United's Depth Too Much for Bullets

They had to fend off a dogged Brisbane Bullets resistance but Melbourne United has consolidated top spot in the NBL standings and extended their winning run to five with a 95-83 win at John Cain Arena on Saturday night.

While the scoreline indicates a blowout, Brisbane was in the game until the final two minutes. Missing Nathan Sobey to a knee injury and Anthony Drmic who remained in Brisbane for the birth of his child, the Bullets put in a spirited performance against the #NBL22 front-runners.

They refused to wave the white flag and there were positives to come out of the loss, most noticeably the career-best performance of French Next Star Tom Digbeu (11 points, two rebounds and an assist). 

Ultimately, though, United showed their class to seize their opportunity late and run over the top of their opposition on the back of their remarkable depth.

Six Melbourne players ended up scoring in double-figures and that didn’t even include captain Chris Goulding who had an uncharacteristically quiet night with six points on 2/7 shooting with four turnovers.

The return of Jo Lual-Acuil was enormous with the towering big man scoring 20 points, pulling down eight boards and adding two blocks and two steals - all while he is on standby for the birth of his first child. 

Caleb Agada (15 points, three rebounds, three steals), Ariel Hukporti (14 points, four rebounds), Jack White (13 points, eight rebounds), Shea Ili (13 points, six assists, four steals) and Matthew Dellavedova (12 points, four assists) all made significant contributions too.

United coach Dean Vickerman said a heavy training session the day before could have played its role in the sluggish first half.

"We had kind of a harder session that day before the game. It looked like it had a little impact on the way we cut, the way we finished in the first half. It didn't seem to matter what action we ran, we didn't have the usual speed and zip," Vickerman said.

"I thought the boys did a good job after halftime, they turned up the pressure a bit, moved the ball a bit better and a way to score close to 60 points in the second half. Credit to Brisbane, they were down a few bodies ... they kept hanging around and kept fighting and made it a really good contest."

The high steal count also highlighted Brisbane's major flaw - ball security. The visitors coughed the ball up 21 times including crucial points down the stretch to cruel their chances at victory.

Robert Franks paced the Bullets with 20 points while stand-in point guard Jason Cadee had 17 points, six rebounds and three assists. Lamar Patterson struggled with foul trouble and had a night to forget with just 10 points although he did also have three rebounds and five assists. 

Bullets coach James Duncan said the loss came down to lapses in two key areas while the loss of Sobey and Drmic didn’t help, but he liked the stepping up of Digbeu.

"The boys competed, they give the right effort. We were doing a lot of good things, what we were worried about was our transition D, they had 31 points in that area, and taking care of the ball," Duncan said.

"They had 21 turnovers and it is hard to win a basketball game - especially when you are on the road against the champs. It is a little bit frustrating, we played good basketball but we weren't able to execute in continuous stretches through the game and that obviously hurt us.

"Sobes is one of the elite players in the NBL and Drm is one of our main guys ... that hurt us. We wore down toward the back end of the game. Tom has been, for the last week and a half, really working hard in practice and trying to get playing time. He grabbed that opportunity and played really well."

After a slow start for both teams, Jo Lual-Acuil finally created the first opportunities for United, forcing a Brisbane timeout at 11-5 down - with furious coach James Duncan reading the riot act to his charges over defensive breakdowns.

A Tanner Krebs triple helped keep the Bullets in touch, but eight turnovers for the quarter was handing United too much possession. 

Yet somehow, the Bullets were able to keep the scoreboard ticking over and some last gasp brilliance from Next Star Tom Digbeu on the offensive and defensive ends meant the visitors went into the first break with the scores level.

The Bullets were determined to live and die by a brand of three and D basketball and the defensive side was working, but the three-ball abandoned them in the second quarter as scoring dried up at both ends. 
Suddenly, Chris Goulding knocked down a triple and Deng Deng replied, the duo combining to score more points in 30 seconds than had been scored in six minutes of basketball.

After Robert Franks and Shea Ili traded threes, Tom Digbeu went coast to coast with a steal, a bucket, a foul shot and the Bullets were in front once more - taking a 37-36 half-time lead. 

Melbourne put the screws on defensively in the third quarter and threatened to crack the game open again, surging out to a five-point advantage before a Franks triple kept them honest. 

United pushed it back to a 62-55 lead heading into the final term. It looked like the Bullets' resistance was over when they opened up an 11-point lead but a Deng dunk and Cadee triple slashed the margin to just six. 

It was becoming a recurring theme, Jack White hit a triple that looked to break the game open only for Brisbane to respond at the other end with Digbeu. The Next Star was making waves with a filthy dunk keeping his side in the hunt. 

The resistance finally ended when Matthew Dellavedova hit a contested three and White completed a three-point play at the foul line, pushing United out to a 12-point advantage that Brisbane was unable to reel in.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 14

MELBOURNE UNITED 95 (Lual-Acuil 20, Agada 15, Hukporti 14)

BRISBANE BULLETS 83 (Franks 20, Cadee 17, Digbeu 11) 

BOX SCORE