NBL24 Blitz: Melbourne United vs Brisbane Bullets WWAG Recap

Melbourne United have started their NBL Blitz campaign with a bang, winning a come-from-behind clash against the Brisbane Bullets.

Ian Clark got United on the board to start, floating in an and-1 finish to kick off a 10-2 run for MU.

This appeared to wake up the Bullets, who answered with an 11-0 run of their own before Matthew Dellavedova entered the contest and immediately made his presence felt.

‘Delly’ splashed back-to-back three pointers in his opening minute on the court, helping Melbourne retake the lead, however a Brisbane surge held United at bay going into the first break.

In what was only his fifth game back since his season ending injury at last year's Blitz, Ariel Hukporti helped United retake the advantage in the second period.

The Next Star skied high for putbacks and alley-oops, propelling Melbourne back in front.

When he went to the bench, kiwi big-man Rob Loe provided great minutes, stretching the floor and protecting the hoop in his first game in United colours.

While there were lots of positives across the second quarter, turnovers hurt MU, allowing Brisbane to get rolling and pull back in front by five points heading into half-time.

It looked as though United were ready to take control of the contest coming out of the major break as Clark and Shea Ili each sank mid-range fadeaways, however the Bullets were able to reverse the flow of momentum, going on a 12-2 run to lead by as many as 13 points.

Needing a spark, Head Coach Dean Vickerman looked to his bench, who changed the tide of the game.

Along with Delly’s brilliance were strong performances from Flynn Cameron, Tanner Krebs and Kyle Bowen, the latter of which pulled down a key offensive rebound before feeding Luke Travers for a highlight slam.

A late score from Brisbane meant Melbourne trailed 74-70 as they approached the final 10 minutes.

With the game on the line, United's stars showed out.

Delly floated in a shot with feathery touch while being fouled, while Travers was cash from beyond the arc to see Melbourne finally push in front.

Clutch shot-making from Cameron and Loe kept MU out of striking range before Ili nearly blew the room off the Gold Coast Convention Centre with a one-handed dunk, plus the foul.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Gettin&#39; Shili with it ?‍?<br><br>He has 15pts. <a href="https://t.co/XkcJ3rF0W6">pic.twitter.com/XkcJ3rF0W6</a></p>&mdash; Melbourne United (@MelbUnited) <a href="https://twitter.com/MelbUnited/status/1703007147532157115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

With momentum well and truly on United’s side and timely free-throw makes from Dellavedova, who finished with 28 points in 19 minutes, they were able to close out the 94-90 victory.

MU will next face the Illawarra Hawks on Monday from 5pm. The game will be streamed live and free on Kayo Freebies.