in nz, I will generally favour the home team. out of nz, its a 50/50 proposition. nz by 2

Going to be an epic matchup. United might be too good from deep. Check my preview here:

http://pickandroll.com.au/nbl-201415-round-7-preview-breakers-look-fourth-straight-resurgent-united/

No Abercrombie- big test for the Breakers! Good to see a leap of faith by Deano, starying Te Rangi.

United's offence is just painful to watch.

It's so frustrating to watch such a quality line up full of offensive talents struggle to even run a set. Arrggh

United getting belted at half time

As I said a few weeks ago, McRae has to go.

Melb would be 10x better without him.

When he has the ball the offense just stops.

How unpredictable is the league right now with Melbourne thumping the mighty sixers one week and getting butt kicked so far by nz the next.

United come back.

McRae is not the player Melb need. Period.

Shaky effort but Breakers hung on. McCRae seemed rattled. Perth look the pick of the league with the rest (Gong aside) capable of beating each other.

I've said it before but if Chris goulding was in the league having a season that McRae is ATM he would be in MVP talk, no ones talking about how much Barlow is stinking it up, he's taking minutes of walker who should be starting

Plenty of people talking about Barlow stinking it up, and if Goulding were playing like McRae did earlier in the season he'd be called a selfish SOB.

McRae doesn't deserve the bagging anymore, he's getting better. He still struggles against elite teams like NZ and Perth, but so did Patty Mills.

McRae can fill it up but if you read into DMacs coaching you see he doesn't run the offence - he just streetballs/runs iso plays.

This works well for him as he gets opportunities to score.

But it just freezes the other guys and because McRae operates out of the offence, guys like Barlow, Worthington, Tomlinson, Corletto etc. Don't know when and where their shots are going to come from.

Its all disorganised and you see the supporting cast never develops an offensive ryhthm - they don't run sets consistently.

Melb is simply too talented and deep to have one player been as selfish as he is.

You can't compare Gouldings Melb team and this Melb team. Goulding played with the likes of Walker, Odigie (who got extended mins last year), Ballinger, McMillan, Tomlinson. McRae is playing with some of those guys plus Kickert, Dennis and Barlow - arguably a much more talented team. How and why he thinks he need to go Kobe mode is beyond me but I doubt the senior players in that United team are happy.

Goulding was a selfish SOB, but the was unreal to watch when he was on, is McMillan injuried or was he one of Anstys boys and o the outer now?

The problem with melb is that they have 3 players that basically do the same things(wortho, barlow and Walker) they have a stretch 4 trying to play centre with no real back up centre,

And they have D Mac as their coach.

Just listen in to the time outs tonight. Nothing tactical just a bunch a try harder crap.

Odigie averaged 5mpg last season, but that aside I agree there are definitely more egos on this Melbourne team.

United look like they could self destruct. D Mac is fine when things are going well. But when they are playing poorly, the raw emotion plea card can't be used too often and D Mac pulled it out too regularly for mine. United are erratic and will be up and down. I was surprised at Barlow's game. Hasn't he been overseas improving his game.Not sure what Melbourne's other import is expected to do. They look like they could use a Scott Wilberkin type playmaker.

Barlow wasn't at an overseas development academy! He was making a living as a three and D guy and then had most of the season off last year. Not too many of our guys actually make big strides when playing in Europe, they mostly fill roles.

Will be interesting to see how Melbourne bounce back against Perth, because the Wildcats have a lot of the same strngths as NZ.

Just when you think United will be just that...

Webster, Breakers shoot down Melbourne

United grabbed two Aussies everyone wanted back in the league. Along with Worthington, they should be giving a great show of Aussie talent every week but they are too comfortable back home and just going through the motions. There is a pile of egos in United and no leadership.

The two Aussies they brought back are now and in fact IMO have never been very good though.

They are very limited in what they can do. Kickert can shoot but has limited post skills and is only an average defender at best. Poor rebounder to boot.

Barlow as Paul said is a 3 and D guy but I think he is also over rated at both of those things. Can't create his own shot and needs to be wide open to knock back a three.

When the outside shots are dropping they will be fine and don't need much input from D Mac but there is NO PLAN B with this team.

DJ > Kickert

Neither can play D but DJ had more offensive tricks in his bag.

Melbourne need to get rid of McRae for someone like Dunigan. They get killed on the boards all the time and have no toughness inside outside of Wortho. Dennis has been disappointing too for someone who was hyped up.

And so because Barlow and Kickert are guys who operate very well in organised and consistent offences, the rationale to drop McRae only magnifies.

If these guys are the types of players who played very well in Europe only because they knew when and where their shots would come from in the offences, how does McRae's wild, selfish style bring out the best in these guys.

A: It doesn't.

Melb United the best in the league at wasting/under-utilising the full potential of their roster.

MACBUB. I would assume they were also in teams that had decent coaching to implement the systems you talk about.

Listen closely to each United time out last night. Well the ones that had the mike close enough. D Mac's contributions during them were more closely aligned to a junior team's time out. One in which the coach was keen and frustrated, hated loosing but knew little of tactical play. They were an embarrassment in their content.