"I Think They've Got More": NBL Champion Bullish on Taipans' Game Two Prospects

The Cairns Taipans fired a strong shot across the bow of the Sydney Kings in Wednesday’s opening game of their Playoff series, but a third quarter blip from the Snakes saw the home side emerge victorious to take a 1-0 series lead.

The Kings went into half-time on the wrong side of a nine-point margin, but an electric 27-10 third quarter laid down the platform for them to take the crucial first game of the series.

Xavier Cooks put together a monstrous 27-point and 14 rebound double-double to lead his side to victory, but former NBL champion Damon Lowery believes the Taipans have enough left in the tank to take the series to a third game.

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“I think they’ve got more in the gun,” Lowery said on NBL Today. “Bul Kuol can’t get out of his own way sometimes – he got himself in foul trouble when they needed him desperately, and they needed Shannon Scott to step up and produce.

“Cairns took an almighty swing but in the end the Kings were just too strong … I think they’ve got more, but we’ll see what they’ve got at home.”

It was that third quarter that was the crucial period in the game. After dropping 59 points in the first half the Taipans wilted not only under the weight of the Kings’ defensive pressure, but under the weight of their own offence.

What was a free-flowing, electric offence in the first half turned into a stagnant, stale offence in the second.

Lowery says if the Taipans are any chance to defeat the Kings in Sunday’s contest, they need to figure out a plan b.

“I have to credit the Kings for hanging in there, but the Cairns Taipans are their own worst enemy,” he said.

“The way they play when it’s really rolling and they’re taking quick shots – it’s fine when you’re making shots, but when ou’re missing those shots you can’t be stagnant.

“It got stagnant, a lot of iso ball, and it played right into the Kings’ hands.

“The Kings were able to run the floor, get stops, get down in transition, and Xavier Cooks just turned it on.”

Both teams now head to Cairns for the second game of the series on Friday at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.