Festive spirit will be in the air when second-placed Melbourne United host sixth-placed Tasmania JackJumpers at John Cain Arena on Tuesday night in the club's 12th installment of its annual and immensely popular 'open air game'.
United are no strangers to playing in front of a sold out John Cain Arena, having already done so four times this NBL season including two Throwdowns with crosstown rivals South East Melbourne Phoenix, who themselves played the Brisbane Bullets in front of a full capacity crowd of 10,175 in what was their second-ever Christmas open air game.
Dean Vickerman's boast an 8-3 record in open air games, having first brought the phenomenon to John Cain Arena in 2015/16, and the home side recently got back into the winners' circle when they eventually ran over the top of Illawarra Hawks on Sunday led by Tyson Walker's maiden NBA double-double (21P 10A).
Import guard Jesse Edwards, playing in his first NBL season, told the club on Monday morning that he has never experienced open air basketball, which is unique to Australia and only a few European countries.
"It's something I've never seen in a basketball arena," Edwards said after the team took part in a shootaround on Monday with the roof open.
"I've never played with a roof open or anything like it.
"I'm sure it's going to be a really good atmosphere for us to play in and for fans to be in."
South East Melbourne Phoenix shot at 50% during their open air victory on Saturday - well above their season average of 43% - and Edwards is not anticipating the open roof to have a significant impact on he and his teammates, anticipating that "it might take a couple of minutes to get used to it, especially in the warm-ups, but at the end of the day once we're out there we'll feel at home and feel good.
"I don't think we'll have too much trouble with it".
He chuckled at the suggestion that a few additional three-point shots might fall short and drop into his lurking hands at the base of the ring.
"That doesn't sound bad to me," Edwards replied.
"Hopefully that'll be one of the good outcomes for me.
"Once the sun goes down it'll be a little different, so it'll be interesting to see how it affects the shot percentages."
Edwards also said the squad is up and about again after snapping their four-game losing streak with what he described as a high-energy performance against Illawarra.
"Everybody was very dedicated to helping each other out. If there was ever a gap in the defence, there was always someone to cover it up.
"There is a good amount of trust amongst the team that if you do make a mistake, there's someone there who's got your back.
"Hopefully we have the same attitude and same energy and it'll lead to good results.
"After this, we've got a good amount of games that we won't have here (at John Cain Arena), so hopefully we can go out on a good note."
Very few select tickets are available thanks to United club members offering their seats for resale, so if you're 'open' to a last minute decision to attend the game, you can snag one of the last remaining seats here.