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Melbourne United vs Adelaide 36ers |
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2017/2018 NBL Grand Final Series |
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Hisense Arena Victoria | ||
Melbourne United | Adelaide 36ers | |
107 | SCORE | 96 |
The two best teams of the 2017/2018 NBL season square off in the best of five grand final series. Melbourne United who sat atop the ladder at the end of the season will host the second place Adelaide 36ers. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog starting from 7:30pm AEDT.
Both teams had to fight off tough rivals in New Zealand and Perth in the first round of the finals and both teams managed to sweep both series.
Melbourne travelled to New Zealand to close out a tough game against the Breakers, Adelaide went west and after a big Game 1 win they had to come back late in the game to edge out the reigning champs by 1 point.
With such a storied history between these two teams there is always some excitement when both squads take the floor against each other, throw in a finals atmosphere and these two teams will look to ratchet up the physicality as well as the entertainment.
Melbourne are coming off the trip to New Zealand however they have had an extra weeks worth of rest to recover from any potential niggles sustained during the first round.
Adelaide have less of a break but they managed to come through the first round without any major concerns, with the series against Perth being less physical than expected they won’t be as in bad shape as they could have.
How the 36ers will compete again Josh Boone is the biggest question coming into the series, the Melbourne big man has been impressive all season and is the anchor that gets Melbourne’s high powered offence going.
Can the Melbourne team put the brakes on the 36ers incredible fast break play? Their 4 man breaks are almost impossible for teams to control and they will be looking to use the spread attack to catch the Melbourne team off guard as often as possible.
Both teams want the first game victory and get their finals momentum going into the second game. With teams historically going on to win the finals after a game 1 victory this will be a crucial game in shaping up the finals series for both sides.
Prediction
This is a tough finals series to call as both teams have an incredible high powered offence as well as a stingy defence that can clamp down opponents.
The difference in this game could very well be Josh Boone and with him playing at a high level he will be hard to contain for Adelaide.
Melbourne United by 3.