Adelaide have survived a late scare against Melbourne, almost squandering a 34-point first-half lead to cling on for a 101-93 NBL victory.
United looked a rabble as they fell into a 55-21 hole with 3:24 remaining in the second quarter at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Thursday night, before Cole Anthony led a stunning fightback, slashing the margin to four points inside the last three minutes.
But against a tidal wave of momentum, Bryce Cotton saved the Sixers when he splashed back-to-back three-pointers in 30 seconds.
John Jenkins scored 21 points, Zylan Cheatham posted 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Cotton paired 19 points with 10 assists.
Anthony had 27 points, and Luke Travers added 18 for Melbourne.
"I thought our first half was some of the best basketball we've played," 36ers coach Trevor Gleeson said.
"Our defence was outstanding ... and offensively we were moving the ball."
The Sixers raced out of the blocks, finishing the opening term with separate 9-0 and 7-0 bursts to storm to a 27-10 quarter-time lead.
Adelaide led the rebound count 17-6, while restricting United to 4-of-17 from the field.
It was more of the same in the second stanza, Jacob Rigoni splashing an early three to make it a 19-1 run either side of the first break.
A Cheatham-to-Nick Rakocevic alley-oop made it a scarcely believable 50-19 scoreline, the 36ers' buzz-saw swallowing Melbourne alive.
"If this was a fight, you'd stop it," veteran commentator John Casey said on ESPN.
But Adelaide became complacent and ragged in the shadows of halftime and Melbourne capitalised, Anthony leading a 14-2 United spree to trim the margin to 59-35 at intermission.
United had the better of the third term, cutting the deficit to 80-62 at three-quarter time, carrying all the momentum even with Chris Goulding's bomb from beyond halfway adjudged to have been fractionally late.
Melbourne continued to surge, and as the turnovers, fouls and misses mounted for the Sixers, their lead whittled to 88-84.
But Cotton steadied the hosts, before a string of free throws and the fouling out of Anthony and Josh Oduro had Adelaide breathing a sigh of relief.
"Credit to Adelaide, they came out with a lot of intent," United coach Jacob Chance said.
"They came out and threw the first punch."
