Game Preview: Taipans v Kings

Travelling south to New South Wales, the Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans will face the Sydney Kings to round out both side’s double headers.

After starting their weekends with disappointing losses, both teams will be looking to rebound and reclaim their top four spots on the ladder.

Cairns will once more be without guard Taran Armstrong and center Tanner Groves but will enter the game seeing plenty of familiar faces. It will be Bul Kuol and Cameron Oliver’s first regular season game against their former side, joining past Taipans Kouat Noi and Shaun Bruce in Sydney. Also meeting his former side will be Jackson Makoi, after making the switch from purple to orange.

Where and When

Sunday, October 13 at Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney (1:30pm AEST)

How to Follow

Watch: Live on Channel 10 and ESPN

Live Updates: Taipans X

Stats: Box Score

What’s Already Happened

Round 4 Results

Cairns Taipans (87) v Perth Wildcats (90)

Sydney Kings (79) v Adelaide 36ers (89)

Entering their sixth game of the season, the Taipans will be looking to find their winning touch again following their loss to the Perth Wildcats on Thursday night.

After struggling early in the game without point guard Taran Armstrong, there were hopeful signs for Cairns who mounted a late charge to fall short of a win.

Spurred by import Rob Edwards – who is in a tight contest for leading scorer in the league – they were able to bring back a 12-point Wildcats lead and give themselves a chance to take the game to overtime.

With more time to adjust to life without Armstrong, it will be a good chance for the Taipans to show how well they can play without their point guard, after taking down the Adelaide 36ers earlier in the season whilst he was injured.

Scoring will be a key piece for Cairns, after only scoring less than 90 points twice this season – their only two losses. Currently sat third in the league for points per game, and first for three-pointers made – trailed closely by the Kings – returning to their high scoring ways will be a focus for them, after narrowly missing 90 points on Thursday night.

A positive sign for Coach Forde’s men will be their hustle on the glass, having not lost a rebound count since their second game of the season – with every game since being against a top three rebounding side.

They’ll now face Sydney who have their own bigs to crash the boards, with rookie sensation Keli Leaupepe cleaning up 10 rebounds in their own clash with the 36ers.

Former Taipan Cameron Oliver will also be looking to dominate rebounding himself, however is struggling this season compared to his time in Cairns. After averaging 9.8 rebounds across 2019-21, the forward has returned to the NBL with an average of 6.2 per game during the opening rounds.

Coming off their own loss earlier in the week, the Kings will be looking to bounce back after a disappointing defeat to Adelaide. Unable to limit Dejan Vasiljevic, they let the 36ers build a 16-point lead by half-time who despite taking less shots, were able to shoot at a much higher clip to give themselves the win.

Of concern for the Kings will be the status of their star import Jaylen Adams. After hurting his back during the second quarter against Adelaide, the point guard watched the rest of the game from the bench and will be a game time decision against the Taipans.

Player to Watch

Without a starting center, Pedro Bradshaw has been one of the players to fill the space left by Groves – taking the most of the opportunity with the forward leading the rebounding charge across the last two games. Cleaning up 17 boards since his fellow import’s injury, Bradshaw will now look to continue growing in the league and increasing his performances – particularly on the scoring end.

His scoring output has steadily increased since starting in the NBL, but will now line up against Xavier Cooks, Keli Leaupepe and Cameron Oliver – a big challenge for the American.

What’s Been Said

Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde:

“I can’t fault the guys for competing, but it’s a loss that we’re going to learn from. We dropped this one – we have to review it, and we have to have a quick turn around with Sydney on Sunday.

“It doesn’t matter who’s missing, the job needs to get done with the group we have.”

Kings Head Coach Brian Goorjian: 

“The NBL has a reputation of guys playing their asses off and playing together and tough, and on that side of it we were below Adelaide tonight, and we were below Brisbane in the second half.

“That falls on me, and I just got to keep addressing it and learn how to press the right buttons.

“From our side we walk out of this with some things to address real quickly before we play next – we can’t go on like this.”

The Lineups

Taipans

PG – Kyle Adnam / Jackson Makoi / Tad Dufelmeier

SG – Rob Edwards / Jonah Antonio

SF – Pedro Bradshaw / Alex Higgins-Titsha

PF – Kyrin Galloway / Dillon Stith

C – Sam Waardenburg / Akoldah Gak

Kings

PG – Izayah Le’afa / Shaun Bruce

SG – Bul Kuol / Tyler Robertson / Makuach Maluach

SF – Alex Toohey / Jaylin Galloway / Klairus Amir

PF – Xavier Cooks / Kouat Noi / Henry Lau

C – Keli Leaupepe / Cam Oliver / Jason Spurgin

Ins and Outs 

Taipans

Ins – Tad Dufelmeier, Alex Higgins-Titsha

Outs – Taran Armstrong (ankle), Tanner Groves (calf)

Kings

Game time decision – Jaylen Adams (back)