Sacrifice and trust key for United

MELBOURNE coach Dean Vickerman believes establishing the right combinations will help build the trust required to drive United’s quest for NBL consistency.

Monday night’s 95-69 drubbing of the Sydney Kings at Hisense Arena continued United’s recent trend of bouncing back after a tough loss but the star-studded lineup have failed to win consecutive games since round six.

“This group is great – they all want to sacrifice for each Vickerman said after United won every quarter against the struggling Kings to move into third.

“Sometimes we have got to structure it a little better – this is your time to go, this is your time to sacrifice.”

Four of Melbourne’s starting five finished in double figures with sharpshooter Chris Goulding back to his best with a season-high 23 points while United had more rebounds (49-35) and scored 36 points in the paint to Sydney’s 16.

Vickerman has drawn on analytics to help identify his most effective player rotations.

“Obviously our starting five is a high-usage group, they all have the ability to score and all are very capable,” he said.

“I still believe you’ve got to put your best scoring talent on the floor at different times, it’s then how we rotate them through to make sure that at different patches in the quarter, people get their looks.”

Vickerman sees Saturday night’s challenging away clash with the Illawarra Hawks as a big opportunity for United’s offensive threats to fire against one of the league’s better defensive teams.