DJ, Giddey do their best on difficult opening night

The second half didn’t quite match the first but Daniel Johnson fired, Josh Giddey excited and there was enough to encourage the Adelaide 36ers despite the scoreline on the opening night of the NBL season against Melbourne United. 

Following the longest pre-season imaginable, Adelaide played host to the opening of the 2021 NBL season on Friday night at Adelaide Entertainment Centre and the local fans turned out in droves with a near capacity 6539 packing into the stadium.

They were craving some real action with the Sixers not having played an official NBL game since the final game of last regular season in Perth on February 15 last year. 

The signs were then exciting in the first half and with Daniel Johnson scoring 16 points in the opening half and with Next Star Josh Giddey looking impressive having started on the bench.

The 36ers even managed to lead going into half-time and were still two points up early in the third quarter before a run of 13 straight Melbourne points turned the game on its head.

United would add another run of 12 unanswered points soon after and ended up turning a two-point half-time deficit into an eventual 89-65 victory.

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Being outscored 52 to 26 in the second half while ending up being outrebounded by 16 and giving up 18 offensive boards for 19 second chance points wasn’t quite the start Adelaide was hoping for.

The 18 turnovers for 21 points from Melbourne along with scoring just 22 points in the paint opposed to 46 wasn’t ideal either, but it was against a United team considered championship favourites and there were positives.

Fresh off signing a new three-year contract in the off-season, Daniel Johnson couldn’t have done any more for the 36ers. He finished with 27 points and five rebounds on 7/13 shooting from the floor and a perfect 5/5 from deep.

Josh Giddey didn’t start on debut but Australia's first Next Star looked impressive against strong opposition finishing with seven points, seven rebounds and four assists.

Jack McVeigh also scored nine points for the Sixers, Tony Crocker five (three steals), Keanu Pinder five (five rebounds), Isaac Humphries five (three boards), Donald Sloan three (four assists), Daniel Dillon two and Sunday Dech two (five rebounds).

Sixers coach Conner Henry didn’t get to oversee the opening game to his tenure he hoped, but at least he sees some areas easily correctable.

"I thought our effort in the first half was real good. We just couldn’t score the basketball so there's a lot of work to be done on the offensive end as evident in the second half," Henry said.

"I don’t know what our one pass and two pass possessions were, but we sure didn’t share it with each other enough. Combine that with 18 offensive rebounds that we gave up and they got 25 shots more than us. 

"To go 26-13 and 26-13 in the last two quarters saw us give up a bunch of points and not score the basketball. We'll watch film and it will be evident that we have to share the basketball a little bit more."

Keanu Pinder opened his NBL debut appearance unlucky to be denied a block on Jock Landale before scoring the first basket of the season for the 36ers. 

Donald Sloan then hit an early three and despite Melbourne going up six soon after, by the time Jack McVeigh connected from downtown the Sixers were up 16-14. A Tony Crocker triple just before the buzzer stretched that lead to four after one.

Things remained tight throughout the second quarter too and when Johnson closed the half with two trips to the foul line to give him 16 points heading into the break, it was Adelaide leading 39-37.

Johnson then came out and drilled two three-point bombs to open the second half, but that would be as good as it got for Adelaide. Melbourne scored the next 13 points to go from two points down to being up by 11 before Josh Giddey broke the drought for the home team.

Melbourne scored another 12 straight points either side of three quarter-time to be up 23 before Johnson broke that run with his fifth three-pointer of the game. But Melbourne's lead continued to grow to as much as 28 before Giddey and McVeigh did at least bring the final margin back to 24.

The 36ers now have a short turnaround before hosting Mitch Creek and South East Melbourne Phoenix also at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday.

2020/21 Hungry Jack's NBL Round 1

ADELAIDE 36ERS 65 (Johnson 27, McVeigh 9, Giddey 7)

MELBOURNE UNITED 89 (Goulding 16, Lual-Acuil 16, Ili 13) 

BOX SCORE