Copes' Corner: Jack White must stand up for United to be champions

• NBL legend Lanard Copeland has joined Basketball.com.au as a columnist for the playoffs
• Copeland won two NBL championships with the Melbourne Tigers
• He has tipped Melbourne United to beat Illawarra 3-2

COPES' CORNER — An insight with NBL legend Lanard Copeland

Melbourne United are no chance of getting it done in this NBL Championship Series without Jack White.

If he plays like last game, where he didn't take a shot, they cannot get it done.

I thought after missing those big free-throws against Perth in game two of the semi-finals, he may have struggled mentally to bounce back from that because as a competitor, you feel like you've let your team down and he's one of their leaders, which is tough but we've all been there. Then I thought he got himself back on track because in game three, he hit a couple of big threes down the stretch and rebounded the ball quite well.

I just don't know what happened in this last game because for him not to even attempt a shot, I think it really hurt his team.

When you get a bit passive or you lose confidence, the main thing that goes through your mind is you don't want to mess up and that's the big thing, you feel like you're hurting the team when you're actually hurting the team more by being worried about making mistakes.

They need him. They need him to be as aggressive as possible, and I've said this before, even if he misses 10 free throws, you got to understand if he gets fouled, that's going to put fouls on the other team, which then means they have to make changes. Guys get into foul trouble, then all of a sudden you're playing the second five rather than the first five, so you're still adding to the mix. And who's to say you're going to miss all 10? You might miss five but what you're doing is you're getting the other team into foul trouble. So that's why you need to be aggressive at all times.

There were plenty of chances for him to take open shots in game two, so now if I'm playing against you and I know you're not a threat, now I can clog that middle and it's harder for Chris Goulding to get his shot off, or I can double-team, it's harder for Ian Clark to get his shot off, it's harder for Dellavedova to drive because I know you're not going to shoot it, so I'm just going to clog the middle.

I remember back when I was playing at college at Georgia State and I missed two big free throws. I was sitting on the bench and one of my teammates got fouled and I hadn't played they expected for me to knock down these two free throws and I missed them. That was my freshman year of college, so I was raw, not making any excuses.

I felt terrible, I felt like I let the team down, I felt like I wasn't good enough to be on the team because I was a walk-on. It wasn't like they recruited me. Then my brother came to me and said, "bro, you're good enough, trust me, you missed some free throws, go work on your free throws and the next time you get an opportunity, just play hard".

Now, I never really had confidence issues when I got to the pros, I was a player who had a lot of confidence then but as a pro, things are going to happen, you're not going to be great every night, but you can play hard every night and I think Jack just needs to trust himself. Trust what you've done your entire career, trust the fact an NBA team thought you were good enough, trust that Melbourne United have always thought you are a star, trust that.

Shaquille O'Neal missed a million free throws. That didn't stop him from being dominant, though, did it? No, it didn't.

But if he plays like last game, they cannot get it done, because now you have Shea Ili out as well. You've got to understand, the last time these guys played in Wollongong, defensively, Wani Swaka Lo Buluk did a fantastic job on Chris Goulding, he still had 15 points, but he shut him down. So, if Illawarra can do that again and then Jack White isn't aggressive, I don't see them winning this next game.

If I'm Jack White, I'm getting myself going by getting every rebound, getting out in transition, getting to the free-throw line, do everything in your power to build your own confidence, don't sit back.

As far as some other keys, Melbourne need to do a job defensively on Illawarra's backcourt of Trey Kell and Tyler Harvey, which is a bigger task now without Shea Ili. United aren't built to be a great defensive team without both Ili and Dellavedova in the line-up. So, if you're Dean Vickerman, do you switch it up now and throw Ian Clark in to start and be a better offensive team because then that means rather than shutting down Chris Golding, you got to shut down Ian Clark too and he's on top of the world right now.

Tonight really comes down to which backcourt can dominate and can Jack White turn it around? This is his moment.

PREVIOUS LANARD COPELAND COLUMNS

• The day Dean Vickerman dropped 32 points on me
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