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Melbourne United vs Sydney Kings |
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|---|---|---|
2016/17 NBL Season, 26 November 2016 |
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| Hisense Arena, Melbourne, VIC | ||
| Melbourne United | Sydney Kings | |
| 95 | SCORE | 92 |
| 26 | Q1 | 22 |
| 23 | Q2 | 20 |
| 21 | Q3 | 22 |
| 25 | Q4 | 28 |
Melbourne United have won an epic encounter with the Sydney Kings, coming out the victors by 3 points.
Final score
Melbourne United 95
Sydney Kings 92
With Chris Goulding back on court, Melbourne United must start racking up the wins in a hurry if they want to reach the playoffs, but standing in their way will be the league leading Sydney Kings. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage from 7:30pm (AEDT).
The chances for United to feature in the playoffs are starting to slip away, round by round after a very slow start to the season.
The pre-season favourites, while struggling with injuries have had no offensive flow, and it’s clear they need a major change on the court before they can even contemplate getting to where their roster suggests they should be.
Sitting at the bottom of the table with only four wins from 11 games simply isn’t good enough, and with the likely mark for the finals being about 15 wins, they need to win at least 11 of their final 17 games.
That needs to start here against Sydney after they scrapped home against the Cairns Taipans last week, and Chris Goulding will once again be the key.
He scored 30 points last week, and with very little structure to their offence – something it doesn’t like new import Casper Ware will be able to fix, his shooting is the difference between United scoring enough and failing dismally.
The Kings, like United have a ridiculously strong roster, but the difference lies in the results with coach Andrew Gaze taking his squad to a very strong eight and four start, to have them sitting at the top of the ladder.
While they have faltered on the road a few times including shaky losses against the Cairns Taipans and Perth Wildcats, their last start, a big home win against the Wildcats was more than impressive.
Both of their former NBA imports Steve Blake and Josh Powell looked to play near their potential, and with Brad Newley firing on all cylinders the club looks to be in a very strong position moving forward.
Kevin Lisch has been consistent so far this season as well and is a big reason the Kings find themselves where they do.
The key battle for this game shapes as the one of Lisch vs Goulding, although the difference could be the shooting of Jason Cadee.
The sides met only a fortnight ago in Melbourne, and although United were understrength they struggled big time to go down by a massive 16 points.
Prediction
When they have played at their best this season, the Kings have been on another level to every other team in the competition. While United are back at full strength, their offensive flow has struggled for most of the season, and it’s hard to see that changing here.
Kings by 11.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of this massively important Round 8 fixture from 7:30pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to get involved by dropping a comment in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde