2.30 left in the 3rd

Cairns lead 66 to 48

and that's the game, and their season.
and people tipped them to make fourth?

if I was at united, id be disappointed cos the roster aint that bad

Finals for the 36ers, yeah baby!

Bye bye United. See you next season

Kickert would have to be the biggest whinger in the NBL. If he spent as much effort on his game as he did complaining to the refs he would be a phenomenal player

Disgraceful performance and disgraceful season by United.

Sponsors, fans, owners should be disgusted.

You can to a certain degree live with a losing season due to a lack of talent, monetary constraints e.g. TVL.

But to lose and to lose all season the way they did due to a lack of effort infighting and poor attitude is something which should never be acceptable.

Agree MACDUB. Pathetic. Probably the worst I have seen in 35 years of NBL watching.

Train, you may have just hit the nail on the head regarding the internal issues. Kickert is the biggest whinger but Wortho wants to be the biggest whinger...meanwhile, Tomlinson comes off the bench to produce some quality whinging. Then you've got two imports of high whinging quality. Barlow has been one of the biggest NBL whingers in the past few years and he wasn't even playing in the league - they didn't have enough room in the points cap for his whinging.

So you've got all this whinging yet only one box of tissues to go around.

Tomlinson's whingeing started tonight. Dennis came off the bench.

I just saw Barlow limping, he must have pulled a heart muscle. Oh that's right, this team doesn't have one!!!!

Lot's of wine was made...... but their cheese was found wanting....

Not great for the NBL to have United be so poor. I can't believe this team destroyed Adl at the Arena, man sport is a beautiful thing!

Hopefully United for the sake of the league, can bring in the right personal from coach down to 10th man. This group doesn't play well with others clearly.

If you haven't got a contract for next season i wouldn't be sitting by the phone expecting an extension.

Kobe24 "This group doesn't play well with others clearly."

I presume you mean they don't play well with each other on the team .....

Yes, its like a figure of speech. I referring to how selfish and negative they are towards each other.

I thought United was competitive for all the first quarter, and a big portion of the second quarter.

Did something get said (and by whom?) in the dressing room at halftime to deflate/derail the team?

There was really no offensive rebounding presence noticeable for a large portion of the game with Wortho showing up at times in the opposition paint. United bigs seem to subscribe to the Anstey camping school (3 point line).

When United moved the ball and personnel in the first half, it was great to watch. But in the second half, someone forgot to pay the electricity bill, failed to fill the gas tank and left the kids with too much freedom to do what they want.

A story of 2 different halves or halves not, or is it of 2 different haves and have nots? Either way poor United is a hollow shadow of its potential.

At Anon @ #505101,

I thought Antsey got the sack rather than standing down voluntarily.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

United actually went on a 15 nothing run in first, and lost convincingly thats how bad they are.

Melbourne had everything to play for tonight and played like it was already over.

Well to be fair, it was all said and done besides the mathematics. It was all over with the 2 losses to the Hawks, Crocs and the 12 point lead that ended up being a huge 6er win without DJ.

Bowling Warnie!

0/15 from deep in the 2nd half *shudder*

Not sure why this has a spoiler alert? Did anybody expect anything different?

We all said it in round 1 - these guys just jack up terrible shots. One pass then shoot it from anywhere, with 20 seconds of shot clock left. Blokes that are awful shooters like Walker and Wortho letting it fly from deep is so frustrating to watch

Lots of well wishers on Twitter and Facebook telling them to enjoy the ride to Townsville!!!

The TV Commentators were saying they were leaving that night for Townsville. They would have got in around 2 am

If Dennis was benched, either it's a sign he is part of the problem, or an attempt to build Tomlinson's confidence.

Only watched the end, by which time Cairns were pretty scrappy, but United were shocking. Were they running any plays?!

No. The second half was their shootaround for tonight.

couldnt agree more isaac looks like dennis has done something

Cairns deserve to be the title favourites despite Adelaides recently found form imo.

I'm not sure 11 of their past 12 is recently found form, but certainly home-court advantage is a big thing, and Cairns have an excellent HCA.

My feeling all season is that the DisUnited players believed all the hype and were so full of themselves that they forgot that they needed to actually work their butts off.

Whinging usually tells me that players think they're better than they are, and that they can't accept that they make mistakes - it's always someone else's fault.

The players were never going to be compatible with DMac, who from memory always showed great blue-collar work ethic and personal responsibility.

The whinging sums up most of the DisUnited players group - up themselves. Time to clean them out and get some hungry young talent in there.

I agree. Don't think Cairns have done anything at all to lose favoritism. They play great team basketball, and have done consistently all season.

Which United players are contracted for next season?

What was it about last night's game that has made you more certain about Cairns chances Mystro?

The problem is if Wortho, Kickert and Barlow left Melbourne they'd probably join another NBL team. I don't want to see guys like that in the league at all.

How does the old saying go.....United we stand, divided we fall?

Melbourne were certainly not United last night, they looked about as divided as could be. Their body language was horrible and other than part of the first and a little bit of the second, they really played like they just want this season over and done with.

Barlow, walker and McRae all were limping at stages so they could be carrying injuries but I suspect they were just being lazy.

I thought they should have kept a guy like Morrison and tried to build on what they had last year.

Bought in say Dennis for Farrakahn, one of Barlow/Kickert for Goulding (play different positions but both add shooting/scoring) someone like Corletto for Greer (who retired) and tried to keep the rest.

Would have given them something like

C Morrison/MacMillan
PF Kickert/Ballinger
SF Worthington/Walker
SG Dennis/Odigie
PG Tomlinson/Corletto

Would have had better chemistry imo and a much better team balance.

Morrison would have given them atleast a C a big body, who can play some interior defense, replacing him with guys who dont play de and are just shooters has hurt them imo, he is also probably alot cheaper than Kickert, Barlow, McRae types.

Dennis and Tomlinson could do the ball handling and play making, whilst sharing the court together a fair bit too, Dennis is big enough to play from PG-SF.

Kickert, Ballinger, Worthington, Corletto would have given them decent shooting,

Morrison and Dennis did last pre-season with the team and seemed to fit in well so would have likely had alot less import/chemistry issues.

They just chased too many 'names' and threw it out there and expected to out talent everyone, however some of the names where over rated and the NBL is too good a league to do that anyway, structure and chemistry are vital imo.

Thank you for them stuffing it up though as it has enabled the 6ers to make the playoffs!!!

The thing that's hard to read about Cairns is the fact it's the only team that really hasn't had to face any injury worries this year. The other top-three teams have had their share of adversity in that regard. Cairns' consistency this season needs to be seen in that light.

I don't think Cairns has an insurmountable HCA at all, and I still see it as the most vulnerable of the top-four sides.

At least Barlow's points value will go down...

Not that this game was particularly meaningful, but Cairns have probably the best "balance" of defence and offence. I think that will be good for them in the play-offs.

Tough to make too much of the Cairns team based on last night, United have simply checked out for the season. Its like watching carcuss decaying. Like all the top 4 teams, they have been very good at home though, real us against the world mentality that fan base has.

Granted Cairns haven't had any serious injuries this year but they are still rotating their bench regularly so if anyone does go down their bench players can step up.