I guess we'll know in a couple of hours.

United are 0-2 and unless they took the Dreamliner are likely to be a little seedy. Perth were absolutely punched around the ring by Cairns and are likely to be squaring up as two losses in a row is as unusual for Perth as a Wildcats supporter wearing deodorant.

Providing Cotton and White stay out of foul trouble, the game is there for the Cats to lose, especially in the 4th Quarter

Can't see jet lag playing a part. They had a game in Sacramento so not overly far from Los Angeles airport. Then a straight flight from la. They might be tired from a tough schedule, but I think they would be over jet lag by now

Perth travelling to Melb after game on Friday would also mean fatigue

Adelaide just weren't good enough.
Suck it up princess

The EU would like to know why we complain about the commentary so much. Maybe they should watch a game.

Nothing to do with the actual results, but I'm liking the hooley write ups and interviews on the Melbourne site. Get him onto the main commentary team, a nice even balance with a twist of humour.

Not a fan of the beard.

Can anyone miss frokblong range against perth? Lots of these threes contested and all down.

Steindl worst player in the nbl, also what is with his amish haircut.

What is cotton meant to do? Surely that can't be a foul

Especially considering on the next play terrico does not get the call

"Perth to bounce back or Dazz to lose his shit."

Have to pick MU at home

But, great game so far. Perth still looking a little undersized inside, but overall getting the job done.

Question is going to be fatigue down the stretch. Perth in the 2nd game of the round, MU fresh off the plane from their USA games.

Not convinced by Melbourne's performance so far. Too much swatting on defence, seem to have trouble scoring inside against Perth, and their offense seems too complicated compared to Perth’s. Melo seems like a backwards step from Casper, and McCarron seems to have pulled back into his shell a bit.

But I do like Hooley on the sideline

Same call on majok as hunt, why is it a foul, tje d is straight up??

Wtf was that foul on Steindl for? Goulding slaps the hand away and gets rewarded. Ffs shit call!!

5 fouls in a min. Just give united the game already.

This is Stiendl's last season under contract, right?

Twice in a row Barlow should have passed to Long right under the basket. Reverted to his form from 2 years ago.

Kay just got shirtfronted by long going for a block, but no foul...

Regardless of the result here, holy sh*t this has been a cracker of a game.

It's been Grand Final like.

Take that to the BANK!

The bank is open on Sundays

United determined to lose ... and did. Some pretty dumb stuff in the face of Perth's tough defence.

Ouch. Pretty rotten call on Long with the travel, but once again hats off to Perth. Huge shot by Cotton, but the Martin and White shots down the stretch also massive.

100% Cotton, 100% clutch

Well that was an escape. United should not have lost that. Having said that some consistency in calls would make the game better

Cotton banking $600K in Perth and that shot in Melbourne.

Is that 3 wins in a row against United won by clutch shots.

Melbourne as low as $1.01 in live betting. Ouch.

Oof

I have to think fatigue got Melbourne in the end.

If they get Prather back healthy, and they get their shit sorted at the 4, they are going to be scary good.
Clearly the plan is to go back to Barlow, and hope he can somehow find his form from this time last year. Not sold on that idea. Of the options they have, I think JLA is a better season-long prospect. Or at the very least, manage Barlow's minutes better. 28 minutes for a guy who was clearly struggling.

Is it too late for them to get a Next Star PG? Cos Ili is a spud.

I'm still not sold on Hunt. Had a great game, but we still looked undersize inside.

NB: Can somebody please explain to SBS how streaming is supposed to work, and what the term "On Demand" actually means.

Jesus, Hunt with 7 assists!

Didn't watch the game. How did he rack them up?

What an exciting finish, couldn't help but think what a difference Prather would mean to United in crunch time, surely they don't play Ili down the stretch, I know he's a good defender but he's hardly got the clutch gene.

As a Wildcats member, it still feels like we are a piece missing from our squad and I don't think our reliance on Wagstaff in second halves is the answer. I'm a massive Steindl fan but he needs to let more go, otherwise he is a liability.

Norton looked really good today and I hope he can stay aggressive throughout the season.

No game replay anywhere yet. This year's broadcasting is a disgrace

Trev would have to be happy about us playing "Wildcats basketball" to get that win that probably should have been a loss. Love the fight in this team.

Really nothing for United to worry about though considering the circumstances. They're going to be insane once the jetlag is gone and Prather is back.
Cats are lucky to have had 2 of their games vs Melbourne already, and not going 2-0 is an opportunity lost.

"As a Wildcats member, it still feels like we are a piece missing from our squad and I don't think our reliance on Wagstaff in second halves is the answer. I'm a massive Steindl fan but he needs to let more go, otherwise he is a liability"

I think we have a great squad, I'm just not convinced the balance is right. Vague continues to show great potential, but I'm not sure playing him at the 5 is the answer.

Steindl is getting worse. He seems stuck in a "Corner-Shooter" mentality. He's actually very effective when he attacks the basket, as he has the height to make his lay-ups (and even pull-ups) easily. But too often, his only instinct is to prop and throw up bricks from outside.
At other times, even when there's a fast break on, he runs straight for the corner. Great if he was shooting like Gaze, but he's so hit & miss, that opponents are prepared to sag right off.

What I do like, is that instead of going to the tip and scabbing amongst the same old recycled players, we've actually backed some youth for our bench fillers. I was excited to see what Wani could provide this season, hopefully some excitement off the bench, but I guess we have to wait for that.

On the squad, I'd be interested to know who our 6th man is for salary purposes. I'd have thought that with their re-signings, Damo and Wagstaff would now be down to bench salaries, making it easy to comply with the bench-cap.

6500 in attendance. A bit low for a Sunday game for United, even moreso considering it was against Perth.

Something to worry about, considering the Phoenix entering was always a possibility to take some United fans away, or were there other factors?

Being 0-2 shouldn't be a reason.

I don't think United realised they could've gone for two.

"Was no time to shoot the two, made no difference. It was three or nothing"

I don't know, that's similar to the way the first game ended. Perth hit the lead with 11 seconds on the clock. And in both cases MU failed to put up a decent shot.
But 11 seconds should be more than enough time, especially considering Perth would do anything to avoid fouling.

Ultimately it was just a bad use of a timeout by Vickerman. Planned one play, and then they didn't seem to know what to do after that.
Whereas Cats knew exactly what they were doing, run the clock down, then make the bucket.

Ummm..it was 4.5 seconds after Cotton hit the long 2.

The problem continues to be turnovers from Trimble, costing united every game. Don't focus just on the last min.

Seems unlikely that was travel. Long at end of game.

How was it inconclusive? It was obvious from the replay. I thought it was a two live, as well.

Anyone who think the Long travel call was incorrect needs to take off their eye patch, commentators included. Easy call and if it was Hunt he would have been called for a travel and offensive foul.