R21 Preview: Cairns Taipans vs Brisbane Bullets

When: 8pm (AEDT), Saturday 23 April 2022

Where: Cairns Convention Centre

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo; Sky Sport NZ

Who won last time?

Cairns 98 (McCall 21, Kuol 17, Machado 14) d Brisbane 88 (Franks 22, Drmic 14, Deng 13) - Round 16, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

It was the 50th meeting between these two Queensland rivals and it felt like it packed all the action of the first 49 packed into one. The Taipans were running hot from the tip-off en route to a 98-88 win, establishing an early lead that the Brisbane Bullets could never quite peg back. 

The Taipans’ Bul Kuol (17 points, 4/4 from the field) made eight three-pointers in his last trip to Nissan Arena, and hit early from beyond the arc to secure an early seven-point lead (9-2) after just 98 seconds of play. 

By quarter-time it was a 20-point margin. At that stage, it was 32-12 and the Bullets looked punch drunk. With seven of those points coming from Tahjere McCall, who continues to put in every effort for Adam Forde, the offence looked invigorated. It was the Taipans’ best first quarter of the season. McCall would finish with a team-high 21 points along with six assists. 

In the second quarter, we saw a different Bullets team, who reeled off an 11-point run right out of the break. Working his way back into form, Scott Machado had 14 points and six assists by the main break, and it was a nine-point lead (54-45) for the Taipans. Machado didn’t add another point after the second, but did reach a season-high 11 assists. 

A worrying sign for the Bullets was when Cadee (12 points, two assists) fouled out with nearly six minutes left in the third quarter. Keanu Pinder pulled in nine rebounds for Cairns alongside 10 points but fouled out early in the fourth quarter. 

Robert Franks was 5/6 from three-pointers, and had a game-high 22 points. However, he lost his cool in fourth and picked up two rapid-fire fouls to foul out with Cairns up eight before going on to win by 10.

What happened last start?

Both the Taipans and Bullets are coming off losses to the top two teams in the NBL as they attempt to finish challenging and frustrating seasons on a winning note on Saturday night in Far North Queensland.

This will be Brisbane's first game since losing to Melbourne United 88-79 a week previously at John Cain Arena while the Taipans opened Round 21 back on Thursday night with an 87-77 home loss at the hands of the Sydney Kings.

Now they both have one more game left of seasons that haven’t gone to plan and they will be determined to try and finish off on a high note.

The Taipans have won all three previous meetings in the Sunshine Stoush this season, winning 102-94 back on February in Brisbane and 98-88 last up also at Nissan Arena. The Snakes also won at Cairns Convention Centre 73-69 back on February 24.

Brisbane's last game was a week ago in Melbourne where they fought hard against United despite the absence of Nathan Sobey, Tamuri Wigness, Taane Samuel, Isaiah Moss, Tom Digbeu and Ty Harrison.

They still battled valiantly despite the eventual 10-point defeat with 23 points and 10 rebounds from Lamar Patterson, 20 points, six rebounds and six assists from Jason Cadee, 19 points from Anthony Drmic, and 10 points and nine boards from Robert Franks.

Meanwhile, the Taipans began their final round with two home matches with a 10-point defeat to the Kings to mean the Snakes have now lost their past five games following a run of winning straight, and four of five in their best patch of the season.

It's no coincidence that has gone hand in hand with the loss of Scott Machado to an ankle injury while the league's leading rebounder Stephen Zimmerman now hasn’t played since March 13.

Against Sydney on Thursday night, Tahjere McCall had 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals with Bul Kuol contributing 16 points, Majok Deng 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, and Keanu Pinder 12 points, 14 boards and three blocked shots.

Who’s in form?

Tahjere McCall – His energy is infectious and with no Scott Machado in the team for the Taipans, he is asked to have the ball in his hands a lot. At times that is with mixed results as he can be turnover prone and he can like to take ill-advised shots, but he can make a lot of good things happen too. He is a good creator for his teammates, he's good at taking the ball inside and he is good at making things happen defensively to set up some good offensive transitions. He can get himself in foul trouble too but he did a lot of good things on Thursday against Sydney with 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals despite the four turnovers and fouling out.

Anthony Drmic – He had a bit of a tough start to the season coming off an ankle reconstruction, but he is now finishing in good form and is averaging 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists over the past eight matches, which is up on his season averages of 7.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists. He put up 19 points, three rebounds and three assists while hitting 4/9 from beyond the arc a week ago against Melbourne United and will be looking to finish the season off on a positive note now in Cairns on Saturday night.

Who needs to be?

Majok Deng – In many ways, he remains a great untapped talent even though he has played 168 games in the NBL. He has all the tools you could hope for, he is tall and long, he is athlete and quick-footed, and when he is motivated and switched on, he can be a good rebounder and defender. His shooting touch for someone with his length makes him mighty tough to stop too and the longer he's in the league, the better he is getting at finishing at the rim. However, clearly coach Adam Forde has become growingly frustrated with how he doesn’t always deliver on what he's capable of and isn't always switched on to do what his team needs. He needs a big finish to the season on Saturday night especially with a tough match up on Robert Franks from the Bullets.

Isaiah Moss – It goes without saying that his first season in the NBL hasn’t gone to plan. It got off to a delayed start with a badly torn hamstring and since coming into the Bullets' line-up he has never really got going. He is managing just the 4.3 points a game while shooting 23.8 per cent from three-point range when he arrived with the reputation as a gun shooter. Clearly, he still can be but he just hasn’t found his rhythm or confidence in the NBL. However, he could end the season on a high note by knocking down some big shots and easing the scoring pressure on Franks, Patterson, Drmic and Cadee.

Who’s statting up?

 - The Bullets are the only team not to have beaten the Taipans this season, with Cairns winning all three meetings so far. It's the first time the Snakes have ever beaten the Bullets in their first three clashes in a season
 
 - The Taipans average more points against the Bullets than any other opponent this season, putting up 91 points a game while shooting 46.3 per cent from the field. They are also averaging 11.7 three-point makes in those three games and shooting 43.8 per cent from beyond the arc

 - That is despite Cairns being the worst three-point shooting team in the league, going at just 30.4 per cent for the season. They have gone even worse at home at 27.4 per cent which is the worst by any home side in the 40-minute NBL era

Who’s matching up?

Tahjere McCall v Lamar Patterson – In many ways they are the two barometers of their teams and whether they actually spend much time matching up remains to be seen, but there's no question whoever comes away with the win on Saturday night in Far North Queensland will have a lot to do without what sort of an impact one of these men can have. They are as similar as they are different in a lot of ways. Their games and physical make up are polar opposite, but at the same time they are scoring threats and also tremendously creative with the ball in their hands and are key to helping to get their teammates involved. Tahj is putting up 14.9 points, 5.6 rebounds 5.3 assists and 1.9 steals a game, and Lamar 16.1 points, 4.4 boards, 4.1 assists and 1.0 steals. They are shooting remarkably similarly too with Patterson going at 42.9 per cent from the field and 25.9 from three, and McCall 38.8 per cent from the floor and 24.7 from downtown.

Who’s talking the talk?

Taipans coach Adam Forde was a frustrated man following Thursday night's loss at the hands of the Sydney Kings in front of the Orange Army. 

One game remaining in the season means there's not a lot of time to fix many of the issues, but ending things on a positive note in front of the home fans is something he feels the Taipans at least owe them.

"There's some common themes that we need to address and work on, and we have one game left. There is trends and things that we need to fix for the last game of the season," Forde said.

"We owe it to the crowd and I feel like we're not delivering. No one left, this is a remarkable fan base. This is my third club and depending on what city you're in, the support and criticism is always different depending on the history of the club and the momentum that the team's on. 

"We're not delivering the product that the fan base deserve. I make a commitment that this is going to be one of the hardest working off-seasons that I know myself and the staff are going to conduct. We're not taking days off, there's no holidays, no Mad Monday. None of this. 

"We need to repay the faith of this crowd because they are supportive right to the very end. There's even people coming up to shake my hand and tell me good job, I just ask if they watched the same game I did, it's unbelievable how supportive the people here. 

"You just want to reward the support everybody gives us here and we're definitely not doing that. We're not doing that as a collective, we're not doing that individually, and I want to reward them with an end of season game. But we have to reward them with something sustainable and long-term, that's what we owe them."

It might be the last game of the season as well for the Bullets, but captain Jason Cadee isn't short on motivation to want to finish on a high and he hopes the rest of his team feels the same way.

"We'd like a win, we haven’t beaten Cairns this year so they are our bogey team but as a collective, I'm here next year and right now it's only me and Tyrell signed," Cadee said.

"There's an element of a whole heap of different things but I've always been a big believer than even if you are leaving or whatever, you want to leave on the right note. 

"You never know what could happen next season and what's around so as a group we really get along off the court so I just want to see everyone out there having fun and playing basketball. 

"A win to finish the season would be the ultimate goal but you just want to see everyone playing hard and putting their best foot forward because at the end of the day this is people's livelihood. 

"One game whether it means something or not in a standings points of view, it means a lot to people who are off contract and it means a lot to me as I'm trying to get the Bullets back to a place where we think we can push and compete for titles. 

"This year hasn’t worked out that way and as a collective now it's about finishing off on the right note and how do we get better. We have to work out how we can be a Melbourne or Sydney on top of the ladder next year and being in that spot where we are getting ready to play finals."