Melbourne United’s Matthew Dellavedova has not shied away from how much losing last year’s championship series to the Tasmania JackJumpers hurt.
Remember, he had the chance to clinch the title for his side, on his home crowd, with a long shot on the buzzer, but missed.
Dellavedova took the first massive step to make amends on Thursday night in the NBL’s season opener – a rematch of the grand final.
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His 21 points led Melbourne United a season-opener 88-79 victory against the JackJumpers in Perth to kick off Hoopsfest.
He was especially devastating in the third term, when he dropped 12 points, at 100% shooting, to give United a 72-59 lead at the main break.
No trouble with travel
It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for the reigning champions. The travel burden looked like taking its toll during the third term, but the JackJumpers kicked again to push the game to final buzzer.
Scott Roth’s team played two games in the pre-season Blitz on the Gold Coast, then three more in the International Cup in Singapore.
They rushed to Perth to play in the opener.
They trailed by just two points at half-time, 45-43. Anthony Drmic led all scorers with at that stage and Jordon Crawford had 10.
They were struggling at the final change, trailing 72-59.
Milton Doyle managed to get to within six points with three minutes left on the clock.
Late points from Chris Goulding and Jack White sealed the result.
Doyle led Tasmania’s scoring with 23 points.
Not this time
Drmic finished with those 14 points.
Crawford didn’t improve on his 10, with United’s Shea Ili and Ian Clark sharing the defensive duties.
The Tassie import was heroic in the title decider last season, dropping 32 points in game 5.
It was one of only four five games he dropped more than 25 points and he’d averaged 12 points over previous four champions series games.
With Jack McVeigh now at the Houston Rockets and Sean Macdonald (ankle) and import Craig Sword (concussion) missing through injury, the JackJumpers needed someone else to step up.
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It was more than six minutes into the second term before Tasmania dropped its first free-throw point.
Anthony Drmic hit both attempts after being fouled by Chris Goulding.
To be fair, Jordon Crawford had the only other bonus chance for the JackJumpers at that stage, his missed it, midway through the first term.
Drmic’s success took the scores to 39-34, in favour of United, whose score included 12 points from the free-throw line.
Tasmania was in early foul trouble. It had 12 fouls to United’s six.
By half-time, Reuben Te Rangi already had three, with Will Magnay, Majok Deng and Clint Steindl all sitting on two.
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