Melbourne United coach Dean Vickerman is unfazed by the refereeing decision that led Illawarra's Justin Tatum to accuse the NBL match officials of disrespecting the Hawks in the championship series.
Vickerman believed the referees were right to permit United's Matthew Dellavedova to shoot free throws while Hawks guard Trey Kell was hobbling off the court late in game three, having slipped and injured his knee.
Kell went for scans on Monday and remained a day-by-day proposition for Wednesday's game four, which the Hawks must win to remain alive in the best-of-five series.
Tatum was incensed play did not stop for Kell as it had when Dellavedova slipped over late in the third quarter and landed hard on his tailbone.
"That's just the difference of respect between Melbourne and the Hawks," Tatum said on Sunday night.
Basketball Australia is responsible for reviewing post-match press conferences, but opted to pass its investigation into Tatum's comments to the NBL on Tuesday.
Three-time NBL coach-of-the-year Vickerman felt the Kell and Dellavedova situations were different.
At the time, referee Chris Reid explained to Tatum that Dellavedova's slippage left sweat on the court, potentially creating a safety hazard where play was taking place.
Kell's occurred up the other end of the court from where Dellavedova went on to shoot free throws.
"From what I've seen the whole year, if someone's fallen over and they're not impacting the play, obviously wait until there's a stoppage in the game to tidy that up," Vickerman told AAP.
"The Delly one, to me, is different. It was right in the middle of the play where people had slipped over.
"Am I comfortable with it? Yeah, I thought the way the game's been refereed all year. They made very similar decisions."
Melbourne's Shea Ili participated in a light training session on Tuesday and is a chance to return from his latest head knock to line up in game four at John Cain Arena.
The two-time reigning defensive player of the year missed game three but will be given until the 11th hour to prove his fitness.
"There's some positive signs but we haven't made our decision," Vickerman said.
In Ili's absence, NBA champion Dellavedova stood up in the final quarter to guide United to a gutsy 83-77 win in Sunday's game three.
United have won all three fourth quarters of the series so far by a combined total of 84-51, but have led for a little less than 32 of the 120 minutes of gametime in the series so far.
"We kind of talked about that as a group, before the game, about why we've been good in the fourth quarter and how can we take more of the fourth quarter into the rest of the game," Vickerman said.
Vickerman was in awe of Dellavedova's game-three efforts, with the Olympic bronze medallist dishing up 11 assists and no turnovers.
"Can we ask for that again?" he said.
"No, probably not, he's going to make one mistake in the game. But it was amazing to have that performance."
