The opening night of the inaugural NBA x NBL Melbourne series was a success both on and off the court for the New Orleans Pelicans after they survived a late scare to defeat a slick and difficult Melbourne United side already three games into their regular season.
The Pelicans constructed an 11-point quarter-time lead with 35 points and were not able to expand that lead to anything beyond 15 points throughout the second and third terms owing to a bit of sloppy play from their depth roster.
Melbourne United were caught out early by the pacy one-pass offence of the Pelicans but early three-pointers from Fabijan Krslovic and Milton Doyle helped them keep up through to the first timeout, but with United committing six of the first eight fouls of the game, the Pelicans pressed ahead through the exciting combination of Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy, whose two-man work helped them contribute 21 of the Pelicans’ 35 first-quarter points.
The 14,800 spectators got what they paid for early in the piece when Zion Williamson found himself on the end of a quick counter-attack and alley-oop from Saddiq Bey. Williamson remained amongst New Orleans’ top scorers throughout the game despite a limited workload, and spectators would have been relieved to see him on the court at all after rumours spread throughout the afternoon that he would be missing the game with a back injury.
Shea Ili lit up the first quarter with this dunk but played less than 12 minutes of gametime before having to pull out of the remainder of the night with a hamstring injury, which will be of great concern for United head coach Dean Vickerman who is still without club stalwart Chris Goulding.
Goulding was seen contributing to timeouts and trying to rev up his teammates during the second half when they made a couple of mini-runs to keep the deficit to single digits, but that was the extent of his involvement.
The home side closed out the game in an especially outstanding manner given the exhibition was played under full NBA conditions, including 12-minute quarters compared with the ten-minute terms they'd be used to.
United’s Milton Doyle, already with 57 points to his name this NBL season, notched up 25 points and looked at home against NBA opposition and saw out a game-high 38 minutes on the court despite making some costly mistakes in the second half that detracted from what was an impressive first half, particularly from outside the arc.
He insisted against his coach's plans on staying out on the court for the final four minutes in pursuit of victory but missed a couple of three-point opportunities as last season's NBL runners-up fell short under pressure.
In the end, they were made to pay for some unpolished moments of basketball, including a free throw percentage of just 68% with a couple of minutes to play, and some loose fouls which gave away easy buckets in the first and second quarters.
Click here for in-depth player statistics for both teams.
United lead the NBL standings with three wins from three and next face the Sydney Kings away on Wednesday night, whilst the Pelicans are back at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday afternoon to take on Josh King’s South East Melbourne Phoenix (W1, L1).
