Locked-in United hit back in Perth

Chris Goulding and Jack White have been match winners for a lot of NBL25 for Melbourne United, but it was efforts from Matthew Dellavedova, Shea Ili, Marcus Lee and Ian Clark that most impressed coach Dean Vickerman in Perth.

Goulding and White have had strong NBL25 campaigns to deserve to be in All-NBL Team discussions. White especially was outstanding with 26 points and 16 rebounds as Melbourne made it 10 of the last 11 wins in Perth over the Wildcats on Wednesday night.

It improved United to a 16-10 record and back to third position, but what most impressed Vickerman was the array of players that stepped up to play crucial roles in the win in a whole variety of ways.

Vickerman loved the way his entire group responded to Saturday night's loss to the Illawarra Hawks to lock in for the challenge against the Wildcats, and then to get the job done in Perth.

But he won't be satisfied unless they complete this run of seven road games with a win in Brisbane on Sunday which would give them five victories from the stretch.

"We were a locked in group for this one and you could see that just in our shootaround, and how we went about approaching this game. If we can bring that every game hopefully we can continue to see good performances like this one," Vickerman said.

"This is our sixth game on the road in-a-row and we've got one more going to Brisbane. If we can get that one and get to five from seven in this stretch of January after these seven games on the road it will be a good performance for us."

While Vickerman acknowledged that Ili didn’t have his greatest game at the offensive end and did have five turnovers, he had a massive say in the final result with his defensive performance on Perth superstar and MVP favourite Bryce Cotton.

Ili firstly made Cotton's job tough to get the ball and then made sure all his shots were contested. The result being that he ended up with 14 points on 5/17 shooting having been averaging 32 points in his 13 games since coming back from a rib injury.

"He's the Defensive Player of the Year for a reason and that's the toughest cover in the league, so to continue to make his catches hard, to continue to make his shots pushed to the right area where other people can help him all meant he did an outstanding job," Vickerman said.

"He did have moments offensively where it just wasn’t him tonight, but he was just locked in on the task that he needed there. He can take a lot of credit but some of the other guys and the whole team did a good job on him tonight."

While Clark is an NBA and NBL champion with nobody doubting his credentials, he did come into Wednesday night having had a tough last six games for Melbourne averaging just 5.5 points on 27 per cent shooting from the field and 17 per cent from three.

However, he got himself going in Perth by being aggressive and confident by making some tough floaters first of all, then hitting a couple of jumpers and ending up with three purple patches.

The first was with four quick points late in the first quarter, he did something similar early in the third and then in the fourth, he scored six straight points to push Melbourne out to a game-high 13-point lead.

Vickerman never doubted he'd hit back and was delighted for him.

"I'm super happy for him and we know for us to have a chance at where we want to get to this year, we need his spark coming off the bench," Vickerman said.

"You could see that he broke that game open a little bit tonight and we'll keep pumping him with confidence.

"But really, the only thing that gives you great confidence is performing and now hopefully he can stack another one against Brisbane, and keep that kind of form for the rest of the year."

Rob Loe and Lee continue to share the five spot for Melbourne this season. With Loe battling foul trouble in Perth, Vickerman couldn’t have been happier with Lee's performance.

His impact is only marginally represented with his eight points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two assists in a season-high 28 minutes, but it was the timing of some of his four offensive boards, and his physical presence that was crucial in the win.

"I want to shout out Marcus Lee," Vickerman said.

"Robbie had foul trouble and I think his minutes were outstanding tonight. It might be the most amount of minutes he's played all year."

It's no surprise to anyone to see four-time Olympian and NBA champion Dellavedova come up huge, but it doesn’t make it any less impressive when it does happen.

He finished with 17 points and seven assists against the Wildcats, but it was his two tough buckets late in the paint after the Wildcats closed to a point that showed his penchant for stepping up when it matters most.

"Delly just really owned moments tonight. We really wanted the basketball and to make decisions for the team, and for him to be a +14 in that game was pretty spectacular," Vickerman said.

"He was so determined to get this win and there were moments where he put the team on his back showing what an outstanding leader he is."