Absolutely massive win
Rathan Mayes was huge, Cleveland good too. They are loaded with weapons
I have seen less NBL this year than I've seen in many many seasons, so it's hard to be super confident, but I will say this- the issues I've identified with United all year haven't been resolved. They do it by committee, but in the playoffs you need go-to guys- eg last year Hopson, CG, Landale, JLA- this year we have basically JLA and CG. Agada is a guy who scores in transition but hasnt shown he can break open a defense in the half court
Now, United's defense has been awesome for most of the season. They have elite defenders everywhere. So earlier in the season, the hope was their defense would be enough to win the title.
But, and again I haven't seen a lot of non United games, but the sense I get is other teams are finding their rhythm (which takes a while with so many changes each off season), Hawks are going, Kings have added Clark and Adams is killing it- so these teams are getting much harder to slow down, and I'm not sure United can expect to keep opponents to 75-80 as we were in early season matchups. I think for United to win the title they really need either JLA or CG to step up and have a massive playoff series, averaging 20+. Or Agada needs to find that extra gear offensively which he's shown only very sporadically.
Not suggesting United can't do it, but I've been saying for quite a while I had Perth slightly ahead of them. Right now I'd add Illawarra, maybe Sydney too, putting United 3rd or 4th in line.
Looking forward to this playoff though. If today was a preview, bring it on
