Analysis: How Melbourne United choked golden opportunity to close out series to depleted Illawarra Hawks
Melbourne United had a golden opportunity to win the NBL title in front of 10,000 home fans, but choked to an injury depleted Illawarra Hawks. MICHAEL RANDALL analyses what went wrong.
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Melbourne United has let their best opportunity to right the wrongs of recent finals past, choking away a golden title chance in a shock home capitulation to an injury-decimated Illawarra Hawks, who produced one of the most courageous performances in their 46-year history.
United should have been celebrating title number three with the 10,000-strong crowd at John Cain Arena on Wednesday night, up 2-1 in the series against a Hawks side which missed injured All-NBL First Team guard Trey Kell and lost star centre Sam Froling two minutes into game four of the NBL Finals.
But, as many were predicting Melbourne’s battle-hardened veterans to run riot on their home floor and close out the series, the small-market, big-hearted Hawks had other ideas.
After fumbling home-court advantage in game three, the Hawks entered a sold-out John Cain Arena cauldron facing elimination without their best player in Trey Kell, who failed a pre-game fitness test.
Then Froling limped from the floor with a suspected ruptured Achilles and played no further part in the game.
With now two of their three best players out of action, the excuses were served up on a platter for a Hawks team that had been better for longer in the series, but not quite good enough when the whips cracked in games one and three.
But, backs against-the-wall, coach Justin Tatum and his squad, which has, for better or worse, adopted a siege mentality in the series, refused to follow the script on Wednesday night.
It was a distinctly un-Hawks win. The NBL’s most potent scoring juggernaut was forced to grit, grind and gut it out with United — and the makeshift outfit was up to the task.
Kell’s loss forced a huge strategic shift, Tatum replacing him in the starting line-up with much-improved guard Will Hickey and inserting scoring forward Darius Days in at the four for workhorse Mason Peatling.
With his running mate out, the pressure was on scoring machine Tyler Harvey to deliver. In the first half, that pressure looked too much to bear as he went 1-8 from the field for just four points, the frustration on his face more and more pronounced as the misses piled up.
The Hawks youngest player, NBA hopeful Lachlan Olbrich was called into action when Froling went down and showed why Illawarra is willing to risk losing Froling in free agency.
The 21-year-old’s athleticism, length and strength proved a test for United’s frontline and he kept the scoreboard ticking over when few Hawks could.
The one constant for the Hawks all night, though, was Hickey, the former Melbourne United development player who has established himself as one of the NBL’s toughest competitors.
His never-say-die attitude was, dare I say it, Matthew Dellavedova-esque.
While not quite in the league of his iconic opponent, Hickey was the engine for the Hawks when they needed someone to stand up at both ends.
His athleticism and switchability defensively played a big role in keeping United scoring machine Ian Clark and star shooter Chris Goulding in relative check and his offensive output paced the Hawks.
As Hickey tried his guts out, Dellavedova threatened to rip the Hawks’ season away.
At one point, Delly had scored or assisted on 17 of United’s first 23 points.
Unable to find his range, Goulding entered halftime without a field goal — 0-7 — his sole point coming from the line. The United captain did lift in the second half but it was to no avail, and now it’s advantage Hawks in Sunday’s game-five championship decider in Wollongong.
Or is it?
The Hawks victory continued a bizarre streak of now seven straight grand final games, dating back to game three of last season’s championship series between United and Tasmania, that have been won by the away team.
Illawarra will be without Froling and sweat on the fitness of Kell before they go to war to snap that nasty trend - but United have their own ugly demons to face.
United fans probably should have been celebrating a fourth title in five years on Wednesday night.
Were it not for the Tasmania JackJumpers and now the gutsy Hawks, we’d be talking about one of the league’s great dynasties.
But instead, after the Jock Landale-led joy of 2021, the expansion JackJumpers twice played spoiler, booting United out of the 2022 semi finals, then breaking their hearts last season in one of the greatest grand final series of all time.
Those ghosts continue to haunt until at least Sunday.
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