United in grand final ambition
MELBOURNE United star Tai Wesley is confident his teammates are ready for a “war” in Auckland today.
United will seek to book a spot in the NBL grand final series after an 88-77 win in Game 1 of its semi-final series against New Zealand at Hisense Arena on Saturday night.
Playing in New Zealand is never easy, but Melbourne will take confidence from its regular-season victory there just last month.
“I feel like we’ve had a dress rehearsal for this (finals series),” said Wesley, who had 13 points in Game 1.
“We played them here (in Melbourne), did the travel and then had to play them the next night over there.
“We did our job at home (on Saturday night), but we’d like to sweep this team and it’s going to be a war.
“It’s going to be hard, but that’s what we’re looking to do.”
Melbourne’s win — in which star guard Casper Ware shot 33 points — was the club’s first playoff victory since its rebranding in 2014.
In the 2015-16 season, United won the minor premiership but was swept by the Breakers in the semi-finals.
The Breakers were led at the time by coach Dean Vickerman, who is now at the helm of Melbourne.
He said history meant nothing to this United squad.
“Our message to the guys was just to try and stay in the present as much as possible,” Vickerman said.
“There’s history and there’s future, but we’re just trying to say this is what we’ve done so far this year.
“We’ve made improvements as the year has gone along, but we just want people to talk about this group and not what has happened in the past.”
Breakers coach Paul Henare said his team would be ready to do whatever it takes to force a deciding third game in Melbourne.
“We’re going home for Game 2 with our season on the line,” he said.
“You shouldn’t need too much else to get up for this one.”