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As far as blockbuster NBL games go, it doesn’t get much bigger than Saturday night’s United v Perth clash under Melbourne’s night sky.
With the roof set to open at John Cain Arena before tip-off, expect fireworks — literally — as top-of-the-table hosts battle the second-placed Wildcats in United’s last game in Melbourne for 42 days ahead of their annual Australian Open-enforced hiatus.
It’s one of the highest-demand Melbourne regular season games in years, the club releasing an extra 120 tickets to its sky lounge to get more people in as fans clamoured on social media to try to snag a rare ticket from members who might not be attending. Team Blue is pulling out all the stops for the more than 10,000-strong crowd with 150kg of pyrotechnics set for the halftime show.
A win for United would give it a massive four-and-a-half-game gap on the Wildcats, who would jump to second if they can go two-from-two on Melbourne’s home floor and take the season-series.
It’s something coach Dean Vickerman is acutely aware of, given the task his 13-3 side faces over the next six weeks.
“I’ve always believed the teams over the Christmas-New Year period really sort themselves out,” Vickerman said.
“We’ve put ourselves in a good position right now but the challenge is can we get the balance right of doing the family things over Christmas and, when it’s time to get back, lock in, have the discipline to eat and do all those things the right way?
“Get that balance right and we can make a real statement through this period.”
Vickerman was wary of a Wildcats side that is 7-1 over its past eight games, with Kiwi Hyrum Harris kicking off the Red Army’s turnaround.
“It started with Hyrum and it’s really become so much about Jesse (Wagstaff), the threat of his shooting and his understanding of how to pass to Bryce (Cotton) and work together with him,” Vickerman said.
“(Perth coach) John (Rillie) has been willing to try different line-ups. Tai Webster’s improving as the year’s gone along as well, his intent to really push pace and try to get some cheap ones for them has been important.
“They’re a really balanced group after that.”
Tall Black Harris was inserted into the starting line-up after a grim October 27 home loss to Brisbane and, while the Wildcats haven’t looked back, he sees United as a barometer for his team.
“You always want to beat the best,” Harris said.
“We just have to lock in and it’s more about controlling what we can control. We can control our effort, we can control our energy, we can control how we play.
“They’ve got some very skilled players and that’s another thing we can control — our knowledge of those players, what do they like to do? What don’t they like to do? What are the things we live with?
“When we played them last time in Melbourne, Ian Clark and Luke Travers went down early. We’ll take the win but, now they’re at full strength, it’ll be a good test to see where we really are against the No.1 team.”
The Wildcats begin their own nightmare tennis tour, with the United Cup kicking them off RAC Arena until January 13 — their own open-air game against South East Melbourne.
They’ll face a brutal stretch of three games in six days over Christmas, jetting from Melbourne to Cairns to face the Taipans on Boxing Day and then stopping over in Adelaide for a Thursday date with the 36ers on their way home to Perth.
Harris, 27, has played under the night sky once — against Perth at RAC last season as a member of the Adelaide 36ers — and he says players don’t notice any change in conditions with the roof open.
“When I was on the court, I couldn’t really tell any difference in the breeze or anything like that but seeing photos of it afterwards is the coolest thing to have because not a lot of people get the opportunity to play in an open-air game,” Harris said.
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