{"id":169316,"date":"2025-09-26T01:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169316\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T01:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T01:22:09","slug":"melbourne-sets-sights-on-unbelievable-nba-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/169316\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne sets sights on \u201cunbelievable\u201d NBA first"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne United made a statement during Thursday\u2019s emphatic Throwdown win over South East Melbourne<\/a> at John Cain Arena.<\/p>\n

And while coach Dean Vickerman, who praised the play of recruit Fabijan Krslovic, is happy to be sitting at 3-0, he knows there is still plenty of work to do for his squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo go on a 22-0 run, at any point in a game, is pretty significant,\u201d Vickerman said during the post-game press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll look at the end of the third quarter (where United relinquished the lead) and the first five minutes of the fourth and say that\u2019s the kind of basketball we want to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a negative side, we just turned the ball over too much, especially in the first half with 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt tightened up in the second half, but not to the level we\u2019d like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also gave up too many offensive rebounds, which allowed them to have 11 extra shots than us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just really want to get better in those two areas, but I\u2019m taking anything away from that performance and I\u2019m happy with the contributions we got across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

United will now shift their focus to the historic NBAxNBL Melbourne Series next weekend, which will see the club take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night at Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you get older, there are less firsts in your life and this [the NBAxNBL Series] is a pretty exciting first,\u201d the three-time NBL championship-winning coach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a country Victorian kid to be the first person to coach a game in Melbourne against an NBA team is unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be one of the highlights of everyone in our team\u2019s life and an amazing experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident we will be able to compete against some of the best players in our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

A new ticket release for the NBAxNBL Melbourne Series is selling fast for two Pelicans games at Rod Laver Arena, against Melbourne United and the South East Melbourne Phoenix.<\/p>\n

>>\u00a0CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS<\/a><\/p>\n

As well as the two fixtures, the Pelicans will also be hosting an open training session on Thursday, October 2, before a Fan Night and Luncheon on Saturday and Sunday respectively.<\/p>\n

What tickets can I buy?<\/p>\n

– Game 1 \u2013 New Orleans Pelicans vs Melbourne United – Friday, October 3, 2025 – 7.30pm AEST
– Game 2 \u2013 New Orleans Pelicans vs South East Melbourne Phoenix – Sunday, October 5, 2025 – 2pm AEDT<\/p>\n

– Pelicans Open Training \u2013 Thursday, October 2, 2025, 1pm AEST: Includes an exclusive first look at the team\u2019s training, player Q&A and more
– NBA x NBL Fan Night \u2013 Saturday, October 4, 2025, 6pm AEST: A showcase event with player performances, basketball challenges, live entertainment and more<\/p>\n

>> CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u200d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne United made a statement during Thursday\u2019s emphatic Throwdown win over South East Melbourne at John Cain Arena.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-169316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}