Round 9: Taipans v 36ers

CQUniversity Cairns Taipans v Adelaide 36ers
(Adelaide Entertainment Centre, 6:30pm)
Watch live on ESPN via Kayo Sports or Foxtel
Watch together at the Reef Hotel Casino (official away game venue)

LAST MEETING

This is the first meeting between these teams for the season, which will have been bookmarked by three Taipans players that started their NBL careers in Adelaide – Keanu Pinder, Majok Deng and Ben Ayre.

LOOK FOR

KP to go off against his former team and continue his MVP-form. Last season when Cairns faced Adelaide, Keanu Pinder posted a double-double of 15 points and 14 rebounds on his way to earning the "Most Improved Player" award. More recently on Monday, Pinder posted a new career-high 30 points and alongside his father Tiny, became the third father/son combo to score 30 in a NBL game along with the Bruton’s and Black’s. 

Pinder leads the NBL at free-throw attempts per game at 7.2 per game – the most by any Cairns player in the 40-minute format. He is making free-throws at a career best 73.4 per cent. 

LINE-UP 

With Mirko Djeric returning from injury, the Taipans have a full roster available for the first time this season. Cairns did not have a full roster for any of their 28 games last season, or the 26 games before that. This is a streak of 65 games since Cairns last had a full-strength roster, making it also the first time Adam Forde has had his entire line-up available as Head Coach of the Taipans.

LATEST WORDS

“We’re trying to keep everyone level-headed. Every new day, we try to out-work and out-hustle the previous day. We’re not listening to the outside noise. We’re focused on what we need to achieve, which next is a win against Adelaide.

“They’re a talented line-up. Franks is a fantastic shooter from the perimeter, Cleveland getting downhill, McCarron – they’ve got a very deep team. This is heavily based on how we can guard them one-on-one and stop their easy points. We’ve just got to execute our style of play,” – Taipans assistant coach Sam Gruggen