And, just like that, Melbourne United has retaken control.
This topsy turvy 2025 NBL Championship Series has taken yet another turn, with United coming away with a signature 83-77 win over the Illawarra Hawks to steal back home court advantage and put themselves one win away from a title.
United now leads the best-of-five series 2-1, with neither team yet to win a game on their home floor.
Sunday's Game 3 in Wollongong was typical United: a dominant defensive effort, capped off by a methodical showing down the stretch, and led by the ultimate professional in Matthew Dellavedova. We also saw an injury to a star player that has one team sweating, an elite bounce-back game from Jack White, and yet another all-time blasting of the officials by the Hawks' forthright head coach.
Here are the key takeaways from Game 3.
Matthew Dellavedova: the floor general and closer
There was 4:14 left in the fourth quarter -- United trailing 73-72 -- when Dellavedova took it upon himself to close the game. First, he hit a step-back jumper from the left elbow to put United in front. Melbourne then got a stop, before Dellavedova went down the other end and finished a tough step-through layup to make it a three-point United advantage.
When Trey Kell went down with his injury, Dellavedova had the awareness to both push the ball and shoot when he was about to be intentionally fouled; once could reasonably argue the infringement should've been on the floor, but it wasn't, and he earned himself three free throws. It was Dellavedova's floater in the lane with 31.4 seconds to play -- attacking a weaker point of attack defender in Tyler Harvey one-on-one -- that was the dagger, giving United an 81-75 lead, which all but sealed the outcome.
Dellavedova had nine straight United points down the stretch in this one, capping off a 16-point, 11-assist, 0-turnover effort from the veteran guard. He played 35 minutes on Sunday, taking on even more of the ball-carrying duties than usual due to the absence of Shea Ili (concussion) from the lineup.
"With Shea out, he put a lot on his shoulders straight away," United head coach Dean Vickerman said of Dellavedova.
"Any time he has that extra load, I thought he excelled. I thought he was exceptional tonight. The late step-through with about 0.7 on the clock, on a play that really wasn't much happening, but he makes those plays. The smarts to see that they were trying to foul with Trey Kell down, to create a three-point shot out of that. Unbelievable at some of the things he did on the floor tonight.
The capacity is one thing -- and we've seen enough glimpses of Dellavedova putting his head on the rim to put scoring pressure on an opponent -- but it's the decision-making that stands out. It's an awareness of the opposing team's personnel and when it's wise for him to attack, versus which teammate he should find. The 34-year-old has an elite understanding of what his shooters are looking for coming off turnouts and away screens, and has done a great job passing them into either space or their shots.
"It takes a lot of weight off your shoulders as a group when you have someone like that to rely on," Jack White said of his teammate.
"It's just a cool moment for me; this is someone I've looked up to my entire career, a country Victorian guy, an NBA champ, and a hell of a teammate, hell of a player. Someone who can set the table and take over and own those moments, and he does that for us.
On the 11-assist, 0-turnover part of Dellavedova's stat-line, White continued: "I don't think that's a surprise to anyone, if we're thinking about the career that he's had and who he is."
Olgun Uluc breaks down the virtuoso performance from Melbourne United's Matthew Dellavedova in Game 3, and how Illawarra can keep the series alive.
Jack White's bounce-back game
The most unsurprising thing happened to start this game: United's first possession was drawn up for White to get a look.
White notably had zero field goal attempts in Game 2, and there was always going to be a clear show of intent to remedy that early in this one. United ran a weave action to get White a good look at a three-ball from the top of the key, which he hit.
"Aggressive off the bat, [he] hits that one, just a good start from him," Vickerman said.
"There was more aggression in it. Again, he still made mistakes tonight, but great, we want those to be aggressive mistakes. Great bounce back. We had a good meeting through the week, and we didn't have to do too much; just how assertive he can be at both ends of the floor. At times, he worries about his teammates a little bit and what they're doing; it's just like, worry about your job and go do that to the best of your ability. I thought he did that well tonight."
White would finish the game with 20 points and five rebounds, shooting 8-of-9 from the field, including 3-of-4 from downtown, giving United the extra scoring punch they'd need without Ili or substantial bench production.
It was a tough situation for White heading into the game. With the amount of time between games, there was ample opportunity for criticism -- warranted or otherwise -- to be thrown his way, and that also meant having to wait a long while before being able to avenge his poor Game 2 performance.
The 27-year-old was able to do just that from an offensive standpoint, and also played a key role on the other end of the floor, making it difficult for the Hawks' bigger bodies -- particularly when matched up against Sam Froling -- to put the ball on the floor en route to the rim.
"Simply put, I just wanted to enjoy the moment," White said.
"Not only mine, but the team's goal is to be in this situation at the end of the year. We've done all the work throughout the regular season and semifinals series; at the end of the day, this is basketball, man, and we're all very privileged to be able to play it.
"I've been away from the game with injuries and stuff, and it's just enjoying it, having fun, and I think that gets the best out of me, and I think I have that natural competitiveness about me. When I'm having fun and not overthinking, I think that brings out the best in me, and my assertiveness and aggressiveness."
United taking Hawks stars out of the game
The story of the game was United's defence.
They held this potent Hawks team to 77 points (103.7 points per 100 possessions; their second lowest showing of the season) and, even without Ili, did another impressive job making life extremely difficult for Tyler Harvey and Kell.
Harvey was held to seven points, on 3-of-11 shooting (0-of-7 from 3PT), while Kell had 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting, with the All-NBL First Team duo combining for nine turnovers in the game.
It takes a village to contain two talented guards like Harvey and Kell, but you give a heap of credit to Ian Clark, who masterfully took on the role Ili usually absorbs, of basically neutralising a singular player on the opposing team. Clark got the Harvey matchup and entered it intent on putting forward a high work rate, with his top-locking making life really difficult for the Hawks guard, not allowing him to easily come off turn-outs, and forcing him into tough shots or extra bodies.
It was Clark largely guarding Harvey, and Dellavedova sticking on Kell at the point-of-attack in a really effective way, so that was the baseline of United's defence, which would also force a lot of live ball turnovers; Vickerman's team had 19 points off turnovers. United would also stick to the percentages all game by overloading a lot on that pair and allowing the Hawks' ancillary players to take the bulk of the attempts. It's why we saw some more unique coverage on Will Hickey; Vickerman first threw development player Tom Koppens out there in a free safety type of role in the first quarter, before going back to Marcus Lee on the non-shooting guard. Hickey finished the game with 12 points, shooting 4-of-13 from the field, including 2-of-8 from 3PT; United would likely be very happy with a team-high eight three-point attempts from the athletic guard.
Putting White on Froling was also a masterstroke, of sorts; United attempted to have the Hawks big man catch the ball further out and forced him to attack off the bounce against more mobile coverage. Froling had eight points -- on 4-of-9 shooting -- in just 22 minutes of action.
The Hawks found some one-on-one success with Darius Days (11 points) and Froling at times, but their offence had a propensity to become stagnant, particularly late in the fourth period, where they only amassed 10 points. The flow their offence had in patches over the first three quarters deserted them in crunch time, and it was demonstrable in their production.
The United offence looked like the exact opposite. It was on autopilot for the entire game, even when they missed very makeable looks in the first half. It generally always comes back to the seasoned players on their roster; they know how to find and exploit mismatches and do a really impressive job staying in their process no matter the outcomes.
For example, United's guards quickly recognised the Hawks' coverage on Chris Goulding changed; the Hawks moved to switching, instead of trapping. So, what did Goulding do? He came off those turnouts or away screens then, with the big switched on to him, would immediately go into some guard-to-guard screening, or a wiper action, with Dellavedova to get clean-ish looks from downtown. United's roster is built in this really unique way, prioritising experience over all else, so, no matter the coverage they face, they're able to find advantages and exploit them.
The Hawks have similar advantages, especially in the way United is loading up on Harvey -- and they had some success getting good looks off that gravity in the first half, before the offence stagnated in the second -- but don't have the same refined system, so let's see if they can find them consistently during Game 4.
Justin Tatum blasts officiating... but does he have a point?
Officiating hasn't really been front and centre during this series, and it didn't seem like it would be after Game 3 either... until Hawks head coach Justin Tatum put the referees on blast in his postgame press conference.
Tatum -- who's been regularly critical of NBL officiating during his time at the helm of the Hawks -- took issue with an incident late in the fourth period, when Kell went down with a knee injury. After Kell fell to the floor, the game continued, with United pushing the pace and ultimately drawing a foul, leading to three free throws. Tatum didn't like the fact that play wasn't stopped, and compared the incident to a situation in the previous quarter when Dellavedova slipped on a wet spot in the half-court and the refs blew their whistle to have it wiped up.
"He slipped, similar like what Delly did where they stopped the whole game and almost had a holiday to make sure he was okay," Tatum said of the Kell incident.
"Unfortunately, when Trey Kell, and somebody on my team gets hurt, we can't look out after them, or we can't make sure they're off the court.
"At the end of the day, that's just a difference of respect between Melbourne and the Hawks.
"The NBL did a good job of making sure they put the right people on there to take care of who they needed to take care of."
Tatum's comments about the NBL are not dissimilar to Joey Wright's infamous "talk to Melbourne about Melbourne" quote from the 2018 Grand Final Series, of which the then-36ers head coach was fined $5000 at the time.
Tatum received a $3000 fine earlier this regular season for comments he made in a postgame press conference, following a loss to United.
United went to the free throw line 21 times, compared to the Hawks' eight attempts from the charity stripe.
When asked if he would seek an explanation from the NBL on the officiating, Tatum rejected the premise.
"Who cares," the American said.
"Talking to them is irrelevant. I can send in whatever I need to send in, it doesn't matter.
"We've just got to play through whoever they send to officiate the game, whoever they send to commentate the game, we don't care, we just care about the Hawks, that's it."
A few things are worth noting with regard to Tatum's concerns.
The Kell and Dellavedova incidents were notably different. Dellavedova slipped on a wet spot in the half-court, and the official immediately blew the whistle to have it wiped up. This is commonplace in the NBL, with 'player safety' considered, particularly because the ball was in the frontcourt and no real advantage was taken away from either team by the whistle being blown.
The Kell incident saw the import guard fall to the floor after a spin move, with United then pushing the pace away from where he laid in pain. The officials would reasonably determine that player safety wasn't an issue because the play was moving away from where Kell had hit the floor, and it's not usual to take away a team's advantage simply because an opposing player was down. The general protocol we've seen in that instance has been that the matter is taken care of either at the next dead ball or once the Hawks had regained possession.
Tatum also took issue with the fact that Dellavedova shot his ensuing free throws before Kell had limped off the floor.
"We're the only person that cares," Tatum said.
"We wanted to make sure he was okay, off the court, before other teams attempt free throws or do anything else. We just wanted to make sure our player was okay."
During the more-than-a-minute Kell was on the floor in pain, grabbing at his right knee, no Hawks staffer tended to him. Team personnel is permitted onto the floor to tend to an injured player during a dead ball; if that occurred, that player must be subbed off. Kell would limp off the floor, to the locker room, and not play the rest of the game.
Both teams now dealing with key injury blows
The Kell injury is just the latest wrinkle in this series, and there'd be some doubt to his availability for Wednesday's Game 4 in Melbourne.
Following Sunday's game, Tatum confirmed it was a right knee injury for Kell, and that there wasn't a certainty he'd be good to go for their next contest.
"We've done it before," Tatum said on the prospect of potentially playing without Kell.
"We played our last couple of games... during the season and won without him. Hopefully we don't have to. Hopefully everything comes back positive and he feels comfortable enough to play, then we'll put him out there. If not, next man up mentality."
United, of course, played Game 3 without Ili, who they placed in concussion protocols following an elbow to the head in the previous contest.
Ili travelled with the team to Wollongong and did a workout while in town, but stayed in the locker room for the duration of the game.
"Positive," Vickerman said on how Ili was feeling.
"Still questionable, but he's progressing the way we would like right now. It's just a couple of little tests he hasn't been perfect on. Obviously [with] the history of it, we're just cautious with him right now."