No excuses as Snakes just look to step up

There are no excuses from CQUniversity Cairns Taipans coach Mike Kelly for the start to the 2021 NBL season, but he is glad to now have a week in between games to prepare for a double-header in Round 4 at home to the New Zealand Breakers.

It's been a hectic schedule to start the new season for Snakes with six games across the opening three rounds.

It started well enough with a win over the Sydney Kings but the five losses since with two against the Hawks and one each against the Kings, Melbourne United and Brisbane Bullets mean that the Taipans return home this week looking to get things back on track.

A double against the Breakers at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena on Saturday and Monday nights are the next opportunities for the Taipans.

While Kelly is happy to have a week long preparation, the short turnarounds aren't an excuse for a losing run.

"These guys just love to play and if you're playing good basketball, and consistent basketball games then it can be an advantage," Kelly said.

"We've been up and down so we haven’t been able to capitalise on having a bunch of games in-a-row, but that's on us. We need to play better and I think the schedule is fine how it is, we just have to step up to play great basketball.

"The schedule changing is just something you have to adjust to quickly. We thought we were going to play Brisbane again on Saturday, now we're playing New Zealand and it's just something we're all preparing for. 

"We knew coming in that things could turn quickly and we have to be ready to adapt. For us it's fortunate that we have a long week of preparation so we'll be totally prepared for New Zealand."

Last Thursday's home loss to the Hawks was one where the Taipans were keen to quickly move on from, and in their first road game of the season in Brisbane the first half performance against the Bullets was outstanding.

By half-time, the Snakes were leading the Bullets 55-40 and not only was the offence firing going 54 per cent from the field and 8/12 from deep, but they dominated the boards and it was a vastly improved defensive performance.

While the Snakes couldn’t quite maintain that level, they still showed good fight to force overtime and then to continue to make big shots in overtime even with Majok Deng and Cam Oliver having fouled out.

The fact that things were clicking so well at both ends in that first half on Saturday is a positive sign for the Taipans and Kelly, though, as they now have a whole week to build on that heading into the two games in three days against the Breakers.

"We definitely were scoring freely and when we score that kind of covers up all kinds of mistakes on the other end. Defensively we've still got to be more consistent every possession, and fight and finish every possession. That's our goal right now," he said.

"There was a number of things that we took out of the weekend. There were some positives for sure, we scored freely and defended well in the first half especially. 

"I think in the second half we didn’t consistently defend and we made some silly fouls that just let them walk to the line in the fourth quarter.

"I think they had 18 free throws in the fourth quarter alone which might even be a record I don’t know. There are things we need to continue to do better and we need to do that to get some wins."

When things were going so well for the Taipans last season in their run to the playoffs, emotion was a big part of the team's success. 

So to say that being an emotional team now is not a good thing would be an overreaction to a few tough losses, but Kelly would like to see a bit more discipline in certain areas from his group moving forward.

"We are an emotional team at times and if that spills over the wrong way or gets going in the wrong direction, it does come out in bad discipline," Kelly said. 

"I thought we were a little over the edge there a few times with a tech foul, fouling three-point shooters, fouling after turnovers and things like that which made it easy for Brisbane to get to the foul line. 

"I thought they just kept doing what they needed to do and waited for us to make some mistakes discipline-wise and defensively. They capitalised on that."