Melbourne United's best-of-five NBL Championship Series against the Tasmania JackJumpers could be a board game for all Matthew Dellavedova cares.
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The tough-as-nails guard just wants to win.
And it's that attitude that makes him vital to Melbourne's chances of building on their 1-0 lead when they visit Hobart's MyState Bank Arena on Friday night.
Dellavedova has won a ring on the biggest stage of all, helping LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA title, but is yet to snare a championship in his homeland.
"It could be a board game, it could be anything," Dellavedova said.
"I'm just trying to win and competition is fun when you have two disciplined sides that have put in a lot of hard work all year to get here.
"I'm expecting a really tough (contest throughout the) series.
"I'm looking forward to trying to get better as the series goes on, seeing what adjustments they make, what adjustments we make and figure it out from there."
Dellavedova dismissed concerns over an ankle injury that sidelined him during the dying stages of game one last Sunday, as Melbourne put the finishing touches on a thumping 104-81 home victory.
"I'm feeling good. I could've come back into the game but the boys did a really good job closing it out," Dellavedova said.
"I went through all the training (this week) and felt good."
Dellavedova led from the front in game one in a high-energy performance as United limited Tasmania's back-court duo Jordon Crawford and Milton Doyle, as well as gun forward Jack McVeigh.
The dangerous trio are crucial to the JackJumpers' chances of levelling the series.
"Those three are really explosive offensively," Dellavedova said.
"You can't give them any any easy looks to get rhythm or get any momentum.
"It's a team scout and everyone's going to have to be locked in for that."
Melbourne coach Dean Vickerman and JackJumpers counterpart Scott Roth both felt fatigue played a role in game one, after their teams survived tough three-game Playoffs series to qualify for the decider.
Both sides are well-rested this week, with five days to prepare for game two.
If United are successful in Hobart, they could clinch their first title in three years with victory at home in game three on Sunday evening.
"We're still focused on what things we need to cover scout-wise, defensively and also offensively, before we even get down to Tassie," Dellavedova said.
"There's no thought about that (series sweep) whatsoever."
Australian Associated Press
