Lots of good matchups, Felix-Tokoto in particular. Melbourne have been better lately and I think if anyone can win in Perth right now it's probably them.

Game of the round.
Got a feeling Melbourne might get this.

Cats were again unconvincing vs Sydney so yeah we're going to have to step it up a level to win tonight.
It's our first home game for 4 weeks and a big crowd is expected so hopefully that energy helps push the guys over the line and dissuade the refs from making any judgement calls in Melbourne's favour ;)

I'm tellin' you right now. Air Tokoto and Carrick the Cat Felix will be what I wanna see.

I always tip against Perth but tonight I'm serious. Ey listen. There is no way Perth is getting out of the Jungle tonight with a 'W'. CG43 and my man Casper are coming in to light it up. You heard it here first

I hear that all the time, hopefully it's a good game.

Ok first of all, listen.

I'm telling you right now. The key to this GAME, is Tokoto and Fellix.

They are two of the best small forwards in this league.

And you can't forget about my main man CG43. He's been waiting on this GAME since Perth played them last in Melbourne.

Ok Perth won that game by damn near 40 points. But I'm telling you. That is in the past. That isn't this GAME.

Melbourne are rollin. First of all, again, they have the second best backcourt in this league. The first of course, is my man Sosa and New Bill, but lets focus on this GAME.

I'm telling you. This is a man's Game. These players, they feed their wives and children with their pay cheques.

There are no players from new york in this game, but that doesn't matter. My man Casper Ware played against Russel Westbrook, and gave him the work. Westbrook is a MVP candidate of that league, and you know who else guarded him. Surfer boy, Kyle Adnam.

Once you play against those NBA caliber players, you look at the GAME differently. You have a different mind set.

Melbourne have one six straight. Going for their seventh in Perth, in this GAME.

If Perth lose this GAME, it will be their third home loss in four GAMES and they will lose top spot on the ladder.

The wheels are falling off Perth, and I can't wait to see what the Melbourne United have in store for the red army at this GAME.

Also look at my shoes. They are sneakers, but I'm wearing a suit. Wavvy!

I have to say, mighty fine impression!

we all read that in homicides voice right?

Man, he even got the "wavvy" in there

@Bear
"we all read that in homicides voice right?"

100%

I guarantee, I wrote it in his voice ;)

@HomicideRulz good work

I'm tipping Melbourne.

Perth's fade outs against Illawarra, Adelaide and almost losing to Sydney shows me they are not playing at their best where United are improving.

That was the best post I've read here in ages. And I read it in the Homicide voice.

All it was missing, was the "Red-HAAGE, I'm tellin' ya..."

Cooke double double if Boone gets into foul trouble..

Beat Illawarra twice, once without 3 of there starting 5 missing, Brisbane by one and Illawarra lost that game.

Wouldn't surprise me if United win, they have the best talent according to everyone.

It's about consistently winning against Perth and New Zealand is when you can be considered legit.

If Allen is in town Perth are screwed, still be colour blind and think United are blue.

The main difference between United teams of the past couple of seasons and this United squad is the coach. With Vickerman at the helm they garner an element of trust in terms of what they'll bring to each contest. That can't be said for United outfits coached by Demopoloustanisaganki. I think the Cats will get the win tonight with the game being in Perth and I think this will be the GF match-up in a month or so.

With United having Anderson & Majok out - i think the key will be how the remaining United bigs play - how they rebound and if they get into foul trouble.

Go United!!

Grand final preview tonight.
Melbourne have come along way since Perth wrecked them by 30+ last time they met

Perth only moderate last game .
United in pretty good form.
Not sure , so go for home team...

so should the fact that the last time Perth played in Illawarra they lost by 12 be ignored?

Equal top

I'm starting to worry about Majok. What are the chances he doesn't come back this season? Also, if Andersen's problem is plantar fasciitis then his health is doomed to lottery status for the rest of the season.

JP is not better than Prather

And technically they replaced Prather with Devondrick Walker

But that shouldn't matter, I'm just infuriated you think Air JP is better. He ain't that

Your opinions are annoying.

Get outta my kitchen bish

Prather has regressed, while JP hasn't reached top gear yet. Loving it.

Tokoto Air JP has actually regressed imo over the course of the season.

Prather had a new team so needed to adjust to United's way. There's that plus the fact that the league has him well scouted by now.

The scout is out on Pierre now and he's been feeling the effects.

Also, Perth's style is pretty much 'get the ball to the spots our players like it and let them use their talent to make plays'. A star's numbers will always be better in that situation on a Perth team with half the scoring talent of one like 2017/18 United.

Majok is supposed to be back in 2-3 weeks and Anderson was having a fitness test this week - and as someone who has plantar fasciitis i really sympathise with Anderson

Didn't they know about Andersen's problem 3+ weeks ago?

Just tear the tendon surgically? It's usually an 8-week recovery so he'd have come back right on playoffs.

Perth tired against sydney afta road trip but still won. JP better than CP at same point in career. MU all talk need to prove themselves. Homicide is dumb.

Melbourne played better without Goulding, too. It's a matter of usage distribution, not of relative talent.

Its happening....

Gift fouls to melb. And some odd no calls at the other end

Take the fine and whinge in press conferences, the key to winning games

Refs still hazing the newbie

Tokoto's jumper is all arm.

What'd I keep saying early in the season? Can't trust that. People wanted to label him a shooter after like 3 games

Barlow with the death bed 3!

Judging by some of Homicide's comments towards the end of the quarter he has been reading this thread and is copying the words of one of the posters!

Felix the Cat baby

Cotton ain't a killer 24/7. Doesn't have the mentality. He's only a genuine killer when confident.

Fair call slight extension on walkers arm when contact was made. Not all perth fans are wankers.

My foxtel is working fine so dont know about nbltv

I went back and checked that shot clock violation and it should've literally been around 1.7sec.

Make that 1.8 seconds. Clock read 15.8 seconds left at the kicked ball.

Ineptitude

Hard game to ref when they're trying to call it this tight.

Hard game to ref when they're trying to call it this tight.

Pretty sure the review would have been to the whistle, not the buzzer.

Ummmmmmmm......

Kobe, it's either one of two things: ineptitude from refs or ineptitude from Fiba.

I doubt Fiba rules say that in stoppage situations, refs whistle is the definitive marker. Logic 100 per cent says that it should go by the clock. I'd be surprised if the refs were correct here

What was the tech on walker for?

Walker doing that on 4 fouls is a joke..

I doubt Fiba rules say that in stoppage situations, refs whistle is the definitive marker. Logic 100 per cent says that it should go by the clock. I'd be surprised if the refs were correct here

Man ... how hard are we sucking right now.

They have until next week to replace Cooke. Can't see it happening but they're not winning anything if they don't.

Homicide going full potato tonight

Melbourne will defeat Perth or NZ for the title.
Gleeson appears to have surrendered this game his rotations are shocking and all key bigs in foul trouble.

Also if Perth were to make import change time is fast running out

lol, the f@cking perth fan in this thread isn't far behind.. top of the ladder, wants coach sacked, wants new import

Realists?? holy f**k where do you come from?

Perth fans lucky people far smarter and more rational than them run their club

WTF was Gleeson thinking on that last play?

@hogwash

'Melbourne will defeat Perth or NZ for the title.
Gleeson appears to have surrendered this game his rotations are shocking and all key bigs in foul trouble.

Also if Perth were to make import change time is fast running out'

Lol.... melbourne winning in finals.... good one

United's D was impressive. That's the template for how to beat us.

It's too late to find now, I'd suggest. Oh well, worse things than not having to buy grand final tickets.

You are allowed to tip the ball off the rim in live play. In that case the foul had already been called before moller tapped it out.

Flogstaff......well done

When are you allowed to airball than grab your own airball after landing? Isnt that a travel?
We played shit Marto was awful with the ball slowed it down on a couple plays when shouldn't have. Threw ball away couple times too. Also shooting 1 of 7 or something stupid.

Wow.

That was the most impressive win in Melbourne United's history.

Perth fans are the best, never change

Vague didn't hit the floor until after Waxy fouled out. Hire never even suited, so Gleeson just ran out of bigs. Wagstaff was playing the 5 for most of the last quarter.

Why you'd have your three-point shooter inbounding for a drive down four with four seconds left, though...

So many "why would you..." questions tonight. It was like the whole team left their brains in Sydney.

Gleeson looked to be in vintage form tonight from where I was sitting. Amazed he wasn't T'd up.

Boone only played 20 minutes too. Makes the win even more impressive

Crazy game. Perth's offence was terrible at times. The NBL ain’t the 2 horse race it was for the last decade, United, 36ers, Breakers and even Hawks are showing they can stop the 3-peat.

Gutted to be in attendance for a loss but glad it was a close game. I fkn love this game

So where do you coach Koberulz?
Clearly you know it all.

Yep, definitely a Crocs supporter ^^

It would help if Brandt wasn't terrible. I don't know what Lemanis did to him and Hodgson but it can't be a coincidence.

You can't knock the ball off the rim after a foul has been called.

Dwayne Russell is easily the most biased commentator in the league.

I got the impression of gleeson being more interested in the refs than his players.
By silence , it suggests that he possesses stronger nerves and higher standards...

I wonder if United will keep Wesley as an import and not retain Prather and try and secure an Australian 3 man.

The flow of the offence seems much better without Prather and Goulding, just as it did when Goulding was out early in the season.

Finding a big man who can dominate the low block like Wesley did last night are hard to come by.

Surely Wesley wouldnt be far off OZ or NZ citizenship yet??

"Team fouls mess up rotations do people understand so little about basketball?"

Please help me understand. How do team fouls mess up rotations? What they actually do is send the other team to the free throw line. Personal foul trouble forces players to the bench and that messes up rotations. Team fouls just leak easy points. Do people who criticise others for not understanding basketball understand even less themselves?

I think the Brandt on the bench experiment needs to end now.
I get what we were trying to achieve with it (more scoring punch off the bench), but it's not working.
Right now, a bigger problem is lack of scoring at the start of the game. We look one-dimensional to me without an interior target, and last night the result was Martin, Walker & Tokoto forced to take threes, and that's bad.

Get Brandt back in the starting 5, make better use of him, and fix the bench scoring by managing the rotations better such that we're not sitting more than 1 of Cotton, Tokoto & Brandt for any significant length of time.

Need to get more out of Steindl too. It was always a weird move to replace Knight with him, but what's done is done so let's allow the guy to get some shots up. He can score, but we're getting him virtually no good looks.

Impressed with Moller .
He must be glad he is a Sydney King no longer

And yes - our bigs need to cut out the dumb fouls because we no longer have a deep rotation in the front court.

Re the number of fouls called in this game: maybe if the players were coached to play within the rules instead of push the boundaries of physicality/legality all the time we'd not only see less fouls called but better refereeing too.