Vickerman takes blame for loss

Dean Vickerman has taken responsibility for Melbourne’s two-point Game 3 loss against Tasmania on Sunday night, and says it’s up to him to “make sure the message gets across better” when it comes to defensive matchups.

A near-half court Jack McVeigh game-winner has now seen Tasmania take the lead in the Championship Series. The JackJumpers will return to MyState Bank Arena on Thursday night, where a win would confirm their status as champions.

An injury to Marcus Lee helped prompt Scott Roth to utilise a small-ball lineup, and Vickerman says communication broke down within his side when they tried to match it.

“They went small with a stretch five and that’s something we’ve been talking about all year, do we match it, or do we try and take advantage of it down the other end," Vickerman said.

“I thought we settled and we got through that part a little bit, we put our small ball group in there and probably didn’t quite get the communication right about how we needed to defend with that small-ball group.

“That’s on me to make sure that message gets across better and then again even the last play of the game we didn’t quite get our responsibilities right for what we needed to do.

“Some of those things are on me about the structure and how we deal with the small ball.”

Vickerman also praised the performances of McVeigh – who was named Foot Locker Player of the Game in addition to hitting the winner – and Majok Deng.

“Majok Deng and McVeigh shot at a crazy percentage tonight, those two,” he said.

“Tonight he (McVeigh) was exceptional in the way he got himself open, attacked the rim and shot the basketball. That was a big problem for us.

“Both being bigs it’s important we ensure we get the coverage right, and there were a number of those that I think we could have been better in our coverage. We’ll fix that up.”

Tasmania ended the game having made 16 of 33 three-point attempts (48 per cent) compared to Melbourne’s 11 from 29 (37 per cent).

United also allowed the JackJumpers to pull in 21 offensive rebounds, eight of which fell to McVeigh.

Vickerman and star guard Matthew Dellavedova both cited those two areas as key in the final outcome of the game.

“We’ve talked about it, and it was a massive factor in the game,” Vickerman said.

“The two areas you need to be good against this team is how you box out, and how you guard the three-point line, and we weren’t good enough in either of those today.

“We ended up holding them to 35 per cent on twos and made them make some tougher runners in the second half. I thought Sean Macdonald was getting in the paint and doing things in the first half that were causing us a bit of trouble, but we contested pretty well in that part.

“You can’t give up 16 threes, and that’s the counterpart. If they’re not scoring twos then they’re pitching out for people as well.”

“I felt like we were in control and had a bit of a lead for most of the game, so I think there’s a lot of things that worked, some things we need to work on and execute the coverage and the game plan a bit better,” Dellavedova added.

“Obviously 16 threes is too many – same with the o-boards – but there’s some things we did well that we’ll look at as well.”

Game 4 of the Championship Series between Melbourne and Tasmania will tip off at 7:30pm AEDT on Thursday night, live on ESPN via Kayo.