Taipans at an early-season crossroads, says Forde

Kenfrost Homes Cairns Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde says his side has reached an important early-season crossroads and must become more resilient after Wednesday night’s 98-75 NBL Ignite Cup loss to the New Zealand Breakers.

The Taipans showed promising signs early at Spark Arena, fighting back from a seven-point deficit to briefly take the lead early in the second quarter.

However, the Breakers took control as the game progressed, leaving Forde disappointed with how his side responded when New Zealand increased its physicality.

“We're not at a good spot at the moment, and the big thing is it's all on the mental side,” Forde said post-match.

“We knew this stretch was going to be a tough part of the schedule, and it doesn't get any easier in a couple of days, but there's no game that's going to be easy.

“This was a moment to really build some resilience, and we don't have that.”

ANSWERING THE CHALLENGE

Forde said Cairns had shown glimpses of the response he was looking for but needed to find a way to consistently withstand pressure when momentum shifted.

“They (Breakers) bullied us. And that's probably the difference is when we get pushed, are we going to push back? And we haven't pushed back,” he said.

“There's been a couple of times, we maybe step up and match the physicality.”

Forde pointed to rebounding and the Taipans’ inability to turn defensive stops into opportunities in transition as areas that hurt his side.

“We're constantly inbounding the ball, we're not securing that stop and getting out on attack break,” he said.

“We're not designed to be that half-court team.”

DEFENSE THE PRIORITY

Rather than relying on offense to turn games, Forde wants the Taipans to create more opportunities through their work at the defensive end.

“Right now, we're sending teams to the foul line too often and we're constantly inbounding the ball,” he said.

“The problem is we're relying on the offense to do it, and what we need to do is probably lock them down a little bit more on the defensive end and do a better job.”

With Cairns now heading to Victoria to face Melbourne United at John Cain Arena on Saturday night, Forde believes the current challenges can become an important turning point for his group.

“We're battling some ghosts at the moment and it's all going to be a good topic to look back on and say, ‘this is a crossroads for us’, where we recognise where our deficiencies are and we improve on it,” he said.

“We've got to be a little bit more robust.”