R6 Preview: Melbourne United v Cairns Taipans

When: 7.30pm (AEDT), Monday 22 February

Where: John Cain Arena, Melbourne

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

The last time

Melbourne 87 (Landale 19, Goulding 17, White 12) d Cairns 85 (Machado 19, Noi 17, Oliver 17) - January 25, Cairns Pop-Up Arena

This proved to be quite the game of two halves. Melbourne was on fire in the first half including going 7/8 from three-point land in the first quarter with Chris Goulding hitting three of those. They went 10/18 still for the half to lead by as much as 14 points, but the Taipans stormed home on the back of a run of five straight Scott Machado field goals. But ultimately Melbourne scored the two-point win as part of a six-game winning streak while the defeat was part of a six-game losing slide for the Snakes.

The now

For the first time this season Melbourne is coming into a game after a loss while Cairns is now on a winning a streak setting the stage for a fascinating contest between two of last season's semi finalists to close the Monday night NBL Cup double-header.

United suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday against the Perth Wildcats in what just happened to be their opening game of #NBL21 on their home court of John Cain Arena. Melbourne came into the new season with great fanfare after the additions of Jock Landale and Scotty Hopson to an already impressive line-up.

Melbourne backed that up too winning the opening six games and that was despite injuries to Chris Goulding, Shea Ili and Jo-Lual Acuil. But their winning run ended on Saturday against the reigning champs and United will now be desperate to not let that slip into a losing streak.

Cairns was another team entering this season with high expectations. On the back of last year's stunning playoff run, the Snakes brought the majority of their team back and had every reason to expect to fire. But that didn’t happen from the outset and a six-game losing streak sure put some pressure back on the Snakes with the NBL Cup approaching.

However, they got a win over the Breakers in their last home game and then after a slow start in the NBL Cup on Saturday against the Hawks in the first half, they put on a blistering final 15 minutes on the back of the brilliance of Scott Machado to claim the 101-95 victory. That means the Snakes are now on a two-game winning streak and they are starting to regain some of that confidence that made them such a fairytale story a season ago.

The stats

- With Scott Machado running the ship, the Taipans have been pushing the pace more than most this season which has led to them averaging 11.8 turnovers but 18.6 assists a game for a 1.6 assist to turnover ratio. Their opponents have averaged 8.9 turnovers and 15.8 assists for a 1.8 ratio

- The Taipans have relied on their starters more than their opponents too so far this season with them playing 29.0 minutes a game opposed to 26.9. On the back of that, they are shooting the ball better than their opposing starters, collecting 4.2 more rebounds a game, 2.7 more assists and scoring 10.2 more points 

- United is proving to have the most efficient offence so far this season leading the league in field goal shooting at 47.5 per cent and three-point shooting at 40.8 per cent. In contrast Cairns is going at 42.6 per cent and 35.4 per cent

- Melbourne will again be without Chris Goulding and Shea Ili who were averaging a combined 26.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game while healthy. They were also shooting 48.8 per cent from the floor, 48.1 per cent from downtown and 94.4 per cent from the free-throw line

The key men

Yudai Baba – He might just be a rookie in the NBL but the Japanese star has made an immediate impact in his first season at Melbourne United, and he has needed to with the injuries to fellow guards Chris Goulding and Shea Ili. That has thrust him into a starting role and he has handled it tremendously well not only delivering 8.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists, but his lightning pace has been dazzling and his defence generally outstanding. Now he faces a huge task on Monday night to try and limit the influence of Scott Machado for the Snakes

Cam Oliver – He was putting up 18.9 points and 10.6 rebounds across the first seven games of the season for the Taipans. That is down to 10.5 points and up to 11.5 boards across the past two games, but that's actually a positive. He hasn’t had to be relied upon as much by the Taipans with other players stepping into the void to provide support and the result has been two victories. But he will be needed to produce a big performance at both ends of the floor in this contest opposed to Jock Landale if the Taipans are to make it three wins on the trot

The quotes
United big man Jock Landale might have had his pre-season comments misconstrued when he said he expected Melbourne to win every game they play. After all, what player or team shouldn’t come into any season or game with the goal of winning.

But when Melbourne lost to Perth on Saturday, he stepped up and fronted the media to face any critics who might have wanted his response to the undefeated season not eventuating.

Not only did he stand up, but he offered quite the resounding statement on why he has such faith in this Melbourne team.

"Any loss hurts, I've lost many times in my career and it always sucks. This club already has a winning culture and we wanted to build on top of that. By me saying that, I did genuinely believe that with the group that we have that we could have gone undefeated," Landale said. 

"We've lost a game now but the mentality is the same, we want to win every game and every game we should win, and every game we should come in believe that's the case. If you don’t have that mindset then you're not a winner. I think everyone in this club has that mindset and that's why we love playing together. 

"Now we lost this game and that is what it is, we messed up and we'll go back and review, and make some adjustments. But the mentality is the same and let's see if we can go with only one loss this season. Every single day we come into the gym and every game we're playing with a group of winners and that's what we are trying to achieve. It's disappointing but the mentality stays the exact same and try to carry on the season trying to win every single game that we can."

Landale was also baffled at any questions over whether he needs to be getting more shots. Quite frankly, the only thing Landale cares about is playing whatever role is asked of him to help United win games of basketball.

"I'm not a player that forces anything and I don't like playing basketball that is forced. To be honest I don’t really know how to answer that question because the way that we are playing as a team, and sharing the ball is what excites me and makes me happy. That's what is going to make us win," Landale said. 

"We don't need a guy coming in and shooting field goals a night. If that's the way it plays out and a guy goes off for 30 points because he's shooting that high volume, fantastic as long as we win. I'm not worried about how many shots I shoot, if these guys want me to take more shots and that's what's best for the team, then I'll do it. 

"Deano calls my number all the time but because of the way teams are playing me and doubling me, it doesn’t necessarily turn out that I'm shooting 20 shots and I'm fine with that because we'll grow as a team and continue to find good shots. I'm excited for the day someone doesn’t double me in the post because I'll have some fun, but at the same time this is a team that plays unselfish basketball and that's how it should be. 

"Nobody in this locker room is worrying about how many shots they put up any given night because we are so hard to guard because one through five we'll shoot 10 shots a night, which makes us almost impossible to guard."

Taipans coach Mike Kelly was delighted with the way the Snakes closed out Saturday's game against the Illawarra Hawks leading into this clash with United.

"We're definitely celebrating a win. We're 3-6 right now and we have played some really good basketball over the last four games, and dropped two of those games. That's what basketball players do, Scott Machado makes shots and other guys made shots and it's a great thing," Kelly said.

"One of our best shot makers Kouat Noi didn’t get to play much because Jordan Ngatai and Mirko Djeric were making plays, and George Blagojevic played three and-a-half minutes and played great but didn’t get back on because other guys were making plays and shots. 

"I think you take it how you can get it when you can get a win, and we got the ball in the right hands and guys made some shots. We'll celebrate a win and now we'll watch Melbourne and get ready for Monday."

Superstar Cairns point guard Scott Machado was proud of the way his group turned around Saturday's game by holding each other to account.

"A lot of the stuff that happens in practice between just us was happening during that game. Our communication level has been getting better between us, and we needed to get that bickering out during the second quarter so each person knew what they needed to do better," Machado said. 

"That's really what happened. We just made sure we were all together and we have to stay together, but what needed to be fixed needed to be fixed. We bark on each other when we needed to."