Nate, Fab inspire Snakes win over Kings

The defence was improved, rebounding was much better and then with Nate Jawai delivering his best performance of the season and Fabijan Krslovic the best of his career, the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans beat the Sydney Kings 96-92 at the NBL Cup on Thursday.

The Taipans needed to respond to the two 20-point losses at the hands of the Perth Wildcats and Brisbane Bullets last week at the NBL Cup, and they certainly did that but it was a hard fought contest all the way against the Kings.

The Taipans still scored 95 points on Sunday against the Brisbane Bullets so the offence was flowing relatively well and once again even though some of the top-scorers might have been different, that continued at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre on Thursday.

But to be successful the Snakes needed to hit the glass better and defend more strongly. Both ended up happening with the Taipans outrebounding the Kings 37 to 26 for the game while pulling in 12 offensive boards for 24 second chance points.

The Kings still put up 92 points and shot at a hot clip of 53 per cent from the field and 50 per cent from deep with DJ Vasiljevic putting up 32 points and Casper Ware 28, but the effort defensively was much better from the Taipans.

They still needed something special to snap a three-game losing slide, though, and that came in the form of Nate Jawai. He has shown glimpses he could still dominate at NBL game in limited minutes so far this season, but that turned into a vastly bigger role on Thursday and he turned match-winner.

With Sydney missing import centre Jarell Martin, Jawai had a day out putting up a season-high 22 points, six rebounds and three assists while shooting an outstanding 10/12 from the field even while only spending 15:35 on the court.

Fabijan Krslovic came up huge too in the continued absence of Majok Deng with a career-best 15 points, 10 rebounds and three steals on a perfect 6/6 shooting.

They provided the support Scott Machado (24 points, four assists) and Cam Oliver (12 points, four boards) have been craving all season with Mirko Djeric going 4/8 from distance for 12 points.

Jordan Ngatai hit a couple of threes too for six points with Kouat Noi adding four points and five rebounds, and George Blagojevic one point and an assist.

Cairns coach Mike Kelly was full of praise for Jawai who was at the centre of the win.

"Nate was clutch for us. I love the kind of spirit he came out to play with it and it translated to getting buckets - a good combination," Kelly said.

"He's always a great target and when we got rolling our guys felt great about it. We tried to run simple stuff that ended up with looks for Nate and he made hay.

"He has been rounding into form and tonight he was really big and we wouldn't have won without his great contribution ... it was his time to shine tonight."

The game started on the right note for the Taipans with an offensive rebound and putback from Cam Oliver. But not so much when Jordan Hunter did the same for Sydney up the other end and then the Kings couldn't miss from beyond the arc to lead 16-8, and still 28-21.

Fabijan Krslovic had done his best to keep Cairns close with seven points before Nate Jawai came on for five quick points and then Scott Machado pulled the Snakes within two points by quarter-time.

Machado and Cam Oliver then put the Taipans in front to start the second period as they completed a run of nine consecutive points. The lead grew to seven after triples from Machado and Mirko Djeric before Jawai dominated again with three strong inside makes.

Djeric hit another triple for Cairns to lead 51-41 at the half on the back of 21 rebounds to 12 and six offensive boards to three.

Sydney shot its way back into the contest in the third term but the Taipans maintained a lead thanks to a couple of three-point bombs from Jordan Ngatai, and three more strong buckets from Jawai.

The lead was still six coming into the fourth but it soon dissipated and the Kings were up four when DJ Vasiljevic hit yet another three with three minutes remaining.

The Snakes had to dig deep and they did going on an 8-0 run to regain the lead on the back of three balls from Machado and Djeric. Jawai then scored a big bucket, Krslovic did the same and the Taipans had done enough to win by four.

It was a confidence boosting showing from the Snakes who now take on the Adelaide 36ers at the NBL Cup on Saturday.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 8
NBL CUP WEEK 3

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 96 (Machado 24, Jawai 22, Krslovic 15)

SYDNEY KINGS 92 (Vasiljevic 32, Ware 28, Hunter 11) 

POINTS AWARDED – Cairns Taipans 4, Sydney Kings 3

BOX SCORE