Machado's brilliance late gives Snakes a sniff against United

Scott Machado did all he could with 11 points in four minutes to give the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans a sniff of what would have been a stunning comeback but Melbourne United hung tough to win 87-85 on Monday night.

The Taipans were playing their fourth game of the opening two rounds at Cairns Pop-Up Arena and weren’t short on motivation to rebound strongly after losing the last two games to the Hawks and Sydney Kings.

But it was always going to be a tough ask against a fresh and loaded Melbourne line-up, and United were on track to come out of Cairns with an impressive win with the 13-point lead with 6:45 remaining in the contest.

However, that's when Machado took it upon himself to give the Taipans a chance. Having had a tough game up to that point hounded by Mitch McCarron and Shea Ili, he put away the three ball and stopped going right to the rack, and the end result was him knocking down five consecutive baskets.

He then added a free-throw to make the margin just four and then he got some help with triples from Fabijan Krslovic and Mirko Djeric.

Cairns' tremendous second half defensive performance to hold Melbourne to 36 points meant they still had a chance with the last possession, but Machado's quick-release three didn’t fall as time expired.

Taipans coach and reigning NBL Coach of the Year Mike Kelly liked his team's response in the second half, but would prefer they didn’t need to fight back.

"We came in with a mindset to win and we're coming away with a loss but I actually think we played half a game the way we really wanted to play. I think Melbourne United deserved the win because they played four quarters and had a great first half. We just had a great second half," Kelly said.

"We didn’t get to the positions we needed to in the first half to contest their shots, and once they get going, they have good shooters and ran that good set. I was disappointed with how we communicated out there, we need to be better out there. 

"Then the guys adjusted and we did a much better job to slow that down, and they had to adjust and run a different set. I loved the way our guys fought back and in the end it was too little, too late."

Machado finished the night with 19 points and six assists for Cairns with fellow import superstar Cam Oliver shaking off two early fouls and having a fascinating battle with Jock Landale on his way to 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Kouat Noi was energetic on his way to 17 points, four rebounds and three steals with Djeric scoring 13 points and Krslovic made the most of his first career start with eight points and three rebounds.

Nate Jawai had six points and four rebounds with Jarrod Kenny contributing three points and two steals, and Majok Deng two points and two assists.

After getting the first start of his career, Fabijan Krslovic also opened the account for the Taipans before Mirko Djeric joined in with a three-pointer.

Cam Oliver picking up two early fouls didn’t help the cause of the Snakes and even though Jarrod Kenny and Kouat Noi closed the opening quarter with threes of their own, Melbourne nailed 7/8 from beyond the arc themselves to put up 29 first term points to lead by eight.

Melbourne's lead then grew to 14 to open the second quarter but Cairns responded starting with three balls to Scott Machado and Djeric. Oliver then got rolling with his own shot from deep and suddenly it was just a two-point ball game.

Melbourne responded with triples to Jock Landale but the Taipans hung tough and were down just six at the half despite the 10/18 makes from long-range by United.

The Taipans then had some early momentum in the second half on the back of three-point makes from Krslovic and Noi, but United was able to close the quarter with an 11-3 run to be up seven with only another three ball from Noi helping the Snakes stay close.

Melbourne then threatened to put the game beyond Cairns with nine straight points early in the fourth to lead by 13, but that's when Machado decided to make a stand and personally get the Taipans back into the contest.

He succeeded with an individual 11-2 run to bring Cairns within four. Triples from Krslovic and Djeric then made it a one-point game with 34 seconds left, but unfortunately Machado's good looks late didn’t quite fall and Melbourne held on for the two-point win.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 2

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 85 (Machado 19, Noi 17, Oliver 17)

MELBOURNE UNITED 87 (Landale 19, Goulding 17, White 12) 

BOX SCORE