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NEW South East Melbourne import Abdel Nader could not hit town at a better time than to see his new Phoenix teammates take on the might of undisputed NBL leader Melbourne. United is the benchmark and the third Throwdown of Season 2023-24 features the league's two best Aussies.

Melbourne captain Chris Goulding is in the finest form of his already stellar career and has become to United what Andrew Gaze once was to their forerunner, the Tigers.

Last round Goulding simply shot Brisbane out of the contest with five second quarter 3-pointers, returning 7-of-9 dialling long distance in a 35-point humiliation. Those were raspberry Bullets they were chewing on for sure.

Shortly after Goulding's decisive play, Mitch Creek in Sydney led a thoroughly depleted South East Melbourne to arguably its best win of the season.

It actually was reminiscent of the last Throwdown where United had many bodies sidelined but still rose to the occasion, hammering their crosstown rivals.

Heading into Sydney, the Phoenix had just cut Will Cummings, making way for Nader, a 196cm small forward with 200 NBA games under his 30-year-old belt, Craig Moller had just undergone surgery for his season-ending injury, Reuben Te Rangi was absent becoming a first-time father, Daniel Johnson had just been released to make way for returnee Gorjok Gak who had not played in a month.

Creek piled on 33 points to steer SEM to a memorable victory, this Throwdown shaping as the best of the three to date this season.

Cairns-New Zealand is a terrific rivalry which always has plenty for its fan bases while at the opposite end of the country, Perth regains Tai Webster against a Tasmania likely to still be down key import Milton Doyle.

Phoenix also host Illawarra this round and that too has potential for "game of the round" accolades now the Hawks are in business.

Adelaide still will be pulling its house back into order so chances of taking down the league leaders on the road look slim. Most 36ers fans though just want to see an effort that will instill hope for the rest of this season.

Tasmania twice has beaten Sydney this season but the Kings have walked themselves backwards into a corner and will come out punching.

Speaking of punching, it's time for another Brisbane-Cairns Queensland derby showdown where again the feeling in this rivalry will likely bubble to the surface before long.

ROUND 11 TIPS
Melbourne to be too deep, resourceful and well-balanced for SEM this time.
Cairns at full potency should own New Zealand, power outages notwithstanding.
Tasmania may need Milton Doyle back to reverse their earlier loss in Perth.
Look out! The Hawks are soaring and have the Phoenix in their sights.
Melbourne at home will have too much for slowly recovering Adelaide.
Match of the round? Tasmania at home to a Kings cross at failures. JJs just.
Brisbane’s bigs are the key to beating Cairns. But Taipans to prevail.

NBL RANKINGS – WEEK 10
This          Last
Week       Week   Club
  1               2        Melbourne (11-3) Goulding scalding opposition and defence impenetrable.
  2               3        Tasmania (9-5) Challenging double if Doyle is still out. Finals bound.
  3               7        South East (8-6) Great jump after showing great heart in Sydney.
  4               1        Perth (8-6) System dissolved without Tai, raising longer term worries.
  5               4        Sydney (8-6) Lucky in Cairns, dreadful at home. Need to joust JJs.
  6               5        Cairns (6-8) Looked the goods in Adelaide. Have they turned corner?
  7               8        Illawarra (4-8) On the move and can trip up Phoenix on the road.
  8               6        Brisbane (7-8) Awful road performance really rocked confidence.
  9               9        New Zealand (4-9) Falling further behind and likely out of contention.
10              10       Adelaide (4-10) Not enough happening yet to get excited about.