Have United rediscovered their form?

Melbourne United are still trying to rediscover top form, but they have the chance to reclaim first place on Saturday night on the back of two perfectly executed final possessions with Chris Goulding instrumental in both.

Ever since Goulding injured his calf late in Melbourne's win over Sydney back on December 1, they've never quite been able to recapture the form they had been in.

United still beat New Zealand four days later without Goulding by 27 points, but since then they went on a first four-game losing streak in more than two years. Even with winning three of the last four, it hasn’t quite been convincing.

The positive is Melbourne has set themselves up nicely to still have a 15-9 record and to be playing for top spot in Wollongong against the Illawarra Hawks on Saturday night while trying to find that form going back six weeks.

Prior to hurting his calf, Goulding had averaged 28.5 points the previous four games and he was brilliant on Monday night with 42 points against the Breakers in New Plymouth.

He knocked down 10 three-pointers for the first time in his 464-game NBL career from 19 attempts, and hit a stunning game-winning bucket at the buzzer with a deep three ball to give Melbourne consecutive wins for the first time since the start of December.

Beyond the shots he made, executing late in games has been key for United beating the Kings and now the Breakers.

Firstly, against Sydney where Melbourne won at the buzzer thanks to a screen from Goulding that got Jack White free for Matthew Dellavedova to get him the ball for the game winning dunk.

Then against New Zealand, it was White handing off to Goulding up top, then setting the screen to have Jonah Bolden switch onto him.

Goulding's 10th three of the game never looked like missing.

He's happy with the execution from Melbourne in clutch situations and with the form he's in, but ultimately all that matters is winning and getting back to their best form as a team.

"To be able to get the win is a feeling that we're chasing and we want more of, we want more wins," Goulding said.

"It's one of those games of chess where everyone scouts everyone so much but that was the play this time. It worked out but we've got some great stuff out of bounds that depending on the situation we can go to.

"I'm just really, really focused on helping us get back to where we as a group were playing really good basketball together. It takes everyone so it's nice to have individual performances and we've seen them throughout the year.

"Rob's (Loe) had massive games, Shea's (Ili) had massive games and same with Jack and all these guys, but for us to be where we want to be and go where we want to go, everyone needs to contribute."

Upon reflecting on last year's heartbreaking Championship Series loss to the Tasmania JackJumpers and one area Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman pinpointed, was his team's ability to deliver in those late game situations.

That's where those plays from in-bounds passes against Sydney and New Zealand have come off is rewarding.

"It was something from last year's review against Tasmania that we wanted to be better in the last two minutes of the game," Vickerman said.

"We'll go back and review it to see if we should have fouled before Mooney could get a three up and there's a case for us to get that part done.

"There's still things to get better but executing and closing out games, and doing what we've got drawn up on the whiteboard is pleasing."

While Melbourne still didn’t quite get into an offensive flow they hoped against the Breakers, part of that was certainly just due to the way the game panned out and with New Zealand wanting to make it a halfcourt grind.

Vickerman did see signs of improvement including 13/38 three-point shooting, going 14/14 at the foul line, having just the eight turnovers and not only Goulding's 42 points on 24 shot attempts, but Dellavedova and Ili combining for 11 assists.

"Relief is one emotion after that but I'm super happy about finding a way to win," Vickerman said.

"We hadn’t made shots for our last few games and we do make 13 threes, and we just need to space that out with a few more people contributing a little bit more.

"We hadn’t shot our free-throws well for a little while and we go 14/14 from the line.

"We take care of the basketball and only had seven turnovers so there were a lot of things to really like about getting the win with all the things going on with the scoreboard and everything that was wild about this game.

"The guys kept their head, stayed composed and found a way to close it out in the fourth."