All eyes were on Cole Anthony on Saturday night and he put on a show and starred in Melbourne United's big win, but it was the dominance on the inside once more of Josh Oduro that sent the real message to the rest of the NBL.
There was a big focus on how Anthony would conduct himself when United hosted the Brisbane Bullets at John Cain Arena on Saturday night, but in the end he shook off three early fouls to play a significant role in the eventual 120-92 win.
He was at his efficient best too with 32 points and six assists on 13/14 shooting from the field and 6/6 from the foul line in just 20 minutes.
But even that wasn’t the most imposing performance of the night from Melbourne with Oduro continuing his powerful form as centre delivering 28 points, 14 rebounds and two steals on 11/15 shooting while dominating his match up with Tyrell Harrison.
There was plenty for coach Jacob Chance to like in the fourth straight win, but nothing more than Oduro and Anthony combining for 60 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists on 24/29 shooting.
"I think we've been building nicely and we've had 55 practices now, which seems like a lot, but it really isn't, and it takes a long time to build that collective understanding of each other and how you get other people open," Chance said.
"We just keep celebrating the selfless acts, seeing his (Oduro's) screening, Sam Wardenburg's screening, Cole getting off the ball and making good decisions, and I haven't seen many box scores with two guys at that volume going 24/29 from the field.
"We've done a good job all year of just taking what the game gives us. We've seen different coverages, and our mindset is play what's in front of us with great spacing, and we're fortunate to have a lot of different advantages on the floor."
Oduro was dominant not only with the numbers he put up in his 31 minutes against Brisbane, but with how he totally nullified Harrison for Brisbane keeping him to just five points with five rebounds and four turnovers on four shot attempts.
But he also fed off the energy of Anthony and liked everything that he provided after what had been an eventful week.
"I mean, Cole's been great and you look at him today, I think that's exactly what we want from him and I think he's going to continue to do it," Oduro said.
"Oh yeah, most definitely, it (Cole's energy) gets me going and I love to see Cole at his best, and I love to see him passionate.
"Sometimes there might be a little bit of rub with the other people, but it's OK. I've got Cole's back no matter what."
With a new coach and so many new faces, even as experienced and well credentialed as the likes of Anthony, Oduro, Joe Ingles, Sam Waardenburg and the returning Luke Travers are, there was always a chance of some growing pains to start NBL26 for Melbourne.
That did eventuate with United losing five of the first eight games, but even that didn’t tell the whole story considering four of those six defeats were either by one or two points.
So they weren’t far away from clicking and it's now starting to click how it had the potential to do with four straight wins by an average of 18.5 points now that they are full strength with Shea Ili and Chris Goulding back available.
Oduro might be happy with how he's playing, but more importantly how the team is coming together.
"It's good to have four wins in a row but coach laid out our goals, we all have our own goals and four wins at this point in the season really isn't what we're looking for.
"So we just want to continue to go to practice, stack days, continue to gel and I think our ceiling is still really high."