Vickerman calls for greater aggression

A lot can change in one week in the NBL.

This time last week, Melbourne United were undefeated with a 9-0 record.

But now, Dean Vickerman's side have lost two straight, including Wednesday's Ignite Cup defeat to the Illawarra Hawks, set up by the reigning champions being aggressive early. It was an aspect that saw United forced onto the back foot, and ultimately, never recover.

"At the start of the game, I thought they (the Hawks) had an intent both in transition and in attacking the paint," Vickerman said in Wednesday's post-game press conference.

"[As a result] they were rewarded with 19-2 free-throws in the first half, which is a massive disparity.

"I know they had a monster out there [JaVale McGee], who is tough to deal with, but that lack of aggression put us on the back foot.

"Then when we did generate some momentum, with some stops, we couldn't capitalise on it with scores."

Melbourne was comprehensively outplayed in the 107-93 loss, despite the strong performances of Finn Delany (21 points) and Milton Doyle (16 points, 11 assists).

The league-leaders don't have long to dwell on the result though, as they take on South East Melbourne in the second Throwdown of the Hungry Jack's NBL26 season on Saturday.

"[Losing] is obviously a foreign feeling for us this season, but we have a lot of experienced guys [in the locker room] who know what this league's like," Delany said.

"It's such a great league, because [as shown tonight] anyone can beat anyone on any given day.

"So we need to learn from this, as we have a big one on Saturday against South East Melbourne and we will need to come out with a different intent [than we did today]."

Saturday's Throwdown at John Cain Arena tips off at 8pm AEDT, live on ESPN.