-quarter burst that put his team on the cusp of the playoffs.

The now
The Bullets were once again the comeback kings in Round 3, erasing a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit, thanks to a 28-11 run where they locked down Cairns’ offence and rode 24 points in six minutes from Nathan Sobey and Vic Law. Coach Andrej Lemanis would be thrilled with the defensive potential of his new-look team, but they must fix the brain-fade moments that have made their two wins more difficult than they need to be.

Melbourne don’t have defensive potential, they are already a fearsome unit at that end of the floor, but coach Dean Vickerman would be concerned with their lapses late in the Throwdown. Vickerman will ride that hard, but will also be buoyed by his team’s best offensive performance where they racked up 96 points with five players in double figures, and took all bar five of their field-goal attempts from inside the paint or outside the arc.

The stats
 - In United’s first two games they shot 43 per cent from the floor, 34 per cent from deep and had 27 assists to 25 turnovers. Against the Phoenix they shot 50 per cent from the field, 48 per cent from deep and featured 22 assists to 8 turnovers

 - In Melbourne’s opening 114 minutes of the season they allowed just 216 points at 39 per cent, and a mere 26 o-boards from 117 missed field goals. In their next six minutes, SE Melbourne scored 24 points on 10-of-13 shooting and grabbed 3 offensive rebounds

 - Brisbane leaked 74 points at 49 per cent in the opening 31 minutes against Cairns, then allowed just 11 points in the next eight minutes at 28 per cent

 - In the Bullets’ two wins they’ve averaged 24 three-point attempts at 33 per cent conversion, compared to 32 triples at 22 per cent in their two losses

The key men
Jack White – The rookie from Duke will also be important in quietening Sobey, who constantly got downhill off ball screens last week. Melbourne will look to get their versatile four-man defending as many picks as possible, but he will need to make great decisions as Vic Law will be ready to capitalise on any space given, having averaged 28ppg at 53 per cent, 10rpg, 3.5bpg and 2apg last round, including 13-of-15 from the foul line.

Nathan Sobey – How did Round 3 look for Sobes? How about 28ppg at 50 per cent, 6apg, 5rpg, just 1.5topg and most importantly two big Ws. After a wayward opening two weeks from distance, he even drained a respectable 5-of-14 from deep, and got to the foul line 14 times after managing that feat just thrice in his first two outings. In short, Sobes is firing and the likes of Mitch McCarron and Shea Ili best be on their games.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not sure if Overtime or Sobey-time tbh.<a href="https://twitter.com/sobes2zero?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sobes2zero</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CNSatBNE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CNSatBNE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL21?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL21</a> <a href="https://t.co/gZDn60jGON">pic.twitter.com/gZDn60jGON</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1355435996704169989?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



The quotes
The performances of Vic Law and Nathan Sobey last round were quite extraordinary.

It wasn’t just the sheer volume of numbers they amassed – though that was most impressive – but also the big moments they were able to deliver in.

In 14 minutes to finish their overtime thriller against Cairns, Sobey and Law delivered 20 and 16 points respectively to dig their team out of a 13-point hole, making one big play after another.

“Sobey’s second year with us is far improved in that (leadership) space over his first year, when he was still finding his way in the team and with me as a coach,” Andrej Lemanis said.

“We go through that learning period, and this year his ability to stay calm in critical moments and emotional moments has really improved.”

For Lemanis, Law is quite simply one of the best he has coached.

“Not only is he a great player but he’s a great human being and that’s the holy grail, when you’ve got guys who are skilled basketball players but will also work within the best interests of the team,” Lemanis said.

“Vic’s an NBA player. I've been fortunate enough to coach NBA players, and Vic is as talented and as good a human being as you’d ever want in a team in the NBA.”



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/VfmXU22iaF">https://t.co/VfmXU22iaF</a> <a href="https://t.co/6BjjLuhmA8">pic.twitter.com/6BjjLuhmA8</a></p>&mdash; The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1355438471750459392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



The leadership of that pair and Jason Cadee kept the ship steady when the Taipans were firing, and guided the Bullets to memorable win when the momentum swung their way.

“This was the first time we were tested in that manner, and what I was pleased about was at half-time no one lost their mind, there was good body language, there was a confidence about we need to fix some things and if we fix some things we’re a chance to get back into the game, but we’re not going to do it in the first two minutes,” Lemanis said.

“If your leaders are showing a calm about them and a steely resolve about what needs to be done, rather than being emotionally distressed about what’s going on, that gives the group confidence that there’s a way out.”

There haven’t been too many escape routes when it comes to Melbourne United’s early season defence, and they were at it again against the Phoenix.

“I thought the second and third quarter defence was probably where we set up the win,” coach Dean Vickerman said after his team conceded just 32 points in those 20 minutes.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You can’t get past this man!! ??‍??<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/StandWithUs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#StandWithUs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/5jackwhite?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@5jackwhite</a> <a href="https://t.co/fwrexzJn57">pic.twitter.com/fwrexzJn57</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnitedHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnitedHQ/status/1355752540411858946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>



While SE Melbourne’s final-quarter explosion showed some signs in weakness in the United D, it allowed the title favourites to put a stamp on their best offensive display of the new season.

“I thought when we were challenged we came up with some pretty big plays, Chris was looking for the basketball a lot in the fourth quarter, Shea Ili made some massive plays for us and Jack White and Jock were big all day,” Vickerman said.

“I think at the offensive end we let it move a little but more than sets today and I think that was good for us.”

And that’s where Brisbane desperately need to bring their second-half D that locked down the Taipans, not the leaky first-half version that Melbourne will pick apart.

“We knew we were better than that, we came out really flat,” Law admitted post-game. 

“They're all good players, but we commit ourselves to defence and at half-time we knew that it wasn’t acceptable, it wasn’t just on one guy or two guys, as a collective we had to step up and play better.”