Loving Rucker and Gaze in commentary.

The Hawks just kept finding a way despite struggling the defend the paint.

Really good game going on again in front of the first full house for a long time.

Here come the refs

The refs will get United home again

Delly never misses an opportunity to throw his head back or flail his arms...him and Goulding are made for each other

Delly leans his shoulder in initiating contact. Usually not enough to warrant an offensive foul but he also shouldn't be rewarded with a foul.

Delly again just after I posted.

Hawks defence has been very good.

Exciting pace. Hope Hawks can sustain it

JLA looks out of sorts.

Travers super impressive.
If he can hit the 3 more consistently, he'll be more viable NBA prospect

Cracking game.

Sure is.

Fkn rubbish call on Harvey

The refs are just not going to permit the Hawks to win

3 free throws becomes offensive foul...disgrace

Come on refs , you can get em home

That 3 point offensive call was atrocious

"Kickout" foul on Harvey. WTF!?
That's Goulding every 3 he takes.

That's a shocker, if it was Goulding or Cotton that would be 3 shots

Tyler Harvey kicked at a right angle. CG doesn't do that.

Neither does Cotton

No three second for JLA , you've got this refs

How long was Froling in the key, a couple of possessions ago?

No three second rule, refs doing United favours

Love goulding throwing his head back at every opportunity

Always a different set of rules for United

That kick out call on Harvey looking huge now.

It was the right call, not a natural shooting action

There has to be a limit somewhere. If not right angles, where's the limit? How far can you extend your leg?

There was no right angle, it was a crap call

HICKEY.... WOW!!!

Hickey....wow.

Ignore LV. He is like the Perth Anon.

What a series!!!

Great game!

Come on Hawks !!!!

Just imagine if Harvey had got those 3 free throws

Where TF was the flop T on Delly

Delly looked slow defending hickey

If the nba was as good as this they would have a real product.

LOL!!! Goulding upset the flop didn't get called

Hahaha Goulding kickout and tantrum. Where is LV on that one.

Great no call on the Goulding 3.
(I'm ftom Melbourne BTW)

Love the Goulding cry

Hahahah Goulding suck eggs mate.

What a game tho. NBL is amazing.

Goulding

FG 5-13 35% / 2P 3-4 75% / 3P 2-10 20% / FT 3-5 60% / 4 REB / 1 AST / 2 TOV / 1 PF

He is too old now.
His feet are very slow. His off-the-ball movement doesn't work in international competitions. In FIBA Ball, shooters who cannot beat opposing defenders cannot be used.

Refs will have to undergo performance counselling now

Well played, Illawarra.

Bring on game 3!

Regardless it's just great we get to see these two go around one more time.

Can't wait for game 3

Love all you posters who never post

Literally turning into one of the best semi final series ever, and you're whining about refs

The only really bad calls I can recall from today were the Harvey kick out, and the no call on the JLA 3-seconds.
Besides that, the reffing was generally well balanced.

Let's hope that we see similar parity in game 3 for a fair contest and another competitive game
Im not holding my hopes up though, given the (unconscious?) tendency for the refs to cater to United at home.

Travers's perimeter shooting and free throws are still his biggest problems. Even the ball handling isn't up to Guard level, so there's no drive-in option.
To put it bluntly, the Hawks don't defend Travers's perimeter shots at all.
If he cannot improve even one problem, he will not be able to reach the NBL MVP level and will not be able to advance to the NBA.

Literally turning into one of the best semi final series ever, and you're whining about refs

In my opinion, there is not a single player from the Hawks and MU who will go to the Paris Olympics.

They should be in GF, hawks robbed in first game.
Harvey is three times the player under Tatum than he was under Goorj. What can you say about Hickey, coaches i know always said he had talent but coach Tatum gets these guys playing team first and defence first.
Hopefully the refs give hawks a fair shake and don't screw them with dodgy fouls on their main players early in the next game.
Some of united stars have inflated opinions of their ability, not delly, he was fantastic except for his flopping and head checks. Thought Travers was battling hard on Clark all day as well.
Fantastic game, magnificent actually, the nrl are trying to get into the USA market, better send basketball fans a copy of that game so nbl players can earn more.

Excellent game. Refereeing wasn't great, but not as egregiously horrible down the stretch - or at least, didn't decide the outcome of the game. Glad they didn't give Goulding the three FTs after his late miss, we didn't get a replay but looked like he heavily exaggerated contact after he landed

I am not a Hawks fan but anyone watching this series cannot say that Melbourne hasn't been given the rub of the green overall with the calls. Not huge, but a few little calls (or non-calls) here and there.
How has Delly not been called for any flops so far?
How is Goulding not T'd up near the end for demonstratively waving his arms at the refs in a tanty? Automatic straight out T just ignored by 3 refs.

Should be a great Game 3!

Gary Clark

42:11 / 31 PTS (FG 10-21 47% , 2P 7-15 46% , 3P 3-6 50% , FT 8-11 72%) / 16 REB (OREB 2 , DREB 14) / 3 AST / 3 TOV / 4 PF / +4

Luke Travers

34:32 / 11 PTS (FG 5-10 50% , 2P 5-7 71% , 3P 0-3 0% , FT 1-2 50%) / 7 REB (OREB 1 , DREB 6) / 3 AST / 1 TOV / 4 STL / 2 BLK / 3 PF / -15

From LV

"Love all you posters who never post

Literally turning into one of the best semi final series ever, and you're whining about refs"

This is from the guy who regularly brings up the Championships that United should have won. One of them years ago according to LV was due to a shocking foul call/no call.

JLA post-up and face-up skills are poor. He doesn't know why they make him do so many ISO. He needs to make pick-and-roll plays. His ISO brings down a lot of the team's good momentum.

[One of them years ago according to LV was due to a shocking foul call/no call.]

That was like this series- many neutrals commenting that one team got the rub. Except it was far, far worse than a couple of calls at the end, like Thursday night. It was four quarters

United was about a +30 in that series but lost. I doubt that's ever happened in NBL any other time

But to my point- that wasn't one of the best series ever, United had a 58 point lead at one point

This current series has just been epic. There were several threes in OT today that bounced in and out. Felt like About 50 lead changes. It's been just unreal

United needs more from JLA. His reputation preceeds him as the best scoring 5 man in the NBL. But other than the first quarter of Game 2, he's barely troubled the scoreboard. And Frolings scored way too many at the other end.

I get the feeling JLA is a bit of a flat track bully. He's fine when he's rolling but when things get tough he really doesn't have the will for a fight.

I totally agree fan since the old snake pit, Froling similar, though Froling really stood up after 1/4 time and became the bully, it was good to see. Really like what Olbrich did as well, he's raw but is going to be a beauty.

Well funny how Adnam played no minutes yesterday.

Coach finally did the right thing instead of throwing a player in at the depth who has been on the bench virtually all game.

Hawks let a huge opportunity slip after giving game 1 away. Really they have been the better team for majority of this series

I'm not certain why Adnam got added to the roster in the first instance, it was hardly like for like replacement.
Nice to see the owner getting some credit as well, he’s been behind it since the take over, though previously you would have thought it was only Goorjs mate. If he stays put and I believe he will, they will be a power house for a while, money and connections, always a good start.

So United getting another door take rather than the clean sweep