Another brilliant match-up heading into the finals.

United are $1.67 favourites.

Either team could get momentum going now after their previous wins.

Should be a corker.
A lot rides on this one for both teams.
Fingers crossed for a close one.

I think this game is going to be won and lost on the boards. If Utd win the rebound count, they'll win the game.

If Hawks win this, they can pretty much lock down 2nd spot. (I don't see Brissy putting up too much of a fight next round.)

But this is a MUST win for MU.
They need to win their remaining 3 games to finish on 15. 14 won't do it for them.

I think today they will be too good at home.

Yes, $500 on Melbourne, and $250 on Melbourne giving up a 2.5pts start.

Hawks would want to win this game, but Melbourne are hard to beat at home.

‏@NBL
Confirmed. The roof WILL be open for tonight's clash!

37-37 at half time in these shooting-unfriendly conditions

Small bit of useless info: two players for Melbourne played for the Hawks as "kids": Kyle Adnum and David Andersen.

Lasan Kromah. Anyone know what the deal is?

United wins it 78-72 and they jump from 7th to 3rd.

Kromah didn't see court time. Does that mean he's out of Finals now?

Hawks looked good in patches, but 38% from the field and the turnover disparity wasn't going to gift them anything on the road. Boone with 20 and 12 was devastating.

I'm obviously biased, but I think the Hawks have Forman too far down the rotation. 12 points and +5 in 11:57. Ellis looked like the future towards the tail of last season, but hasn't been too good this year.


Hendo, no, I think he just needs to be dressed and on the bench and scoresheet?

I'm with you about Ellis Isaac.

No need for him in the main rotation. Even if Oscar is well defended his presence opens up the lanes as does Clarkes so it leaves a lot more space for the bigs and Norton and Harris to do work in the paint.

Oscar was lights out tonight. I was at the game and extremely impressed with how he moved without the ball in his incited minutes.

It's horseshit Bevo doesn't use him more.

*Limited ^^^

In other news, open air ball is terrific.

Hawks lineup and rotation is weird in general. Rotnei should be starting and Forman deserves way more minutes.

I think Clarke comes off the bench for balance. He's clearly their best player but I never understood the signing of both him & Harris and Harris seems a bit of a sulker so if Harris were coming off the bench you might lose him mentally and the spin-off effect on the rest of the bench.

Great grind out win by melbourne.
Certainly did not rely on the 3 ball in this one
The shots were not really falling for Goulding tonight but he started driving to the basket to score instead.
Boone was fantastic.

Now NZ.......

I have to add how much better has Josh Boone been then the near useless Devin Williams too.

Well, on the upside, that was nowhere near Melbourne's best game tonight but it still felt like they'd win it. Never felt in doubt (even though a Nick Kay 3 would've made it a 3 point ballgame with...20 seconds left?).

So hopefully Casper and CG43 were saving their best form for Friday!

Illawarra really need combos of Clarke and Coenraad or Forman out there because the rest aren't particularly clean shooters. Kay and Ogilvy are not going to get room to operate otherwise.

Instead, Coenraad only 14:30 and Forman 11:57. Even Clarke only played 28:28 while United had three starters playing 34+ minutes.

Play for the win to lock up your ladder position as early as you can.

Poor effort by United. Goulding strength is also his weakness. He can't resist degree of difficulty bombs. He settled for taking it to the hoop and this helped United. This was a game they should have had in the bag in the first half and cruised home. Illawarra hung in there as they do without really looking likely. They need scoreboard pressure to be on the other team down the stretch.
Very impressed with Ware's defensive effort on Rotonei Clarke if it is possible to defend him.
To me Melbourne play at a level that just keeps the other team in the game.

^me