United Lament "Disappointing" Showing

Tuesday, October 11, 2022

“Disappointing”. That’s the word Chris Goulding has used to sum up his team’s performance against the Sydney Kings on Sunday night.

In another hyped chapter of the capital city rivalry, the Kings travelled to Melbourne and demolished United to the tune of 20 points, with a hard-hitting first half display setting them up for the win.

United scored just six points in the second quarter and found themselves on the wrong side of a 25-0 scoring run in the dire first half performance.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why watch Xavier Cooks' dunk on repeat when you can watch the whole game's highlights on repeat? ?<br><br>And what a game it was for the <a href="https://twitter.com/SydneyKings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SydneyKings</a> by the way ? <a href="https://t.co/MK8DxMbsDu">pic.twitter.com/MK8DxMbsDu</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1579226446966423552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“Once again the fans turned out, the front office did a good job of getting us a crowd, and [it was] a really disappointing performance by us. That’s the word,” Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman said.

“The balance for us was a little bit out of whack tonight, especially through that run.

“Too many one out plays, myself and others just trying to claw back a big lead in one play, and that doesn’t happen. It just can’t happen."

United came out firing in the second half and managed to win both the third and fourth quarters in the box score, but the damage was already done.

Even though that first half was ugly viewing for the home side, Vickerman saaid the second half performance indicates those issues are fixable.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">DB doing what DB done for decades 3?<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> Sunday Hoops action live on 10 Peach, 10play and Kayo Freebies <a href="https://t.co/sKXU4ZO8n6">pic.twitter.com/sKXU4ZO8n6</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1578992609884016640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 9, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

“There were some issues through that period but I thought some of those things were fixable in game if we had have let the basketball move and used each other. When it doesn’t move and they were able to set their shift defence and pack the paint,” he added.

“We didn’t get to the foul line or loosen it up enough to get some of those free points. In the second half we shifted it quicker and we were able to find some driving lanes when there weren’t three guys walling us up in there … it’s certainly fixable.

“I thought we still had enough talent to really compete and give them a great game today so it was really disappointing in that regard we weren’t able to step up.

“Our two best players today were the last two guys signed in (Dave) Barlow and Lachie Barker and it can’t be like that.”