Cole Anthony didn’t like being on minutes restriction but still put up 30 points in limited game time in his NBL debut and while it was a tight loss for Melbourne United, he can't see his team losing again any time soon.

While a calf injury interrupted Anthony's preparations for his NBL debut on Saturday night, what he showed in his 22 minutes of court time showed exactly why there's so much excitement over his signing.

At just 26 and having played 367 NBA games including a best season of 16.3 points, 5.7 assists and 5.4 rebounds with the Orlando Magic, he has the potential to be a new MVP challenger to Bryce Cotton and Kendric Davis, and did nothing to dispel that in his first appearance.

Even coming off the bench and playing just 21:50, he delivered 30 points with 10/21 shooting from the field, 3/7 from downtown and 7/9 at the foul line in the two-point loss to the Adelaide 36ers.

That included 13 points in the third quarter alone and he also had a good look at what would have been a game winner just before the buzzer.

It might not have been a winning NBL debut for Anthony, but based on what he saw from his team and with Shea Ili still to come in to join him in the back court, he can't see them losing again soon with the next challenge a Throwdown on Thursday night.

"I mean, I might be a little biased, but I don’t feel like we'll lose another game for a while," Anthony said.

"I'm gonna call it what it is and superstitions or not, God willing if we keep people healthy I think we're gonna be a heck of a team.

"We've just gotta keep getting more practices under our belt where we get everybody out there and obviously getting Shili back is going to be huge.

"He's someone that just affects the game in so many different ways and will help us on the defensive side.

"Yeah, we've got a really talented team and I'm excited to keep getting better. What we showed out there tonight was our floor and I only think we can go up from here."

Anthony was supposed to be limited to 20 minutes in his NBL debut on his return from the calf injury suffered in the pre-season, but he went slightly over that and now will look to play even more on Thursday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

He was feeling good out there and enjoyed the contest, but did see some clear areas that Melbourne can quickly improve including cutting out the technical fouls his coach Jacob Chance and veteran teammate Joe Ingles received.

The other area was the 14 offensive rebounds that Adelaide were able to pull down including four of those to Nick Rakocevic.

While it might have been only one more than Melbourne, they did lead to crucial second chance points.

"This was kinda like the first week I went back live after doing nothing really for two weeks so I mean like I'm still trying to get my legs under me a little bit, but it was a decent night," Anthony said.

"I think it's a game we should win and I think we'll go back, watch it and it felt like just from being out there that they may not crushed us on the numbers with the offensive rebounds, but it felt like they did.

"They hit those pillar threes and they had one possession in the second half where the big fells had three of his own offensive rebounds into a made layup.

"So they had a lot of timely offensive rebounds and I feel like they made us pay every single time so I would say that's what felt like was the difference."

As for a first night in the NBL, getting to play in the first game of the new season in front of 9278 fans at John Cain Arena and coming up against six-time MVP Bryce Cotton and five-time championship coach Trevor Gleeson meant it had everything Anthony could have hoped for.

Anyone watching certainly got their money's worth too with Anthony and Cotton combining for 59 points and eight assists with seven three-point makes too.

He was fully aware of who he came up against and enjoyed the challenge, and looks forward to more of them throughout NBL27.

"I mean shoot, you can't ask for more than that. It's an elite match up, Game 1 against a team that was this close to winning a championship last year," Anthony said.

"And all credit to them, they was down bodies and they played a heck of a game. A big shoot out to them, that's a good win, but I think we can be a lot better and we'll clean that up.

"He (Cotton) is elite and he's six-time MVP for a reason, and he's really good and they're really well coached and do a great job of playing off of him and making him the focal point.

"He does a really good job of getting off of it at the right time tonight and choosing his spots, and there's nothing but love and respect for him, man. It's always good to see another dude back from the 'hood hooping."

Chris Pike

Cole can't see Melbourne losing again soon