Defensive Improvement Priority One for Forde, Taipans

Cairns coach Adam Forde has vowed to fix the issues that plagued his side in the second half of last night’s Playoff series game against Sydney, as the Taipans scored just 28 points combined in the final two quarters.

After scoring 58 points in the first half – largely thanks to the hot hand of Jonah Antonio – the Taipans struggled to replicate the performance in the second stanza of the game, and All-NBL First Team selections Derrick Walton Jr and Xavier Cooks put them to the sword.

The game started largely as expected, as a high-paced, offensive shootout, but the Taipans’ dip in the third quarter allowed Sydney to take the ascendency.

Forde says the team’s performance on the defensive end will be looked at first.

“It was always going to be a question as to whether or not out shooting was sustainable,” Forde said post-game. “The big issue we had was we gave up 50 at the half, and that was the main concern we talked about.

“We made some errors at both ends of the floor, we lost a bit of composure, chirping on the floor and so forth.

“The good thing was we were able to regain a little composure and keep it relatively close with a couple of chances to take the lead back in the fourth. We just couldn’t make it happen.”

After blowing up for 32 points in the Play-In game against Perth DJ Hogg put together another strong offensive performance.

He finished with a team-high 24 points for the game despite shooting just 14 per cent from three.

Hogg agrees with the sentiment that the side’s improvement ahead of Friday’s Game 2 needs to come on the defensive end.

“Defence leads to good offence for us, and they kept us in the half-court because we had to keep taking the ball out and then bring it up slowly,” Hogg said,

“Our backs are against the wall once again, so we have to play better – especially all 40 minutes – but we’re confident still … we’ll be ready.”

Injuries to Tahjere McCall and Keanu Pinder, plus foul trouble for the likes of Hogg, Sam Waardenburg, Ben Ayre and Bul Kuol opened up more opportunity for the young duo of Lat Mayen and Jonah Antonio.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">JONAH ANTONIO IS ON FIRE?<br><br>A career-high 1??7?? in the first half and 5?? triples already ?<br><br>Watch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBLFinals?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBLFinals</a> Live &amp; free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/GT06iIuhdu">pic.twitter.com/GT06iIuhdu</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1625789624693178369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

After scoring just 16 points in 11 appearances during the regular season, Mayen started the clash against the Kings and played over 25 minutes.

He’s equalled his regular season points tally in just three games in the post-season.

Forde says he’s choosing to look at the absences of key players as a potential opportunity for emerging stars of his side.

“There was one point I was looking at the floor and we had three rookies out there, and it was kind of cool,” Forde said.

“We had a big-time game and through sheer unfortunate circumstances through injury and foul trouble in that moment when the game was on the line there was Lat, there was Ben (Ayre) and there was Jonah.

“That’s a pretty young and inexperienced line-up out there, so it’s cool to see when guys get that opportunity they capitalise on it.

“If anything it makes me sit back and reflect on where I can get them more opportunities moving forward.”

The second game of Cairns’ Playoff Series against Sydney is on Friday night at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.