Melbourne coach Dean Demopoulos remains confident that his team's collective efforts will eventually produce results despite suffering a fifth straight defeat, this time at the hands of the Sydney Kings.
In what was an entertaining and tight contest for three quarters, 30 points from star guard Kevin Lisch inspired Sydney's 87-71 win, as two long bombs early in the final term blew the match wide open, and left Melbourne reeling at the foot of the NBL ladder.
"The score was pretty even at that point," Demopoulos said of Lisch's final quarter heroics. "We tried to rush him a little bit, we started to trap him a little after that, so give him credit."
Demopoulos can see his squad regaining momentum once Chris Goulding and Todd Blanchard return from injury but plenty of hard work is required for United to return to the winners list.
"I'm a process-oriented coach. Obviously, we are in a result business," he said. "So I understand the results have to be different but at the same time the process wasn't flawed all week long, all year long really.
"We trust it and we are going to continue with it ... tweak it here and there, try to add some pieces and see where that takes us."
With the departure of import Cedric Jackson, Goulding and Blanchard sidelined plus David Barlow playing his first match in more than a year following an extended injury lay-off, United's remaining guards played big minutes before fading late in the match, unable to prevent Lisch and fellow guard Jason Cadee from pouncing in the fourth quarter.
Working his way to peak fitness, United big man David Andersen is still finding his niche with the team with injuries and personnel changes making the task more difficult.
"We've got to get more execution on offence, we've got to score more than 70 points to get a win on the board," Andersen said. "We've got the hands to do it once everyone comes back and everything starts working so there are positives to be looking into the future."
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