United smash Phoenix in NBL derby

Melbourne United have continued their recent dominance over cross-town NBL rival South East Melbourne Phoenix with a strong second-half performance setting up an impressive 110-85 victory.

After their recent two-game winning streak came to an abrupt end in a 25-point thumping in Cairns on Friday, United bounced back at John Cain Arena on Sunday to record their fourth consecutive victory over the Phoenix in the derby.

Chris Goulding fired in seven three-pointers to finish with 30 points and Isaac Humphries added 20 as United racked up their largest score of the season by shooting at 57 per cent from the field, outscoring South East Melbourne 58-36 in a lopsided second half.

Phoenix centre Alan Williams monstered United in the first half to amass 22 points and 12 rebounds but it was not enough to prevent Melbourne from grabbing a 52-49 lead at the main break as Goulding nailed five triples in his 18-point haul.

United made a statement in the third quarter, clicking at both ends of the floor to outscore the Phoenix 31-18, before finishing the job in the final quarter with six players scoring in double figures for the night.

While guard Shea Ili liked seeing multiple players scoring at the offensive end, he felt Goulding's game-breaking ability played a major role.

"(Goulding) is awesome, a high calibre player and, you know, we need to find him more and get him open shots," Ili told ESPN after United improved to 5-5 for the season.

"He's always stuck in corners, getting top-blocked. And yeah, I felt like we did a great job to get him shots."

The Phoenix's bid for a fifth successive victory was dealt a triple blow with Zhou Qi (calf) and Kyle Adnam (COVID) absent and Ryan Broekhoff ruled out after injuring his hamstring in the warm-up.

The aggression of Williams under the basket handed South East Melbourne an ideal start, and the former NBA centre going on to compile 30 points and 14 rebounds for the game.

Mitch Creek added 24 as he became the second player to feature in 100 games for the Phoenix.

But coach Simon Mitchell didn't hold back after the Phoenix missed the chance to keep pace with the top two on the ladder, labelling his side's efforts as "absolute trash".

"I thought the effort was really poor and I can't put a finger on why. We have everything to play for tonight. We had a team that was coming off a bad loss and had to travel," Mitchell said as the Phoenix dropped to a 5-4 record.

"I didn't think we had a good first half but that third quarter was disgusting - it's going to be a really long video session for that."