Snake Eyes – Taipans v Kings NBL Cup

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans resume hostilities with the Sydney Kings to open their Week 3 at the NBL Cup on Thursday with the Snakes determined to bounce back from two tough defeats.

The Taipans have already hosted the Kings twice this season at Cairns Pop-Up Arena with the teams splitting the results as they now prepare to lock horns as part of the NBL Cup with this game held at Melbourne's State Basketball Centre.

The Snakes are coming into the game following two 20-point losses in Week 2 of the NBL Cup against the Perth Wildcats and Brisbane Bullets to leave them with a 1-3 record with nine points to their credit at the tournament within a season in Melbourne.

Cairns holds an overall 3-9 record on the NBL season overall as well highlighting the importance of Thursday's clash with Sydney before a short turnaround to facing the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday.

Here are five things to keep an eye out for:

1. THE NEED FOR A STRONG RESPONSE
There can be no hiding from it, two 20-point losses back to back is far from ideal and the Cairns Taipans need to respond strongly Thursday against the Sydney Kings

The two games last week against the Perth Wildcats and Brisbane Bullets weren’t what the Cairns Taipans were after, but the beauty of the NBL Cup is that you don't need to wait long for a chance to hit back.

Coming into that double-header last week, the Taipans were playing some good basketball. They started the NBL Cup with a win over the Illawarra Hawks and then they played well and were on top of most of the game against Melbourne United before a narrow defeat.

So there really wasn’t any sign of what was to come and even at half-time the Snakes were right in the game against the Wildcats down just two points. However they were outscored 46 to 28 in the second half and then couldn’t stem the tide either two days later against the Bullets.

Brisbane ended up putting 115 points on Cairns to win by 20 making it the first time the Taipans have lost consecutive games by 20 points or more since January 2005.

The Taipans only lost by 20 points or more once in all of last season and that just happened to be in the last game of the regular season against the Bullets with the Snakes having already secured a playoff spot and being unable to move from third position on the table.

But now the Snakes can learn those tough lessons from the defeats to Perth and Brisbane, and put into practice what they've learned and deliver an improved showing against the Kings to avoid a fourth straight defeat.

2. IT HAS TO START ON THE DEFENSIVE END
For any response to be successful, the Taipans need to find a way to defend better having conceded 161 points over the last six quarters in the NBL Cup

For the Taipans to provide the response they are after and put in a strong showing against the Kings on Thursday, it has to be on the back of a vastly improved defensive performance.

The Snakes conceded 115 points against the Bullets on Sunday with Brisbane having a field day shooting 52 per cent from the field and 45 per cent from the three-point line on the back of a monstrous 17 more rebounds and seven extra offensive boards.

Cairns is now conceding 91.5 points a game this season to be only just behind the Bullets in that category and one of just two teams to be giving up over 90 points a game.

It's troubling that the Snakes are only forcing their opponents into 9.7 turnovers a game as well this season to be the only team not getting their opponents to at least turn it over on 10 occasions.

While the Taipans opponents are only shooting 44.0 per cent from the field and 35.8 per cent from three-point range, they shoot the best against any team at the foul line versus Cairns going at 79.0 per cent.

There is no hiding that the defence of the Taipans needs to improve and that all became more evident while conceding 115 points to the Bullets on Sunday.

Coach Mike Kelly is certainly well aware of that and he knows the importance of them improving at the defensive end starting against the Kings.

"The defence is a huge concern and if we don’t fix it the season will slip away," Kelly said.

"It's definitely something that we are trying to address urgently and the guys know what needs to be done. They know what we need to do so we'll keep pressing and try to be better defensively."

3. WHICH HAS TO INCLUDE BEING BETTER ON THE GLASS
Rebounding and especially conceding offensive rebounds was a big factor in the losses for the Taipans against the Wildcats and Bullets, and it's a trend that can't continue

Any improvement on defence for the Taipans needs to have a major focus on a better rebounding performance.

That was clearly on show in Sunday's loss to the Bullets with Brisbane pulling in 45 rebounds for the game to just 28 for Cairns.

That included the Bullets dominating the offensive glass with 15 rebounds at that end which gave them a whole host of extra looks from which they scored 17 second chance points.

In contrast to that, the Taipans had just eight offensive rebounds for 12 second chance points.

And even though the numbers weren’t as stark two days earlier against the Perth Wildcats, the 'Cats did pull in 14 offensive rebounds for 21 second chance points while the Taipans had 15 offensive boards but only turned that into eight second chance points.

Overall this season that means that Cairns are conceding the most rebounds against them this season with their opponents averaging 40.0 boards a game. That includes a league worst 12.2 on the offensive glass as well so it is now an on-going trend.

Opposed to that, the Taipans are averaging 36.8 rebounds a game to be fifth in the league and 10.7 offensive boards to be fourth in the NBL across the 2021 season.

There's nothing more frustrating for a coach than seeing his team being outrebounded and Mike Kelly is no different.

"It seemed liked in the first half we tried to let them make shots so there wouldn’t be a lot of balls to rebound, but they still got a lot of offensive rebounds even on the few misses they had," Kelly said.

"It's an issue that you address and guys have to be constantly thinking about hitting bodies and boxing guys out, and then gang rebounding as a team. We're not doing that right now consistently. 

"The Bullets made us pay and they are big, long and athletic, and were very aggressive offensively and then then the ones they did miss they went after. i applaud them for their effort on the offensive boards and we simply have to give more effort and attention to it."

4. OFFENCE ISN'T AS MUCH OF A CONCERN
Scoring 95 points last up against the Bullets suggests the Taipans were executing relatively well offensively so that's not as big a concern coming into the Kings clash

While the Taipans can certainly execute better at the offensive end, that's not as much of a concern right now for coach Mike Kelly as fixing things up defensively and on the boards.

That doesn’t mean the Snakes aren’t still looking at ways to run the offence better, to take better looks and getting the right shots, and overall executing things a lot better with the ball in their hands.

The second half offensive showing for just 28 points against the Perth Wildcats wasn’t exactly pretty, but at that end of the floor anyway things did improve two days later against the Brisbane Bullets.

The fact can't be ignored that it was still a 20-point defeat, but Cairns did put up 95 points themselves on the back of shooting 47 per cent from the field, 41 per cent from the three-point line and getting to the foul line on 28 occasions where they made 21 at 75 per cent.

Scott Machado was at the centre of all of that with 26 points and seven assists while Cam Oliver fought into the game for 21 points and six rebounds. Kouat Noi added 11 points, Nate Jawai nine, Jordan Ngatai seven and Mirko Djeric.

Scoring 95 points on any ordinary night is going to lead to a victory more often than not for the Snakes and teams that have scored 95 points or more have a 14-6 record across the league this season.

Kelly was happy with some of what he saw offensively against the Bullets so his focus will be on improving the team defensively first and foremost on Thursday against the Kings.

"I thought especially in the first half we were able to run what we wanted to run. We actually had a pretty good first half offensively but we were still down nine because we couldn’t defend or stop anything," Kelly said. 

"We tried to stop everything and didn’t stop anything. I was happy that we got ourselves in the right space and attacked, and made some shots and got to the foul line some. Again it's going to come back to the defensive side of the ball for us to be a team that competes in this league."

5. RENEWING HOSTILITIES WITH THE KINGS
The Taipans and Kings had fascinating battles a season ago as two playoff bound teams, and then to start #NBL21 it was the same in two meetings at the pop-up

Thursday at the NBL Cup in Melbourne will already be the third time that the Cairns Taipans and Sydney Kings have met this season.

The two teams played out two thrilling games at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena to start the season and that came on the back of some spirited clashes between two finals bound outfits a season ago.

Cairns opened the 2019/20 season at home to Sydney and while it was an eight point loss, it did offer a glimpse into what this new-look Taipans team was going to be capable of as the season unfolded.

The next meeting was in Sydney on December 8 and the Snakes turned it on to defeat the Kings 109-98 on the back of 31 points from DJ Newbill, 22 from Kouat Noi, 21 from Scott Machado, 12 from Cam Oliver and 11 from Mirko Djeric.

The third and final contest of the season was on January 11 and that was a nine-point victory in Sydney for the Kings despite 18 points from Majok Deng, 16 from Machado, 15 from Newbill and 14 from Djeric.

Then once again to open the 2021 season, it was the Taipans hosting the Kings at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena. It was a nail-biter with the Snakes winning 87-86 on the back of 17 points and eight assists from Machado along with Djeric's 15 points, Deng's 13, Noi's 12 and Oliver's 12.

In the second game, Angus Glover joined Xavier Cooks, Daniel Kickert and Didi Louzada on the injured brigade for Sydney during that game, but the Kings held on for the win despite a spirited Taipans fightback. 

It was on the back of a wonderful combination developing between point guard Casper Ware and Jarell Martin who put up 22 points apiece while Oliver did what he could for the Snakes having 27 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Both teams have now played four games in quick succession in the opening two weeks at the NBL Cup and while they are both coming off last up losses, the Sydney Kings went close against Melbourne United while the Cairns Taipans have had to stew over disappointing showings against the Perth Wildcats and Brisbane Bullets.