Melbourne United extended their win streak after putting up 108 points against the Bullets this weekend.

Melo Trimble led the way with 25 points and Tohi Smith-Milner added a career night off the bench, making every field goal attempt to finish with 19 points in 10 minutes.

It wasn’t only Smith-Milner who stood up in the absence of injured star Casey Prather. Jo Lual Acuil delivered a double–double with 11 points and 15 rebounds and perhaps more indicative of his impact, finished up playing more minutes than the teams starting center Shawn Long. 

On the other end Melbourne smothered Brisbane’s leading scoring Lamar Patterson and forced him to shoot a dismay 4-19 from the field and outscored them 59-46 in the second half.

United now travel to Cairns on Friday night (November 29) and will look to win their 7th game in a row and on track seem to be on track for what could be a 10 game winning streak

To do so they will have to get past the team’s former assistant coach Mike Kelly and the Taipan’s big men Cameron Oliver and Nathan Jawai.

Oliver and Jawai could be trouble for United with Shawn Long being limited to only 18 minutes against Brisbane, is for the game, Acuil filled in more minutes and was productive but his thin frame if he is the lead big for United. That may result in being exploited by the Taipans two big’s, as the Bullets despite struggling scored 34 points in the paint. If Long cannot get back to his standard play on both ends Melbourne may struggle to defend around the ring. After the Bullets game in the press conference myself and others were puzzled by Longs minutes reduction and how it led to very productive minutes for Acuil. United coach Dean Vickerman said in response to the prompt “they played a lot of half-court trap” than went on to explain that the first starting lineup struggled and how he adjusted it at the half which lead into the team playing too much for fouls and the teams reaction including Long “which effected his defensive efforts.” 

Melbourne United’s next 3 games  

Cairns Taipans – November 29th Cairns Convention Centre  

Despite Cairns being 4-7 they have a higher points percentage to Adelaide who are 5-6 with 98.72 P% compared to Cairns 98.90 P%. Make many of the top four teams the Taipans have a lead guard who can score and pass, Scott Machado is leading the league is assists at 8.45 APG and 14.82 PPG. He alongside Oliver and the occasional scoring outburst from Jawai could cause trouble for Melbourne, If David Barlow, Matt Goulding and Trimble keep up the great shooting splits and Long comes back to his more recent 20 and 10 games Melbourne should be able to take that away game and make it 7-0. 

Sydney Kings – December 1st Qudos Bank Arena  

Melbourne United are the only team to beat the Kings this season which helps their mindset going into Sydney’s home game, unfortunately for United it’s a day break between playing the Taipans on a road trip so fatigue and a really good team may end the streak. The more recent slight against Sydney is they had a nail-biting win against S.E.M the day prior to Melbourne winning against the Bullets. The Kings were up by 18 at the half-time break, John Roberson IV decided to unleash green flames on the Kings scoring 16 in the 3rd quarter. Off Roberson’s back and help from Dane Pineau the Phoenix pulled the huge lead back left at half time to the final 3 quarter time which was 65-67. This is typical of Roberson but also of Trimble, Sydney will need Casper Ware and Jae-sean Tate to contain Melo and United. Vickerman also said “It’s great to have Mutiple weapons” speaking on the shooting for United like aforementioned Barlow and Goulding. That combined with viable big’s to drop a pass into the dunker spot I would image Will Weaver has many things to keep track of. 

• One thing we can expect from Weaver is that he can run shooters off the three-point line so if Melbourne can reproduce a similar amount of free throw attempts from Sunday’s game (31-FTA 87%) 

Adelaide 36ers – Home game; Melbourne Arena 

Having been at the 36ers game against S.E.M and looking back at United’s win over Adelaide in round 6 there are two main factors are Jerome Randle and Eric Griffin. In the same vein as Trimble and Roberson, Randle is a shifty guard averaging 18.73 PPG and has Daniel Johnson and Ramone Moore on the perimeter. Randle is a great finisher around the ring and I could see Acuil getting more minutes in the match up as a more focused rim protector or contester, the other issue is Griffin who is a small ball 5 in some situations but still is averaging 1.45 blocks per game and averaging out to 6 rebounds as an old school power forward. His athleticism and motor is the thing for Melbourne to watch.  

Melbourne United are possibly going to fight for the top spot on the ladder this year with the continued excellence they have displayed recently and may be the only team who could topple the Sydney Kings.