McCall’s Fight for Taipans’ Title Dream

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Cairns Taipans’ leader Tahjere McCall defied doctors’ orders in Friday night’s Game 2 win, putting his body on the line for the club’s championship dream.

The Taipans won 93-82 in Game 2 of the best-of-three Playoff series against the Sydney Kings, bringing the series to an even 1-1. The decisive Game 3 is tomorrow at 2pm AEDT.

Coach Adam Forde praised McCall’s courageous efforts on Friday night, and highlighted McCall’s decision as the definition of the qualities the Snakes entail.

“Tahj was massive, for him to come out and defy doctors’ orders, it’s just what this team is. They’re gritty, they’re tough and they know what’s on the line,” Forde said.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">McCall splashes his second three of the night ?<br>He's up to 12 points!<br><br>? <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cairnstaipans</a> | ? <a href="https://twitter.com/espn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@espn</a> <a href="https://t.co/PnKAxidDpd">pic.twitter.com/PnKAxidDpd</a></p>— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans/status/1626513445809192961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Taipans’ guard was crucial against Sydney, fighting his way through 32-minutes of playing time and recordinng 20 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.

After sustaining a shoulder injury in the Seeding Qualifier against the Tasmania JackJumpers, McCall missed out on the Play-In game against the Perth Wildcats and Game 1 of the Playoff series against the Kings.

McCall passed his fitness test to suit up for Game 2 and heavily impacted the game, showing Sydney the Playoff series is not over.

Forward Lat Mayen spoke on the importance of the Snakes’ ‘playing for each other’ mindset, and applauded McCall’s loyalty for the team.

Mayen scored 12 points and grabbed 6 rebounds for Cairns, putting everything on the line to assist the Taipans in securing a win.

“It makes us want to go out there and play hard for each other, when somebody’s down they just keep going,” Mayen said.

“We always want to play hard for each other and that’s exactly what he did and we wanted to do the same thing in return.”

The Game 3 decider against the Kings tips-off on Sunday at 2:00pm AEDT. The winner will advance to the best-of-five Championship Series to go head-to-head with either New Zealand or Tasmania to decide who will be crowned the NBL23 champions.

Catch Sunday’s game live and free on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.