“Tough” review for United

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Dean Vickerman is using Melbourne United's New Year's Eve loss as a lesson for his league-leading squad.

Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman has admitted he put his side through a “tough defensive review” following the New Year’s Eve loss to the Cairns Taipans.

United fell 95-78 in a rare disappointing performance, with Vickerman ensuring his league-leading side learns from the mistakes they made.

It's the second time this season Melbourne has fallen to Adam Forde's Taipans.

“Pretty tough defensive review. Some areas that we need to be a lot better in and part of that was our communication and our trust in our teammates,” Vickerman said.

“Any good defensive teams are really good in those areas, and we slipped a little bit and need to improve it.

“It’s important we accept the errors that we made and I think our group has always been pretty good with that.”

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Ariel Hukporti and Dean Vickerman spoke to the media today following the team’s training session, as they prepare for their road double header against Sydney and Adelaide during Round 14 of NBL24.<br>Ariel: <a href="https://t.co/tTKbn42mU9">https://t.co/tTKbn42mU9</a> <br>Dean: <a href="https://t.co/cVIXdcHmE1">https://t.co/cVIXdcHmE1</a> <a href="https://t.co/pUijL6aNoO">pic.twitter.com/pUijL6aNoO</a></p>— Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1742050957406650454?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Melbourne is the NBL’s top defensive unit, conceding just 107.9 points per 100 possessions, the best rate in the league.

But they faltered against Cairns, falling behind 26-19 at quarter-time and always playing catch-up from there.

Vickerman keyed in on Melbourne starting better when playing away from home.

“If you give up an eight-to-ten point lead on the road in the first quarter, you’re just battling against it a lot to get back,” he said.

“Spoken a fair bit about our starts and making sure we set a good standard in the way that we start the game.”

United travels to Sydney to battle the Kings on Thursday night at 7:30pm AEDT live on ESPN via Kayo Sports.