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The night the lights went out in Adelaide
TweetIT was in 1974 I first started being paid for analysing basketball games, something I’d already been doing for community papers since 1971.
I mention this now because I can’t even begin to guess how many ball games I have seen.
And I mention that only to make this point – Melbourne United was breath-takingly exceptional in its 118-79 win over the 36ers at Adelaide Arena last night.
Breath-taking.
Exceptional.
In four decades of covering ball games, there’s only one other match I attended personally which compares even a little bit to the near-perfection Melbourne produced.
United stroked 8-of-10 threes in the first quarter, then bumped that to 10-of-12 when Steve Dennis and Lucas Walker started the second with consecutive triples.
Just to mix it up, David Barlow (5-of-7 threes) stole the ball and threw down a dunk for Melbourne’s next bucket!
Tigers fans who have hung around would recall their last game at Adelaide Arena was Game 3 of the semi finals last season … and a 39-point tail-between-the-legs bashing.
This wasn’t “revenge” by any stretch but it had to be satisying for coach Darryl McDonald who, along with Mark Worthington, Nate Tomlinson, Walker and Owen Odigie went through that night of infamy and despair.
So fast-forward to Adelaide's black-out night, the team in black, the lights out as part of the new intros.
No, this wasn’t so much a “square up” for Melbourne, as a game played to near-perfection, with a game-plan executed mostly flawlessly.
We have all seen teams get hot and usually, they start to cool off at some point.
The opponent often will try and ride out the avalanche and hope it isn’t too buried to fight out of the hole when those hot hands cool.
But Melbourne just never cooled off.
It hit 22-of-34 threes – the record for a 40-minute game – and its 118 points in Adelaide’s 500th home game led to the 36ers' biggest home loss.
The 118 points also is a 40-minute game record for a regulation contest and Melbourne’s 58-point first half was the most points Adelaide has ever given up in a 40-minute match at Adelaide Arena.
Nine of the 10 Melbourne players hit a three-pointer. That has never happened before.
Ever.
Like I said, since 1974, I can only think of another game which readily springs to mind where so many different people were firing.
We have all seen those remarkable games when someone goes off – Chris Goulding’s 50 last season springs easily to mind – but to have everyone firing is pretty special.
When even 36ers fans are applauding Jordan McRae (10-of-11, 28 points), you know something extra-special is going on.
I last saw something comparable in Game 3 of the 2002 NBL Grand Final between Adelaide and West Sydney.
The 36ers hit 8-of-9 threes in the first quarter on their way to a 70-point first-half explosion.
But two facts. It was a 48-minute game AND a Grand Final, the Razorbacks fighting tooth and nail before conceding the Championship 125-107.
The Sixers hit 19-of-31 threes, 61 per cent, and had five players in double figures.
What made this one, obviously, stand out was it was the biggest game of the season.
United thrashing Adelaide was a regular-season match but you know you are witnessing something rare when the opposition shoots better from outside the arc (65 per cent) than the home team from the free throw line (54 per cent, 19-of-35).
Melbourne’s defence had Adelaide well-scouted and made a mockery of the Sixers’ scout.
It was a performance that easily ranks as United’s finest and shows why so many pundits had Melbourne in its top-two in preseason polling.
Can we expect the same again from Melbourne this week?
That would be fairly unreasonable.
I’ve got two examples of extraordinary basketball from 40 years – although I do recall St Kilda whipping someone by 100 points at the Australian Club Championship in 1970. But that was before my (writing) time.
You probably can remember one game of similar ilk yourself. Wortho could recall a Kings match where they led Perth 80-30 at one stage.
That’s how rare they are though.
What we will see now is a confident Melbourne outfit fully aware of what it is capable.
And a league now fully cognisant as well that United is finding the mojo.
Last night though was a game for the time capsule.
AS I said, 1974 was a big year for me personally, meeting people who would affect my life and watching as the mighty West Adelaide Bearcats, led by the most charismatic American import I have known in Ken Richardson, dominated local basketball.
It had before 1974 and it did again after 1974.
But for just this one year – my first – it had to be content with being #2.
