Taipans can't quite keep pace at home to United

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans weren’t quite able to maintain pace with the league-leading Melbourne United in their second match of Round 19 on Sunday at Cairns Convention Centre.

Despite having lost their general Scott Machado to injury during Friday's loss in Hobart to the Tasmania JackJumpers, the Taipans were able to stick with the league-leading United for most of the first half.

However, Melbourne put their foot down in the second half on Sunday afternoon at Cairns Convention Centre to retain their spot on top of the NBL standings at 18-7 having now won their past three matches with three to go over the last two weeks.

Melbourne went on a tear with 25 of 29 points during the third quarter to blow the game wide open on the way to the eventual 29-point win.

Tahjere McCall battled away for the Snakes with 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals with Keanu Pinder continuing his outstanding finish to the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The most encouraging sign for the Snakes might have been what Ben Ayre and Brayden Inger provided in the fourth quarter. Ayre earned his first NBL start in Machado's absence and scored all seven of his points in the fourth quarter to go with four assists for the game.

Development player Inger also stepped up to hit his first two three-pointers in the NBL in his 7:34 of court time.

Majok Deng also had eight points and two blocks for the Taipans, Nate Jawai six points and five rebounds, Bul Kuol four points, three steals and two boards, Jordan Ngatai two points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists, and Kouat Noi two points and two boards.

Taipans coach Adam Forde wants to see his team pull together better now over the last four games starting away to Perth and Melbourne.

"There's a lot of guys who should know better and unfortunately we just didn’t play very well. We didn’t play very good," Forde said.

"I think there's a lot going on and there's guys right now that are thinking about themselves when it comes to salary and their expectation of what they're entitled to, and deserving of. That plays into a lot of guys. It does start to weigh on you.

"You can have that from one or two guys, but we had everybody have a bad game tonight. There's something to take from that whether it is the outside noise or whether it is whatever they're being told individually. 

"We have a job to do and we didn’t represent the jersey and didn’t give it the respect that it deserved tonight. That's how that game played out."

Majok Deng and Chris Goulding harked back to that Grand Final series of 2018 by trading threes to open the game but the Snakes were bringing the energy firstly inside from Keanu Pinder and then Nate Jawai. Melbourne eventually worked on top closing the first term on a 9-4 run to lead 26-20.

It was tough going to start the second term for Melbourne with Cairns managing to score seven straight points before a four-point play got the visitors back on track.

Goulding went into half-time with the 13 points on 4/5 shooting from deep, but it continued to be the work inside from Pinder and Jawai that kept the Taipans in touch to limit Melbourne's lead to 43-38 at the half-time break.

While the game was in the balance still at half-time, that didn’t remain the case for long with United coming out in dominant to start the second half. Melbourne turned up the heat defensively of which Cairns had no answer and then United took full advantage.

Melbourne went on a run of scoring 10 straight points capped off with another Goulding triple as the lead grew to 15. United then went on another run of 13 consecutive points this time capped by a three from Mason Peatling.

That saw the lead grow to 26 and it was still 23 by three quarter-time. Ben Ayre gave the Taipans some bright moments in the fourth quarter knocking down another three and scoring another two points, but Melbourne was not in the mood to take their foot off the gas.

Lual-Acuil took Jawai up high and was able to score a couple more buckets and Melbourne's lead grew out to as much as 32 points before they won the game by 29 to retain top spot.

The Taipans are on the road in Round 20 to play the Perth Wildcats on Saturday and then Melbourne United again in Melbourne on Monday before finishing with two home games to the Sydney Kings and Brisbane Bullets.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 19

CQUNIVERSITY CAIRNS TAIPANS 63 (McCall 15, Pinder 13, Ayre 7)

MELBOURNE UNITED 92 (Lual-Acuil 21, Goulding 20, White 12) 

BOX SCORE