Wollongong, NSW -- That was professional.
It's the word that best describes Melbourne United's performance on Saturday evening in Wollongong's WIN Entertainment Centre.
United stole home court advantage in the 2025 NBL Championship Series, defeating the Illawarra Hawks 96-88 in a performance that showed why many heralded their experience heading into the matchup. Dean Vickerman's team trailed by 10 points going into the half, before storming back in the second to pick up the crucial road victory, taking the early advantage in the best-of-five series.
Here are the key takeaways from Game 1.
Tale of two halves
For a moment in the first half of this contest, it just looked like a continuation of the Hawks' Game 3 win over the South East Melbourne Phoenix in their semifinals series; that was a 30-point shellacking, with the best offensive team in the league finding a heap of rhythm and putting a ton of points on the board.
Justin Tatum's group jumped out to a 53-43 lead going into the main break, and, while it did feel like they perhaps should have been up more, they appeared to have all of the momentum. The aggressive coverage on Chris Goulding was stifling the United sharpshooter, forcing his teammates to assume the bulk of the offensive load, while the Hawks were finding advantages on the other end through Sam Froling catches down low and having their role-playing shooters come off turn-out actions.
United didn't flinch.
"Any time you've got a team playing on home court, you have to expect for them to come out aggressive and make shots," Goulding said.
"We came in at halftime and spoke about the things we were willing to live with, and the things that weren't acceptable, and the need to try to limit those unacceptable things in the second half."
There was no overreaction, or concession; United stuck to their home base principles and trusted it would work out. Some minor defensive adjustments, combined with really making the most of the advantages they were getting from the Hawks' attention on Goulding, was enough to get them back in the game, and ultimately take over.
"For us, if they're making plays because of our errors, in some ways it's a positive for us, to say: we've just got to be us, and be better at doing that. And we were in the second half," Vickerman said.
Matthew Dellavedova played a significant role in that second half turnaround. With the attention Goulding garnered, the point guard was effectively given carte blanche by the Hawks to shoot whatever shot he wants. There was what appeared to be some forcing in the first half - he was 3-of-9 from the field, with three turnovers - but he found an offensive groove after the main break, finishing the game with 18 points, which included a 3-of-7 showing from downtown.
"I thought he had an elite second half," Vickerman said of Dellavedova.
"His response, and our whole response as a team, was fantastic in the second half. Again, there was a search to continue to get CG open, and, at times, at the end of a shot clock, that allowed [Dellavedova] to be open. Whether that be on a floater or on a wide open three, and he was good enough to knock them in."
Give and take with hounding Goulding
Let's talk about how the Hawks guarded Goulding.
Wani Swaka Lo Buluk was the matchup, and did an excellent individual job. Goulding found it incredibly difficult to create separation coming off turnouts, with the runner up for the NBL's Best Defensive Player award using his impressive screen evasion and length to hound the United guard.
When Goulding would come off any sort of pindown, the Hawks would often trap, forcing him to give the ball up to a teammate.
"I've just got to keep playing through it, help my team wherever possible, and remain aggressive," Goulding said. "Remaining aggressive is important."
Now, that style of coverage is completely reasonable to implement against a guy who's hit nine or more three-pointers in two of his last three games, but it gave his teammates substantial advantages throughout the contest, and this turned into an efficient scoring game for United (122 points per 100 possessions). Dellavedova and Shea Ili were able to consistently get on the rim, and the former walked into a pair of wide open threes in the fourth quarter, before slipping to the rim and finding Jack White for an alley-oop dunk to seal the win; all coming from the attention Goulding was absorbing.
"We want Wani and our main defenders to make it difficult for them, but the other guys really have to stay in front of Delly and Ili, so that's my challenge to them," Tatum said of their coverage on Goulding.
"We can't overcompensate on everything; somebody's gotta guard their yard. I think that'll be a point of emphasis this week."
Goulding would break loose for a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter, but his aggression in hunting his shot didn't change throughout the game despite being unable to find openings consistently. He'd finish the game with 15 points and four assists - shooting 4-of-10 from the field, including 2-of-6 from downtown - but his value was really his continued ability to get his teammates advantages; it's why Vickerman says he has "ultimate trust" in his veteran guard.
"He's gonna find a way," Vickerman said.
"If it's not him scoring the basketball and two people are doubling him, he's gonna get rid of the basketball and share it. He's only about winning. It doesn't matter how many he has. If that helps others get open, he's gonna do it."
The Hawks may tweak that coverage for Game 2, and United could also change things up - Goulding, for example, didn't, or barely, came off any on-balls in this one - because, right now, it looks like this is where the series will be won or lost.
United contains Hawks' superstar duo
With United finding an offensive groove as the game went on, the Hawks needed their two leading scorers to play a significant role in carrying them.
They unfortunately didn't come to the party in Game 1.
Trey Kell III finished with six points, shooting 3-of-11 from the field, while Tyler Harvey had nine points on a 4-of-10 clip. That's a combined 15 points on 7-of-21 shooting from the Hawks' All-NBL First Team duo.
Ili - the league's back-to-back Best Defensive Player - was tasked with containing Harvey, and the Kiwi face-guarded the Hawks import for the majority of the game. Kell was, for the most part, guided into a crowd, with United putting trust in their help defence and rotations to not allow the Hawks to find advantages from that coverage.
Despite the impressive defensive effort on the talented guard duo, Vickerman isn't resting on his laurels.
"We saw South East did it for a little bit, too, and then they bounced back," Vickerman said.
"We look at the good things Shea and Delly and others did on those two guys, and how we supported them, but we know they're really talented players and we have to be better."
So, how do the Hawks get the best out of the pair?
"They're not too much you need to say to guys like that," Tatum said.
"When they're in that locker room, and they're disappointed, you can see them [being] harder on themselves than anybody else. You just remind them, hey, we still believe, we still trust in you; you bounced back last time when you both had a horrific game, so I don't see why you can't do it again."
An elite Marcus Lee game
This was also one of the best games of Marcus Lee's NBL career, with the big-man dropping 14 points and 15 rebounds in the win.
Lee was elite as a second-shot creator, a roller and cutter to the rim, and a versatile defender, in a game where he was required to do a whole lot. His one-on-one defence on Froling was admirable, as well as the role he played when the Hawks went to their small lineup.
With Rob Loe having some struggles containing Froling, and also the foot speed of some of the Hawks' guards, Lee stepped up in a substantial way and gave United an athletic pop they sorely needed. Froling would finish the game with 16 points, shooting 7-of-15 from the field.
"He's an outstanding defender," Vickerman said of Lee.
"Frols was attacking earlier in the game, and he had some success there as well. The versatility of Marcus, when we recruited him, was to say he can guard more than just a centre. He's capable of guarding different people so, to put him on Davo [Hickey] - to put him on a point guard - is probably not what we thought about at the start of the year, but he's capable of sliding and contesting, and protecting the rim, and his rebounding was phenomenal on both ends tonight."
Should the Hawks go small or not?
With Lee's impact in mind, it's worth talking about the Hawks' small ball lineup.
It's something a lot of teams are throwing at United. We saw it back in last season's Championship Series, with the Tasmania JackJumpers throwing a lineup at United that had Majok Deng at the five. Kristian Doolittle played a lot of centre against United in their semifinals series last week, too.
On Saturday, it was a lineup without Froling, with Darius Days stepping in as the centre.
"We're just trying to find a way to exploit them," Tatum said.
"They [started] to guard Sam solid, and I'm not sure if it was him second guessing himself. As they were doing that, they were coming back. We wanted to find a way to gain an advantage, or have Rob Loe or Lee come out the paint a little bit, and see if they can guard Darius or TB."
The problem was: United's bigs weren't guarding Days or Todd Blanchfield.
That's because Vickerman and his coaching staff are finding the counters. Against the Wildcats, United had their centre match up on Tai Webster; a player regarded as not a completely willing shooter. In this game, that person was Hickey, with Lee gapping the Hawks guard and daring him to shoot. Hickey missed some reasonable looks at the rim, but it's safe to say that adjustment from Vickerman threw the Hawks off to an extent.
"Him coming downhill at the rim against anyone, with some pace, is a challenge," Vickerman said of Hickey.
"I thought Marcus really stood up to it and contested those ones. It means other people are not getting their shots for them. It's something we live with tonight."
With the small lineups that have Darius Days at the five, the Hawks lost a decent amount of defensive juice - especially on the boards - which United was able to take full advantage of; they finished with 22 second-chance points off 17 offensive rebounds.
In a series against an organised United outfit, 18 minutes for Days feels like a lot. By the same token, a combined 12 minutes for Lachlan Olbrich and Mason Peatling doesn't feel like enough; combine that with Froling sitting much of the final quarter, and the Hawks are giving up a good amount of defensive solidity by choosing to go small.
"We know this is Sam's series," Tatum said. "We still have much faith and trust in him, that he's gonna bounce back on Wednesday. It was just trying to find ways to get a different rhythm out there."