Hawks loss exposes United’s 20-minute problem

Melbourne United coach Jacob Chance is convinced that the closer his side gets to playing 40 minutes of basketball its way, the closer United will be to an unstoppable force, even after Sunday’s loss to the Illawarra Hawks.

The first-year coach saw that best version of Melbourne in recent wins over Adelaide and South East Melbourne, which got United back on track at 3-3.

Against the Hawks, it only showed up in patches. The first quarter was reasonable enough and Chance liked the fightback in the second half, but conceding 35 points in the second quarter while scoring just 16, on 6/18 shooting with 9 turnovers, wasn’t good enough.

Chance remains fully confident United will be around the mark when the whips are cracking next year. To get there, and to improve on their 3-4 record, they need to get closer to 40 minutes of Melbourne basketball.

“That second half was the best version of us and I know that if we put close to 40 minutes, or 40 minutes which might be naive to think we can get 40 minutes of perfect Melbourne basketball, but you have to raise your floor,” Chance said.

“Your floor can’t be what it was in the second quarter, that’s hard to come back from with a momentum standpoint.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to get it back on the scoreboard, but I loved our response from a mindset standpoint and it’s now just about if we can be the aggressor for 40 minutes as opposed to the reactor for 20.”

United are also struggling to stop their frustrations with officials from spilling over, whether that’s taking their focus off the job at hand or picking up untimely technicals.

Cole Anthony copped a second-quarter technical that ended his first half early.

Chance has also been caught up in the emotion of the calls, but he doesn’t see that as a bad thing, as long as he gets the balance right.

“That’s our job, it’s an emotional game, and we want guys to live on the edge, which we’ve done a pretty good job of,” Chance said.

“We’ve made improvements and I’m obviously a huge leader from that standpoint and I have to keep walking that line of sticking up for what I believe is right and consistency, which I think we’re struggling with at the moment across the board in the league, and the times I need to get back on track and give guys information.

“They’re looking to me for clarity and hopefully I’m doing a good job of that at important times.”