Nah, Cats should get this at home against an undermanned United playing their 2nd game of the round

Let's hope CG43 pulls out another Perth special like he did this time last year (without the knee injury this time)

Melbourne has improved by leaps and bounds and Perth have (IMO) stayed largely stagnant.

But Barlow and Prather are two big outs.

Will be a close game.

I reckon Barlow is there best player tbh, standard procedure talent doesn't win ball game's. 1st game of the season so can't bank on anything.

Just great the season is back!

Ware to Trimble is a slight upgrade on the offensive end but big downgrade defensively.

Boone to Long is a big upgrade.

Kennedy to Prather is also a big upgrade, but I am basing it on pre-injury Prather (Perth Prather).

Peter Hooley to Shae Illi is a big upgrade.


Martin and Wagstaff are one year older.
Jervis to Majok is a significant downgrade.
Brandt to Hunt is unknown (not enough sample space).

Barlow is their best player?????

Geez espn should really get rid of that shit at the bottom of the screen

It won't happen. They didn't have the ticker unlike their American counterpart for years which was great. Unfortunately it was applied earlier this year.

Going to be interesting to potentially see Hunt and Long go h2h. Long is the benchmark, so hopefully its a meaningful test.

But also going to be interesting to see what Vickerman does without Barlow and Prather.

I'm guessing JLA goes to the middle and Long starts at PF??

Ticker removed on ESPN? Nice.

So...

It seems that the players who played WC have returned as better players at least Creek and Goulding). Creek also had G League/NBA stint.

Kay will be really interesting to see. He justified his spot at the WC, playing some important minutes and was very competitive and combative. I think he will benefit most from WC exposure. He's not the quickest, but I reckon he will appear to be quicker, by developing his ability to read really slick plays.

He could be in contention for MIP this year.

Liking the Perth continuity, so they should be clicking in their first game.

Huge United outs.

I'm with the rest of you guys, calling a Perth win. 13 points

Perth win on paper, but I think Melbourne will come out a lot sharper than Thursday night. I expect Melo to bounce-back shooting-wise and Long to cause some problems inside. Melb in a close one.

"Melbourne has improved by leaps and bounds"

I don't see how any team that has lost the absolute defensive quality of Boone, Kennedy and Ware, and the leadership and playmaking of Ware, can have improved.

They have potential to score more if they aren't taking it out of the net a lot, but they'll need to score a lot more because their ability to defend and score down the stretch is greatly diminished.

Kennedy was close to the best defensive SFs in the comp. Boone mightn't have been great for fantasy coaches last season (he may have been too, I don't know), but in real life he was as important to anyone not named Casper to that team. Big guys who set great screens, run the floor well, get you extra possessions and cover defensive mistakes are invaluable.

What position was Kennedy playing most of by that point?

Jury is still out on White for me. Will his great GF form be legit or will it be a Beal like fluke.

GOULDING is out tonight after injuring himself in last game

Surprised the odds haven't changed more with the Goulding outage. Gonna struggle offensively, and another whole that has no one to fill it.

Odds have changed - line by three to four points and Wildcats were 1.58 earlier in the week now in the high 1.30s.

Who else but Nick Kay with the first basket.

Haha Smith-Milner can't do anything right.

United look a lot more settled. No Goulding but if anything it's made roles clearer on offense so far.

Looks like scar tissue.

This fill in import for United is freakishly athletic.

Agreed that United look better today - seemed to be a bit of a rabble on Thursday. One less cook in the kitchen with Goulding injured helps.

Perth Arena refs though. :p

I get a feeling that Smith-Milners dunk early in the opener on Thursday is going to be his sole highlight for the year.

Vague is dumb.

Correct.

I think half of Longs problems on D stemmed from his early foul trouble last season. Since then he plays D like he's on 4 fouls from the opening tip.

FFS Vague.

Vague trying his best to lose it for us. How many dumb moments has he had. Not on Smith-Milner level but come on.

FT PER 94-93 MEL

Great game. Would've like to see United go to the hoop there, but I think fatigue got them in the end.

Also a bit surprised Long didn't get inserted in the last couple of mins, even with how well Pledger was playing.

I can't wait for LV's assessment of the game. Brace yourselves.

Looking forward to LV's analysis of every foul and discrepancy.

Why do the teams shoot at the opposite ends as compared to fiba rules?

Why do the teams shoot at the opposite ends as compared to fiba rules?

Well, that's what NBL basketball should look like, on court anyway. Great pace of game, big plays coming from every direction. This is the kind of basketball that can turn heads.

Nick Kay is going to be just another Boomer who makes the NBL his playground. Three Aussies looking intriguing for that MVP spot at the moment. Not saying they'll get it but seems like an Aussie, outside of Bogut, has the best chance they've had in years.

The Perth Wildcats show once again why they deserve respect. Some will say "well they barely beat an undermanned United", but how often are teams gonna shoot 65%. United were shooting the lights out and Perth still found an extra gear.

I think the NBL made one adjustment, in that they decided not to go back to the hub visuals after half time. I don't think they should show the hub at any point of the game, if indeed they simply must have it. It is detracting and it just causes this weird dichotomy. If they cut that out, it will help the broadcast a lot.

Once again, the visuals were a step below what I'd consider HD but weren't as bad as they were in the first two games. Hopefully they're figuring out some solutions.

The Vice HD looked great to me, but that's probably because I was watching SBS On Demand the last two games.

Also thought the commentary team were the best we'd had yet in so far as not obviously being at a different location to the game.

Melbourne deserved to win that. Was something wrong with Long to be out at crucial time?

Despite 0-2, Melbourne are still the favourites. Three stars to come back.

Good first three games of the season so far.

Your only as good as the team you can put on the floor.

Melb United in full spend mode decided on Prather. He has been bouncing off injuries and likely will be there at season end. Unfortunately every game counts this season and 50%W/L is not going to get you into the final 4.

Acoul looks damn impressive. Other than the 2 head of steam charges, he made shots and good decisions.

With him like that United are well 8 deep.

Yeah agree on Acoul. I thought he adjusted nicely after the 2 charges as well - had that nice pass off the drive, and also a drive and kick before that. He looks like a future starter (to be fair, probably a current starter on most other teams in the league).

Agree with ME, united was running over 70% from the field most of the game, unlikely even the greatest player lifts that %.

Acoul looks good but he and uniteds other bigs are a worry defensively, had he received the welcome to the league treatment hunt got, he would have sat.

United have some serious egos to manage, long doesn't strike me as the i dont mind being benched for the betterment of the team kinda guy, melo, goulding, prather, long, mccarron and barlow all need to eat....

Perth, well hopefully they got the rust out, not their greatest game but found a way. Jury is still out on hunt.

Yep, JLA at the 4 is what put Melbourne in the game. Very impressive, and overall a gutsy game by MU.
Almost came up with the win.
I think a preoccupation with running down the clock cost them, should have just let Melo put up the shot.

I think we should just let White sleep for the first half. LOL. Nice to have somebody else who can hit clutch 3's.

Steindl once again capped an impressive pre-season by missing every 3 point attempt.

Hunt will just be hoping he has enough points to upgrade to Business Class. You know you're in trouble when they have to sub you for Rhys Vague to win the game.
If he's 6'9 and weighs 115kg, then I'm the Queen of England.
According to the stats he should be the same size as Long. ROFL.

I love the look of Acuil.

United very very deep this year.

True, but considering Barlow and Prather out injured, JLA was a big improvement over TSM.

Defensively he's loose, but athleticism and length make up for some of that.

Offensively decision making will improve with experience at this level.

Good project player for Vickerman this year. Intriguing to see where he's at in 2-3 years

TSM is one of the worst players in the NBL (Only just in front of Trist). I am not sure what Vickerman sees in him. However, I am happy when he puts him on against the Sixers.

Melbourne shot 74% (v 58%), 50% from the 3 (v 35%), and 83% FT (v 75%), out rebounded Perth 26-22, and lost.

23 fouls to 11, 12 FT to 28.

Should they feel aggrieved?

Three make two... united had 30 to 29 boards, allowed perth 16 o boards while only collecting 5 of their own. Also turned it over 18 times to 8. That's 21 extra possessions to perth!!!! Of you're suggesting united lost because of the umpiring ot was 25 to 15 fouls, if you watched uniteds big men, id say most fouls were there.

allowed perth 16 o boards while only collecting 5 of their own.

Still allowed 16 o boards to perth, kober rulez,the point i was emphasising was the extra posessions they allowed perth.

Nice to get the win, and gotta love the 3-point nailer to finish.

But doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Melbourne had no Barlow, no Prather, no Flopking. And no McDaniels who apparently has been impressive off the bench.
Plus clearly still experimenting with rotations to cover this.

And yet we barely managed to get over them by 1 point, at home, with MU playing their 2nd game of the round.

Martin is not often a high scorer, but seemed particularly flat, and didn't get on the boards either.
Norton shot at 16%, yikes.
Steindl needs to be allowed to be more creative. I actually like it when he takes it inside, and he's tall enough to exploit smaller guards. But so often it seems his role on every play is to go and stand in the corner. Fine when he's sniping the 3's, but they just weren't falling for him.
Vague is showing real promise. He's getting much better at using his size and strength to advantage, especially defensively, and he can actually hit the 3!

Majok was a concern. Not just because of his lack of impact, but because he looked so slow and almost lethargic at times.

Hunt is just wait & see at time

Martin looked a touch slow, while Norton was missing shots I felt his energy level trumped Martins and we looked better when he was on the floor.

Hunt to me just looks too undersized, hoping he finds his feet and shows his worth but from the small sample size I dont expect to see too much.

Melbourne when healthy are going to be great to watch, a lot of talent on the roster who could put up some high scoring games this season.