"Pissed off" United vow to respond

Chris Goulding says he and his Melbourne United teammates are “pissed off” by their recent form, but remain confident they can turn things around when they face the Sydney Kings on Sunday.

United arrived in Bendigo on Wednesday in tough conditions, looking to respond after a road loss to the Tasmania JackJumpers four days earlier and keep pace with second-placed South East Melbourne Phoenix.

Melbourne controlled much of the game against Cairns, taking 27 more shots, winning the offensive rebound count 17-3, and forcing 16 turnovers, while committing just nine themselves.

Despite dominating possession, United fell 93-92 after Marcus Lee hit the game-winning free throw. The Taipans shot an ultra-efficient 62 per cent from the field and 11-of-21 from three-point range, compared to Melbourne’s 42 per cent shooting and 8-of-33 from deep.

Goulding was a standout, finishing with 27 points on 5-of-11 shooting from beyond the arc in his best performance of NBL26. But post-game, he didn’t sugar-coat how the group is feeling.

“(We’re) pissed off, angry, but I’m sure we’ll watch it and see areas that we can be so much better or a little thing here or there could have changed the outcome,” Goulding said.

“But yeah, (we’re) pissed off and we’re not good enough to win games right now, that’s the bottom line as a collective and individually.

“There’s key moments in that game where we had to come up with something positive and we didn’t, and they might be last on the ladder, but for so many years teams that are down on the bottom they’re not bad teams.

“So on any given night, you’re going to get your arse kicked and we just simply weren’t good enough tonight, and in this league you find that out by getting beat.”

Despite their current slump, with seven losses in their past nine games after winning 13 of their first 15, Goulding remains confident Melbourne United have the group to rediscover their best form, even with Shea Ili still sidelined.

“We’ve been talking and in a sense we know what we need to do and we just haven’t had everyone playing well together for quite some time,” Goulding said.

“We’ve just got to figure out how to get that and stick together, and there’s so many good looks there that we trust guys to take, and make.

“We trust them over and over again, so we’ll stick together.”

The challenge ramps up again on Sunday, with United heading to Sydney to face the Kings in the final NBL game before next week’s HoopsFest in Perth.

“They’re probably the form team of the competition along with Adelaide so it’s a great chance to go on the road and measure ourselves against an amazing roster,” Goulding said.

“That’s a roster that are playing really well so it’s another chance to measure ourselves and we’ve gotta be better.”