NBL news 2023: Melbourne United’s devastating exit up close and personal

The brutality of sport was never more evident than Melbourne United’s heartbreaking ride down to wire for a place in the finals. Mick Randall went along for the emotion-fuelled finale.

Melbourne United produced a pulsating 40 minutes of playoff-intensity basketball to knock off Adelaide in the penultimate game of the NBL season, only to have their hearts ripped in two on the other side of the country.

It came down to the last basket of the season, but Perth beat Sydney by 12 points to take Melbourne’s spot in the top six — by 0.06 per cent — and end its season in heartbreaking fashion.

Michael Randall went behind the scenes as Dean Vickerman’s team handled its business before the ultimate heartbreak.

There’s a nervous energy among the United camp two hours before their season-defining clash.

A quiet buzz creates a feeling something special is about to unfold at John Cain Arena.

Assistant coach Justin Schueller knows his team is in an uncomfortable situation.

If United can somehow win by 40 points, a spot in the top six is guaranteed. Perth’s loss to Cairns two nights earlier opened the door further for Melbourne. A win over Adelaide, coupled with a Wildcats’ stumble against Sydney would ensure qualification.

United head coach Dean Vickerman fires up his troops in the crucial contest between Melbourne United and Adelaide 36ers at John Cain Arena.

‘NOBODY CAN F*** WITH US’

Players gather in the belly of JCA and Vickerman kicks things off by revealing Adelaide coach CJ Bruton has made a big change to his starting line-up.

Young tyro Kyrin Galloway is in the first five, an indicator the Sixers plan to push the pace.

Vickerman isn’t displeased. He wants to make it an up and down contest, given the task ahead, his plan to play with a breakneck tempo to start, with the intention to dial it back if and when it is needed.

Vickerman commands the room, players listen intently as he picks apart the mechanics of carving up the Sixers using tape from the last time the two teams met.

“Quick decisions, good pace all night, hunt great threes,” Vickerman tells his charges.

Inside the United team room, pre-game.

On the defensive side, Schueller’s domain, United want to make Adelaide play five-on-five as often as possible, denying a numerical advantage.

“Tonight is proactive v reactive on defence,” Schueller said.

“You gotta f***ing use your voice. Whatever’s called (on defence), you live with it, we can problem solve on the back end of things.”

The 20-minute pre-game meeting ends with a package of steals, blocks, charges and fast offence, set to a soundtrack of Coast Contra’s banger Never Freestyle.

It’s what Vickerman wants to see and it gets the players hyped for the task.

Hell, even I want to crash through the glass door on the way out.

“I want to see just absolute confidence, aggression, fearlessness, picture us playing in that mindset while executing everything that we’ve been talking about, nobody can f*** with us,” Barlow, who is out with concussion, finished on.

It’s up to them, now.

United superstar Chris Goulding appears to get his shot off – which he duly sunk – before the halftime buzzer.

His half-court monster fired up the crowd but sadly the official clock is the one above the rim (see above).

EARLY CONTROVERSY

Point guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes comes out swinging with eight points in the first quarter as both teams launch a barrage of threes, but nothing separates them at the first break.

The trade blows again in the second, Adelaide takes a one-point lead into the long break after a Goulding three from just inside the half-court that almost raised the roof is waved away.

An image of Goulding getting the shot off with 0.1 seconds remaining on JCA’s main scoreboard does the rounds on Twitter, leaving United fans angry, given the importance of points to the makeup of the finals.

But the club says the scoreboard clock isn’t official — it’s the clock above the rim that the timers follow.

Rayjon Tucker of United comes under pressure from Antonius Cleveland. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

TUCK SHOP OPEN

Young import Rayjon Tucker leads the way on the court and off it. He’s got 17 at the half and a huge block that the vocal Barlow raves about.

“Keep running you can see it on their face, they’re not used to playing like this,” Tucker says in a bid to inspire his teammates to run over the top of the Sixers.

It’s injured father figure and basketball genius Barlow who takes over from there.

“They’re super vulnerable,” Barlow says.

“Early, loud communication on defence. (Ian) Clark, Sunday (Dech), hit a couple tough ones — we live with that.

“Defensively for them, Sunday and (Antonius) Cleveland are doing a good job on the ball and trying to cover everything for them by fighting hard.”

Big import Marcus Lee walks in late, a little cross of band-aids on his left cheek to patch up a knock he copped in the second.

They haven’t opened up the enormous margin they’d hoped for, so Vickerman wants his group to go back to being “solid”.

Xavier Rathan-Mayes and Ian Clark argue after a minor scuffle as the importance of the contest comes to the fore. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

It works — they score eight points in the first minute-and-a-half to turn the deficit into a lead and they carry it into the last break up seven.

It should have been the springboard they needed to establish a big gap, but a calamitous opening minute helped the Sixers bring the margin back to two.

Vickerman calls a standing time-out his players gathering around on court as he gave them what-for.

Another time-out came and tensions went through the roof when Cleveland landed a three that gave Adelaide a 93-91 lead.

Are the Sixers about to ruin their season?

Not on Tuck’s watch. The lightning fast dynamo poured in 10 points in the last three minutes, including a three-pointer as time expired that set Perth’s winning target against Sydney at 11.

ULTIMATE HEARTBREAK

They celebrate ahead of a nervous two hours.

Perth jumps out to a 23-point lead early in the last quarter and it looks curtains. But the Kings storm back and a DJ Vasiljevic three with 53 seconds left reduces the margin to eight and puts United in — momentarily.

But Bryce Cotton makes two and then Brady Manek pots a pair of free throws — after a review that had the United crew biting its nails and then Vasiljevic misses a pair of three-point tries that leaves Melbourne heartbroken.

The review will show an almost completely new look roster, which lost its starting centre Ariel Hukporti to injury and only got half a season out of Shea Ili should be proud it even had a chance to make the top six.

But it will only create a hunger to bounce back with a vengeance, the league’s giants wounded by a first season without final basketball in five years under Vickerman.

The key to desperate United’s unlikely finals chance

A week of high intensity up-and-down practice sessions has steeled a desperate Melbourne United side as it goes for broke in a bid to seal an unlikely NBL finals-berth.

United’s destiny is in their own hands. They can leapfrog South East Melbourne on percentage — if, on Sunday afternoon, they can somehow hammer Adelaide 36ers by about 40 points.

The Sixers are unlikely to wave the white flag, given they are still a mathematical chance to make it, so the more-plausible scenario that puts United in the play-in is a win over Adelaide and a Perth loss against Sydney later Sunday. The Wildcats shot blanks in a Friday night 84-71 defeat to Cairns that dropped them out of the top six and put United in — by just .04 per cent, or a solitary free throw.

Rayon Tucker rebounds in front of Mitch McCarron the last time United and the 36ers met. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

Coach Dean Vickerman is keen to do what it takes to take the Kings-Wildcats game out of the equation, but now faces a dilemma — push for the big margin and potentially leave his team exposed or just try to bank the win and then pray for a Perth loss.

“The only result that gets us in right now is to win by 40,” Vickerman said.

“Certainly, there’s been chatter about that one. How do you do that?”

Vickerman hopes his squad can find inspiration in other remarkable results, specifically the 2020 clash where the Bullets had to win by 34 to keep their finals hopes alive.

“We saw they game Brisbane v Cairns a couple years ago where (then Bullets coach) Andrej (Lemanis) went all out to try win that game (they won by 36). We’ve shown some clips of that game.

“We look at Boston playing the Nets (Thursday) where they put up 46 in the first quarter and were up by 30 at the quarter (and won by 43).

“We’re just looking at … if we need that result to go ahead and try to make the finals, we’re prepared for it.”

The Sixers have kept their dream alive with back-to-back wins and now need a 20+ point win over United, coupled with a 20+ point loss by Perth to steal a play-in berth.

“There’s a super-aggressive mindset that’s required to get the number of possessions and to shoot the basketball willingly and supporting it with rebounding,” Vickerman said.

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman has encouraged a super-aggressive mindset to potentially steal a play-in berth. Picture: Steve Bell/Getty Images

“Part of it is where our defence (will be) really trying to force bad shots. We’re actually going to give you (Adelaide) some early ones and dare you to shoot some of those to try to increase the pace.

“We’ve changed our structure defensively to have more aggression in a lot of different areas so it’s been fun.”

United will have to do it again without Kiwi talisman Shea Ili and David Barlow, both out with concussion.

Ili’s absence presents an opportunity for versatile bucket-getter Xavier Rathan-Mayes to go deep in his bag of scoring tricks, while the faster pace will suit import Rayjon Tucker, who is one of the best athletes — especially in transition — ever to play in the league. Expect shooting star Chris Goulding’s three-point attempts to be in double-digits as United chase a cricket score.

Win or lose, John Cain Arena has been sold out for the club’s first home game in 44 days and Vickerman says his players will pay tribute to those fans before they turn their attention to the other game.

“Someone asked me ‘will we get together and watch the game’ and I was like ‘nah, we’ll let that one play out’,” Vickerman said.

“We’ll do what we normally do after the game, we’ll thank our fans, we’ll get to the functions, we’ll do everything that we need to do to make sure that our fans feel appreciated.

“They’ve been great all year.”

ROWDY QUASHES RETIREMENT RUMOUR, BUT WILL HE BE FIT FOR ‘NIX FINAL?

South East Melbourne star Ryan Broekhoff has quashed speculation he was planning to retire at season’s end.

And the gun forward says he is a big chance to suit up for the Phoenix in next week’s play-in game as he races the clock to recover from the January 22 adductor injury he suffered against Perth.

There was some suggestion in basketball circles this week the 32-year-old, who is out of contract at season’s end, might have been considering retirement, given his new off-court interest in a Hoops City franchise with fellow former Boomer David Andersen and wife Katie expecting baby No.2.

“I’ve got no plans to retire,” Broekhoff confirmed to New Corp.

“I do have something going on with Dave Andersen with a Hoops City franchise, but no, I don’t know where this rumour has come from.

“I’m focusing on getting back and finishing the season right now and maybe it’s just because I’m out of contract at the end of the season.

“That might be just what has sparked it all.”

Ryan Broekhoff remains a key player for South East Melbourne and plans to play on next season. Picture: Getty Images

Broekhoff was forced to support his Phoenix teammates from the sidelines during their last two games of the season. Picture: Getty Images

Broekhoff said he’d held preliminary talks with the club about staying on for NBL24 but that was secondary to reaching full fitness for next week’s sudden-death eliminator.

“Both sides were just like ‘let’s go through the season and see how everything goes’ and I’m sure once finals are done and dusted we’ll approach that (his contract),” Broekhoff said.

“That’s the last thing the club or myself want to be focusing on. It’s more ‘let’s worry about getting back on the court, let’s get healthy, let’s help the team’.

“I’m starting to do some running and some different things on the court away from the team and the recovery’s been going pretty well so I’m optimistic and hopeful.”

The 32-year-old is a hugely-popular figure in Melbourne’s south east Heartland but has struggled to consistently stay on the court in his three seasons with the Phoenix.

South East Melbourne boss Tommy Greer said the club was confident of re-signing the former Dallas Maverick in the off-season.

“We absolutely want him back next year and we’re confident of getting something done but we’ll start that conversation at the end of the season,” Greer told News Corp.

“We love him and we feel like he’s been a huge part of our club for the past three years and we want to keep building with him.”

The Phoenix face a weekend of uncertainty as they await the results of Sunday’s Melbourne United and Perth games, which will determine who they will face in next week’s play-in, set to be on either Wednesday or Thursday.

Originally published as NBL news 2023: Melbourne United’s devastating exit up close and personal