Melbourne United coach Dean Demopoulos reflected on his childhood after his team's 92-87 win over the ladder-leading Perth Wildcats with the roof open at Hisense Arena on Sunday night.
"Some of the funnest times in my life were when I was a kid playing outside on playgrounds," Demopoulos said.
"When I walked into the arena from the tunnel and I could feel the breeze I was a little shocked, because I didn't think you'd be able to feel it.
"It was pretty cool, but I have to tell you, my first concern was whether the ball was going to go in or not."
Demopoulos needn't have worried, his star shooting guard Chris Goulding took care of that, sinking a blistering six-of-eight three-pointers on his way to 27 points and a match-winning performance.
Goulding scored 11 points in the first quarter, continued his long-range barrage in the second, and after being benched with foul trouble in the third term, delivered 10 final-quarter points that acted as the knockout blow.
"I've got to work on being aggressive and trying to get everyone involved. I think more so than previous years on this team I've need to shoulder a bit of that load," Goulding said after wowing the capacity crowd which enjoyed the open air for the first time.
"It turned out to be a really good night, so credit to the NBL, credit to our front office staff, we must have a weatherman in the ranks who picked a great night."
While Perth couldn't match Goulding's shooting, they circumvented any issues with the breeze by pumping the ball inside to dominant big men Matt Knight (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Nate Jawai (15 points).
They combined with reserve Tom Jervis to score 21 points in the first half, then Jawai and Knight notched 11 more early in the final term to put the Wildcats in a winning position.
But it was the Wildcats' defence that had issues for much of the night.
"I thought we played Santa Claus in the first half and gave them plenty of points," coach Trevor Gleeson said.
"We don't play defence and they get their eye in, and they're very hard to stop once they get their tails up."
Melbourne were also handing out the gifts, coughing up eight second-half turnovers to the Wildcats' pressure defence as import Casey Prather (24 points) dominated with his speed and athleticism.
Having led by 11, the home team looked in trouble trailing 71-74 with seven minutes left, but consecutive clutch jumpshots from Goulding swung the momentum, before triples from Todd Blanchfield and Goulding put United ahead for good.
Perth charged back, pulling within two points with one minute 23 seconds remaining, and a solitary point on a Prather dunk with 15 seconds to play, but Goulding and Stephen Holt (16 points, 7 assists) held their nerve from the free-throw line.
A potential game-tying triple from Wildcat Jermaine Beal sailed long.
Perth forward Greg Hire could nevertheless appreciate the importance of the sold-out open air game for the league.
"Obviously the result wasn't the one we wanted, but it was a fantastic environment, the atmosphere was pumping," he said.
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