Rhys Carter's NBL coaching debut could hardly have been more eventful but without Shea Ili, Chris Goulding and Jesse Edwards to close out the game, he was proud with the supporting cast that helped Melbourne United to the crucial win.

It would only be natural for Carter to have head coach ambitions one day in the NBL, but he never thought his first chance would come not long after finding out Dean Vickerman had gone down with appendicitis on game day in Cairns on Thursday.

Not long after Vickerman's successful surgery, Carter was in charge of Melbourne for the first time with a win a must if they wanted to maintain touch with the fourth placed Perth Wildcats.

Then United were playing catch up most of the night against the Taipans, they lost Ili to a hamstring injury before half-time, Goulding to a sore knee for the last 14 minutes, and big man Edwards fouled out with just under two minutes to go.

However, with Milton Doyle (25 points, 4/9 from three-point land) and Tyson Walker (17 points, three steals, two assists) leading the way ably supported by Tanner Krebs, Finn Delany, Tom Wilson, Malith Machar and Fabijan Krslovic in the fourth, United put up 33 to 25 for the 89-85 victory.

It was a first night as an NBL head coach he won't soon forget.

"It was definitely a memorable one and it's a lot of adversity thrown at us with guys going down, but we just had a solid plan in place which is what I kind of kept relying on," Carter said.

"I had Dave Barlow and Jack Fleming sitting there with me and I definitely didn’t do this alone, those two were huge and it was a team effort and I made them save me a chair.

"Deano doesn’t sit down but I said I wanted to sit with you and make sure we stay on the same page so it was a team effort and then obviously the boys stepped up.

"I love that execution in the fourth and the stress levels were through the roof thinking if I drop this one it might be a long time before I get another one so getting it done was huge."

What Carter most liked about the group was how they shook off a less than ideal first half where they fell behind by as much as 10 points. Then it was their depth that was on show as they took control in the fourth quarter.

"He (Goulding) could have gone back in but Tanner Krebs, Malith Machar, Tom Wilson in that fourth stepped up and they were playing so well that we didn’t have to go back to Chris," Carter said.

"I love that about this group with the guys in there like Tommy who hasn’t played in a couple of weeks and comes in and hits a big one, and it's a real strength of the group tonight again was that depth.

"Just the fact that we toughed it out and I thought in the first half emotionally we were a little up and down, and a little on the refs and we really pulled that in and focused on the right things.

"We showed toughness, showed grit and showed poise and composure in the fourth which was really big for us and the energy was good in that second half, and the vibes in the locker room after is that we have to keep this thing rolling and the good vibes within the group moving into the playoffs."

It was also a health check afterwards and Carter was relieved going into the game that Vickerman's surgery had been successful on his appendix. They will wait to see on Ili's hamstring and are confident on Goulding's knee.

"It was great to get the call right before we went out to tip-off that the operation was successful and he's recovering, and he says he's doing well but he's pretty tough Deano and he was really resistant," Carter said.

"He says he's doing fine but I'm sure there's still a lot of pain and hopefully he's able to get on the plane with us tomorrow if he's recovered and can join us.

"I walked straight past Steve McAdam the physio and he said that it was the other hamstring (for Ili) and that they'll assess how bad it is, but it was bad enough to not play and as soon as he had some feeling there we weren't going to risk keeping him in the game and just had to keep him out.

"He (Goulding) had a minor issue behind his knee from the last game and it got much better, and he came into the game feeling really close to 100 per cent but as it went on, it irritated him a little bit but I don't think it's going to be anything major."

Chris Pike

Carter proud of all of United stepping up