Snake Eyes – Taipans v Breakers NBL Cup

It was a mixed bag from the CQUniversity Cairns Taipans in Week 3 of the NBL Cup but the Snakes now look to make it a big finish in Melbourne starting Wednesday night against the improving New Zealand Breakers.

The Taipans were able to return to the winner's circle in impressive fashion last Thursday night with a strong win against the Sydney Kings but couldn’t quite back it up two days later against the Adelaide 36ers.

But what the NBL Cup provides is the opportunity to hit back strongly and now the Snakes will conclude their time in Melbourne this week starting on Wednesday against a Breakers team that are a much more confident outfit than last time the Taipans took them on.

Cairns will then finish the NBL Cup against Ryan Broekhoff and the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Friday night, but before that here are the five things to look out for against the Breakers:

1. STRONG RESPONSE THE ORDER OF THE DAY
Nobody was happy with the loss to the Adelaide 36ers but the only way to do anything about it is now for a strong Cairns Taipans showing on Wednesday night

It was an interesting Week 3 at the NBL Cup for the Cairns Taipans. 

Coming into it the Snakes had lost three in-a-row including two straight 20-point defeats at the hands of the Perth Wildcats and Brisbane Bullets, but the response last Thursday against the Sydney Kings was impressive.

Nate Jawai had his best game of the season, Fabijan Krslovic the best game of his career and Mirko Djeric knocked down four three-pointers while Cam Oliver and Scott Machado contributed strongly while enjoying their teammates coming up so huge.

The end result was a 96-92 victory against the Kings and the Taipans deserved to be feeling good about things heading into Saturday night against an Adelaide 36ers team without their starting centre Isaac Humphries and with new import Brandon Paul still in quarantine.

But it turned out to be a night to largely forget for the Snakes with Adelaide going on to win the game 81-71.

That leaves the Taipans with a 2-4 record in the NBL Cup with two games remaining this week and a 4-10 record overall on the season. But the positive is there are still 22 games to go this regular season so there remains plenty of time to get things back on track.

The Taipans have now lost four of the last five games after a strong home win against New Zealand and then starting the NBL Cup beating the Illawarra Hawks. 

But as we saw last Thursday against the Kings, the Snakes look good when everything clicks and there's no reason that can't happen again on Wednesday against the Breakers to start building some momentum again.

2. CONFIDENCE STILL STRONG IN TAIPANS CAMP
Taipans coach Mike Kelly hasn’t lost confidence in his group and nor should he with 22 games remaining this season

Cairns Taipans coach Mike Kelly put together the team this season with full confidence of what they could deliver, and while it has been a bit of a rocky start, his confidence remains strong in regards to what they are capable of.

Kelly has full faith that he has the right group together that can deliver for the Taipans this season and that's even with regular starting power forward Majok Deng sidelined.

They have two outstanding imports providing one of the best bigs in the league with Cam Oliver and a record-setting point guard in Scott Machado.

Kouat Noi is developing all the time, Mirko Djeric is a strong contributor in a number of areas, Fabijan Krslovic is growing in confidence all the time, Jordan Ngatai is in career-best form, Jarrod Kenny provides important minutes, Nate Jawai can still dominate and contribute, and then George Blagojevic and Mojave King have roles to play.

So there's every reason for Kelly to remain fully confident in what this group is capable of, but he just needs to start to see them being able to put together 40 minutes of consistent basketball on a regular basis.

He has been crying out for that for some time now and it's time for the playing group to heed the call.

"I'm confident that we can play good basketball. I just want to see it for 40 minutes as a group," Kelly said. 

"Regardless of the Breakers who are playing good basketball and scoring freely right now, we just need to be a more consistent basketball team. 

"I'm confident in this group and I didn’t have a lot to say immediately after that last game in the locker room other than let's stay together and we'll find a way. But we know we'll have to be better than that to beat the Breakers."

3. TAIPANS NEXT STAR OFFERS GLIMPSE INTO FUTURE
There was great fanfare surrounding Mojave King after his signing with the Taipans and he showed a glimpse into what a bright future he has on Saturday against the 36ers

There was great excitement when the Cairns Taipans signed Mojave King in the off-season as the first Next Star player to come to the Snakes.

King is a player considered to have a remarkably bright future and that is likely to include an opportunity in the NBA at one point or another, but like any rookie it has been a first season as a professional with its ups and downs.

There is no question surrounding the talents that King possesses. He has all the physical tools in the world with good size, incredible athleticism and ability to both shoot the ball and make plays off the dribble.

But putting that together in a game of professional basketball is something every rookie adjusts to at different levels, but based on what King delivered on Saturday night against the Adelaide 36ers, he's ready to start delivering more with the Taipans.

King came on late in the first quarter and made an immediate impact by knocking down two three-pointers. He then knocked down another three ball early in the second quarter and that meant the Sixers had to lock down and close out on him.

That helped him to make a spectacular play late in the game too where he up faked his defender drove around him and went all the way to the rack where he threw it down emphatically with two hands.

The fact that he knocked down three triples and made a play off the dribble for the dunk in the one game meant it was likely his most encouraging performance of his NBL career to date even though he did have 12 points and four rebounds earlier in the season against the Sydney Kings.

King himself has stayed positive right the way through the season and kept ready for his name to be called, and hopes more opportunities keep coming his way.

"It feels good after having a few recent games where I perhaps didn’t shoot the ball so well and then to come out in this game and knock some down," King said. 

"I was just glad my teammates were able to find me in my spot and I was able to knock them down. I'm just trying to stay ready and jump at opportunity I get and make the most of it."

4. EXPECT A RESPONSE FROM THE MAESTRO AND SPACE CAM
It wasn’t quite the performance against Adelaide the Taipans have become accustomed to from Cam Oliver and Scott Machado so expect both to hit back hard against New Zealand

Nobody can argue how good Cam Oliver and Scott Machado have been for the Cairns Taipans for a season and-a-half, but both are proud men and will be determined to deliver big performances on Wednesday night.

Oliver and Machado had rare off nights in Saturday night's loss to the Adelaide 36ers with the standout import pairing combining for 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists on shooting 6/18 from the field and 0/7 from three-point range.

Over the course of the season they have been averaging a combined 34.2 points, 13.1 rebounds and 9.6 assists so it's reasonable to expect they are going to hit back hard against the New Zealand Breakers on Wednesday at the NBL Cup.

That game against Adelaide was the first time that Oliver and Machado have both scored in single-figures in one NBL game together so it's reasonable to suggest it's not going to happen again.

But in terms of the overall team, coach Mike Kelly knows it's just important the support that Oliver and Machado are receiving because really for the most part they are delivering on a regular basis.

"We're a different team so we're trying to do it different ways," Kelly said. 

"Last game it was Fab and Nat especially down low and inside, and we had some of those touches down there in this game and we had some attacks on the rim that were good. 

"Then we had other looks for Mojave, Kouat, Mirko and Jordan Ngatai, and we depend on those guys to make shots. We didn’t knock them down consistently as a group."

5. DIFFERENT BREAKERS TEAM FROM A MONTH AGO
The Cairns Taipans entered the NBL Cup on the back of a strong home win against the New Zealand Breakers but plenty has happened with both teams in the month since

The Cairns Taipans played the New Zealand Breakers twice at the pop-up leading into the NBL Cup but that was now a month ago and plenty has changed.

The Taipans and Breakers traded wins inside the space of three days at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena. New Zealand won first up 85-79 before Cairns responded two days later to end the six-game losing streak winning emphatically 84-71.

The Snakes then didn’t play again until the NBL Cup where they have so far won two of six matches coming into Wednesday night against the Breakers.

New Zealand, meanwhile, went on a four-game losing skid on the back of that defeat in Cairns but bounced back in amazing style at the NBL Cup two weeks ago beating the Adelaide 36ers by 44 points. The same Sixers team the Taipans lost to on Saturday.

That was the start of some improved form from the Breakers who went on to beat the Brisbane Bullets a week later and then only narrowly lost to Melbourne United in their last game five days ago.

In a strange way, shortening their rotation in the absence of Rob Loe and Lamar Patterson has worked in favour of the Breakers providing the chance for Tai and Corey Webster to be in control even more while centre Colton Iverson is finding his feet and Finn Delany and Tom Abercrombie are providing what you would expect from them.

A lot of the Breakers success or not rests on the shoulders of the Webster brothers. They have been the top two scorers for the Breakers in each of the last six games and in that period, Corey has scored 135 points and younger brother Tai 131.

They have scored most than 50 per cent of the Breakers points in the last six games and the Taipans can especially expect to see a different Corey Webster than the one they saw in the two games in Cairns a month ago.

He scored just seven and four points in those two games in Cairns. But has now averaged 22.5 points a game in the six matches since while going at a shooting clip of 53.5 per cent.