Snake Eyes – Taipans v Hawks NBL Cup

The Cairns Taipans played eight games in four weeks to open the 2021 NBL season but now enter the NBL Cup over the next month fresh to begin the tournament on Saturday in Melbourne against the Illawarra Hawks.

The opening five weeks of the season all took place in the traditional home and away format, but the world is anything but a normal place right now and that saw the Taipans play seven of their opening eight matches at home at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena.

It turned out to be a mixed bag and in the middle of it the Taipans did suffer a six-game losing streak. But they began the season with a win over the Sydney Kings and then finished that first period of the season with a bounce back win against the New Zealand Breakers.

The Taipans were scheduled to get to Victoria a week earlier and take on Melbourne United last Saturday in Bendigo, but that game didn’t go ahead and now the Snakes have had an extra full week back at home in Cairns to prepare for the NBL Cup.

The NBL Cup will run in Melbourne for the next month with each team playing one another once, and it's the Taipans who open proceedings on Saturday afternoon against the Illawarra Hawks at John Cain Arena.

Here are five things to look out for to get you ready for the clash:

1. READY TO GO AFTER LONG LAYOFF
Following a hectic first month of the NBL season, the Taipans are now raring to go again having not played in almost two weeks heading into Saturday's NBL Cup opener

The Cairns Taipans played eight games over the opening four rounds of the NBL season, and now ironically that's what they have ahead of them at the NBL Cup in Melbourne over the next month. 

While seven of the eight games were at home for the Taipans at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to breathe in between those opening eight games of the 2021 NBL season.

Those eight games were played within the space of 23 days but now the Taipans have not played a game since beating the New Zealand Breakers 84-71 on Monday February 8.

So by the time they hit the John Cain Arena court on Saturday afternoon, it will have been 12 days since that last game and they will be fresh and raring to go against the Illawarra Hawks in the opening contest of the NBL Cup.

At one stage during the opening four rounds, Cairns played five matches in the time period now that has gone since their last game.

The great positive has been that the Taipans have had a chance to have plenty of training sessions where they have been able to focus on just getting better rather than particularly preparing for an upcoming game or particular opponent.

That is a rare thing to get to experience in the middle of a season and now the Snakes will hope to benefit on Saturday once they open up the NBL Cup against the Hawks.

2. FOCUS ON RUFFLING HAWKS' FEATHERS
Even dating back a season, the Taipans have had their troubles with the Hawks but they look to change that to make a winning start to the NBL Cup

For whatever reason, the Cairns Taipans haven’t enjoyed playing the Illawarra Hawks over the last 18 months but that's something the Snakes hope changes given the neutral venue of Saturday's clash.

This will be the first time that the Taipans and Hawks have ever played one another in Melbourne and it's the first time since 1984 that two non-Victorian teams have ever played in the city. On that occasion, Canberra Cannons beat the Brisbane Bullets in the Grand Final.

But for the Taipans to get on the winner's list on Saturday, they are going to have to turn around the recent run of games between them and the Hawks.

The Hawks might have claimed the wooden spoon a season ago winning just five games and finishing with a nine-game losing slide, but they had a good time against the Taipans winning three of the four meetings.

Illawarra won a one-point thriller first up in Wollongong before winning by 10 points and then in a dramatic contest 114-106 back home on November 25.

The Taipans would turn their season around from there ending up one game from the Grand Final and that did include a last up win over Illawarra 99-75 on January 31 as they were gearing up for that playoff run and the Hawks were crying out for the season to end.

But now the Hawks have already played the Taipans twice and notched two wins this season with both those games played up in Cairns. Back in Round 1, Illawarra won 92-76 and then backed it up two weeks later prevailing 90-70.

Both those games were disappointing for the Taipans but included tremendous Illawarra showings from Tyler Harvey, Justinian Jessup, Sam Froling, Deng Deng and Justin Simon especially.

It will take a turnaround in a few areas for the Taipans to win over the Hawks, but coach Mike Kelly is looking forward to the challenge.

"The Hawks are a really physical, tough team with great skilled guys on the offensive end," Kelly said.

"It's a challenge but I think if we play the way we want to play and address our issues then it's going to be a great contest."

3. SNAKES BACK TO FULL STRENGTH
The benefit of the break between the last game of Round 4 and the opening of the NBL Cup is that the Snakes will be now at full strength heading into Saturday

Mirko Djeric started his NBL career with the Illawarra Hawks and now he'll make his return on Saturday against his former team with the Taipans after a hamstring injury.

The Taipans sharpshooter missed the past two games Cairns played at home to the New Zealand Breakers on the back of a good start to the season in a starting role for the shooting guard.

Djeric had been averaging 11.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists a game before the injury in the first six games he played while as always providing his usual energy, passion and exuberance.

Jordan Ngatai did a good job by taking Djeric's spot in the starting line-up for the Taipans and the benefit is going to be that he should now feel more comfortable in his role in the rotation in his first season at the Snakes now too.

But last week's scheduled game in Bendigo against Melbourne United being cancelled has meant that Djeric has had an extra week of training and to make sure his hamstring is 100 per cent ready to go for the NBL Cup.

Taipans coach Mike Kelly is looking forward to having Djeric back out there come Saturday.

"Mirko has been great," Kelly said.

"You can get there where the physio says you are good and the doctor says you are OK but mentally it still takes a little while to play and feel great. He's at that spot now and he's ready to go."

4. TAIPANS EXCITED TO EMBRACE NBL CUP
Spending a month away from home with a trophy available to be won, prizemoney up for grabs and eight wins possible has Taipans star Scott Machado excited for the NBL Cup

If you know Scott Machado, then you know the bigger the challenge then the more he rises to the occasion and that's why the Taipans superstar is so looking forward to the NBL Cup.

There is every chance for the Taipans to rack up eight wins against every NBL opponent over the next four weeks, to win the inaugural NBL Cup trophy, claim the winner's prize cheque of $150,000 and put themselves in a positive win-loss record in the overall season standings.

That's what is possible and Machado sees no reason why the Taipans shouldn’t be entering the NBL Cup shooting to achieve all of that.

Machado has started his second season in the NBL season in tremendous form producing 17.0 points, 9.9 assists and 3.9 rebounds a game with those numbers suggesting he's performing better than a season ago where he was runner-up MVP and named to the All-NBL First Team.

First up for Machado is a fascinating point guard match up with Tyler Harvey from the Illawarra Hawks, but in the bigger picture he is excited for what lies ahead in terms of the opportunity with the NBL Cup over the next month in Melbourne for the Snakes.

"It's exciting and you have to make the best of it. You have to come out here and just make sure you are ready to play some basketball, and remember the task at hand and enjoy it as much as you can," Machado said.

"The guys are excited with the points system and obviously we need to win some games. We had a big home stretch so we get to spend some time away from home now and these road games will be good for us."

5. THE START OF A UNIQUE MONTH
The NBL Cup is operating for the first ever time over the next month and the Taipans will be part of history by taking part in the first game on Saturday against the Hawks

The Cairns Taipans open the NBL Cup on Saturday against the Illawarra Hawks at Melbourne's John Cain Arena in the beginning of a month long tournament within a season like the NBL has never experienced before.

Over the course of the next four weeks, all nine NBL clubs will play one another once in Melbourne with each game day featuring double-header matches.

In an intriguing twist, not only will the nine teams be competing to win the NBL Cup but the wins and losses recorded during the tournament will count towards the overall season standings.

In terms of the NBL Cup, the winning team following the 36 games in a month will receive $150,000 while the runner-up team gets $100,000 and the third placed team $50,000.

But how the winners will be determined won't quite be as simple as the win-loss record accumulated across the eight games each team will play.

A points system will be used throughout the NBL Cup and quite simply the teams with the most points racked up, will finish higher on the final table.

The team that wins each game will receive three points but then one point is available to be won each and every quarter that is played. The team that outscores the other in any quarter receives a point while if a quarter is tied the point is split in half.

So each game has seven points available to be won with the three given to the winning team and one point on the line each and every quarter.

That should make for some fascinating viewing because even if a game is ever out of reach in the second half, the team behind can still come out of the game with a couple of points which could end up crucial in where they finish for the NBL Cup.

It presents a real chance for the Taipans to get their season back on track following the 2-6 start acrost the opening four rounds.

It all begins on Saturday against the Illawarra Hawks before then facing Melbourne United on Monday.

Then next week the Taipans face the Perth Wildcats on Friday and Brisbane Bullets on Sunday. The following week it will be the Sydney Kings and Adelaide 36ers, and in the final week of the NBL Cup the Snake take on the New Zealand Breakers and South East Melbourne Phoenix.