Tall or small: Lee stops them all

The alarm bells were ringing at half-time of Game 1 of the NBL Championship Series for Melbourne United, but coach Dean Vickerman says he always had full faith in the experience of his group to shine through.

One of the big keys to United's 96-88 win, shutting down the influence of Sam Froling after half-time.

The Illawarra big man had 12 first half points, but just four in the second, as Marcus Lee stood tall for the visitors. 

>> Game 2 ticketing information

Lee ended the game with 14 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, including five of those boards at the offensive end, but his impact was more than that.

When the Hawks went small in the fourth quarter, with Froling sitting out, Vickerman left Lee out there, even spending time guarding Will Hickey. 

"Marcus is an outstanding defender and Frols (Sam Froling) was attacking early in the game and he had some success there as well, but the versatility of Marcus is why we recruited him, because he can guard more than just a centre," Vickerman said.

"He's capable of guarding different people so to put him on a point guard like 'Davo' is probably not what we thought at the start of the year, but he's capable of sliding and contesting, and protecting the rim. Then his rebounding was phenomenal at both ends tonight.

"Him (Hickey) coming downhill at the rim against anyone with some pace is a challenge, but I thought Marcus really stood up to it and contested those ones. It meant that other people are not getting their shots either so it was something to live with tonight."

When Jack White missed a putback dunk right on the half-time buzzer and the Hawks went into the break leading 53-43, Vickerman had some thinking to do, but he also trusted his group would respond.

That's exactly what they did and in the second half they held the Hawks to just 35 points, while restricting them to shooting 37 per cent and 3/17 from downtown.

Melbourne put up 53 points while shooting 49 per cent, pulling down another seven offensive rebounds for 11 second-chance points, along with getting to the foul line 18 times to just three from Illawarra.

A big part of United winning was the job done on Tyler Harvey (nine points, 1/6 from three) and Trey Kell III (six points on 3/11 shooting), with Shea Ili and Matthew Dellavedova leading the way.

"We saw South East do it too and then they bounced back so we look at the good things that Shea and Delly, and others, did on those two guys and how we supported them. We also know they are really talented players and we'll still have to be better," Vickerman said.

"We know they are two guys who want the basketball and they are going to continue to screen aggressively for them like they did all night, so it's about how good we can be about connecting to them. We just have to make it as hard as possible for them again."

Vickerman is now looking forward to getting home to John Cain Arena for Wednesday night's Game 2, but at the same time is on full alert for a Hawks team who will be determined to hit back.

"Getting a full house would be a great start if we can just absolutely pack this thing out and get the crowd behind us," Vickerman said.

"Then we just need everybody doing their job. You see Tanner Krebs really stepping up in this last portion of the season and him playing 16 minutes with CG (Chris Goulding) in some foul trouble early on, and what he was able to do for us.

"Shea was a bit more aggressive offensively after three games of running around chasing Bryce (Cotton), so he had that little extra kick, and we'll need every part of that. We know they'll make adjustments and we'll see what they do, and we've got to make sure we're ready for anything."

Melbourne hosts Illawarra on Wednesday night at 7.30pm AEDT, with pre-game coverage live from 7pm AEDT.