United hammer shorthanded Snakes

Having lost to the Cairns Taipans the past four times, Melbourne United no mercy on a Snakes outfit missing three starters on Sunday afternoon romping to the 106-63 victory at John Cain Arena.

The Taipans were able to beat United in all three of their meetings of NBL24 and then also pulled off a terrific performance back in Round 3 of NBL25 also in Melbourne for the 13-point victory.

However, trying to repeat the dose was always going to be an uphill battle with the Snakes missing three starters – point guard Taran Armstrong, import centre Tanner Groves and after Friday night's loss in Adelaide, versatile import Pedro Bradshaw.

Melbourne were back at home fresh off beating the Illawarra Hawks on Thursday night in Wollongong without Matthew Dellavedova and Shea Ili, and United were merciless from the start in front of a crowd of 9210.

Melbourne led 23-12 at quarter-time and piled on 31 points in the second term to lead 54-30 by half-time.

United captain Chris Goulding, who has been under fire from a rival coach and owner for allegedly "flopping", was happy to share the spoils around his team, with five players in double figures.

Dellavedova was back for the home team and they were in charge from start to finish ending up making 16/35 from three-point range, 20/27 at the foul line and pulling down 52 rebounds and dishing out 28 assists.

Flynn Cameron once again grabbed his opportunity in the absence of fellow Kiwi Shea Ili for another 18 points and 10 rebounds. Melbourne outscored Cairns by 38 points with Cameron on the floor.

Jack White came up with another monster performance of 16 points, 13 boards and four assists.

Ian Clark delivered 15 points and four assists with Goulding providing 15 points on 3/5 three-point shooting, and Kyle Bowen 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.

United coach Dean Vickerman said Goulding had brushed aside the criticism, most recently coming from Hawks coach Justin Tatum, which the Melbourne thought was "severe".

"I think you've seen his reaction in the last two games - whatever people have said he's just let his game talk," Vickerman said.

"He knows that the only comments that matter are the ones that are made internally in our locker-room, and all the rest of it is just noise, and that's how he's treated it."

Missing three starters and three of their leaders, and most important players, was always going to make the going tough for Cairns who have now lost five straight matches – all without Armstrong and Groves.

The Taipans shot just 28 per cent from the field for the game to go with 5/25 from three-point range and had 13 turnovers.

Jonah Antonio and Sam Waardenburg both scored 11 points with development player Kody Stattmann contributing 10 but superstar import guard Rob Edwards fouled out and played just 20 minutes for five points with three turnovers on 2/8 shooting.

Taipans coach Adam Forde said it was tough going without those key men, with their losing streak now at five after they slumped to 3-6 record.

"The guys are playing their hearts out ... (Sam) Waardenburg and Rob (Edwards) are playing some superman minutes at the moment and we need to get them some help," Forde said.

"We've just got to wash this one and move on to the next."

Melbourne will remain at home to play host to the struggling Sydney Kings on Thursday night with the Taipans back home to host the Brisbane Bullets in the first Sunshine Stoush of NBL25.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL SEASON 2024/25

MELBOURNE UNITED 106 (Cameron 18, White 16, Clark 15, Goulding 15)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 63 (Antonio 11, Waardenburg 11, Stattmann 10)

BOX SCORE