Game Preview: Taipans v Bullets

As the Taipans arrive in Brisbane for their third of four Queensland derbies for the season, they’ll face a side missing six players from the contest, while Cairns have returned to full health and missing only one player. 

Where and When

Friday, January 17 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre (6:30pm AEST)

How to Follow

Watch: Live on ESPN

Live Updates: Taipans X

Stats: Box Score

What’s Already Happened

Their Last Battle: Cairns Taipans (104) v Brisbane Bullets (107) in Round 13

With playoff basketball ruled out for the Taipans, the team now have the licence to play without fear.

Sharing the ball around efficiently against the Phoenix, Cairns racked up 26 assists on the night – 11 more than their Victorian counterparts – with Armstrong and Waardenburg combining for 11 dimes between them.

Some Kyle magic finds the gap 🪄

And Tanner takes full advantage 😮‍💨@cairnstaipans | 📷 @espn pic.twitter.com/BQ7hlB7vLQ

— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) January 14, 2025

Despite racking up a number of injuries, the Bullets stuck with the Wildcats in their first Round 16 fixture across the opening quarter to close the first quarter equal with Perth.

Putting up 10 points in the opening five minutes of the clash, Josh Bannan also dished out dimes early with only one bucket not being affected by the forward, however Brisbane was not able to match their visitors output as the game continued.

Orchestrating a 15-38 second quarter onslaught, Perth quickly grabbed hold of the contest, with Brisbane’s nine-man deep lineup unable to find a way to fight back, with every Bullet except for development player Josh Kunen seeing double digit court time.

Led by Casey Prather and Bannan – each pulling down 11 boards – Brisbane were able to outrebound the Wildcats, however 20 turnover across the night allowed Perth to generate 18 extra chances, with Prather coughing up the ball eight times himself.

With Brisbane’s lineup heavily depleted, the scripts have been flipped from the last time that the two Queensland sides fought.

Missing the forward trio of Sam Waardenburg, AK Gak and Dillon Stith, the Taipans lacked crucial size to allow 16 offensive rebounds across the night, leading to an extra 16 chances for Brisbane on their home court.

Despite having an efficient shooting night, with Taran Armstrong shooting at 71% and Tanner Groves at 80%, the damage was done on the boards, with Cairns able to bring the margin to three points at the final buzzer.

Player to Watch

Putting up his equal-highest scoring performance since his debut season, Sam Waardenburg got to work against the Phoenix on Tuesday night with 22 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block. Notching up a series of double-doubles across the season, the forward has put up his best numbers since entering the league, the New Zealander ranks sixth for points scored by a forward, third for made triples by a forward, and fourth for defensive rebounds by a forward.

Facing Waardenburg will be the white-hot Casey Prather, who despite opening his season poorly with the American struggling to reach double digits, the forward has since gone on an explosive run – averaging over 26 points per game since the beginning of December and is on a three-game double-double run.

Waardenburg is on fire tonight 🥵

Sam is up to 19 points after the and-one!

📲 @cairnstaipans | 📺 @espn pic.twitter.com/h90axWQl52

— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) January 14, 2025

What's Been Said

Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde:

"Brisbane are two examples where we felt like we had opportunities to close those games out – we were up 12 against them at home and lost, and then obviously the close one we had at their place – so we’ll review this and have a quick turnaround.

"I know that they’re battling some injury concerns at the moment – I don’t even know what the latest status is with their lineup – but I know that they’ll be ready to play.

"Right now it’s about trying to get a least a little bit of momentum, and I give credit to the guys because they feel it, regardless of if we’re on this 15-game slide, or now trying to find ways to win at home. That’s the level of care amongst the group, and so with everybody being part of it, that’s important because we’re on this journey together."

Bullets forward Josh Bannan:

"There’s definitely a sense of frustration – I think we came out with some good intent, and I think there was a patch where we started trying to save ourselves knowing how many bodies we have and trying to prevent fatigue as the game goes on.

"To me that’s hard to look at yourself after the game in the mirror – I prefer to go hard to the wall until I can’t no more, then run out of legs and live with the fact that we just didn’t have enough.

"I think we were guilty of not giving it our all early, which put us in a hole. With six games to go, our intent needs to be to win every single game so there’s no shadow of a doubt that we’re in – but we need to change our effort levels and they need to be better than what they were tonight."

The Lineups

Taipans

PG – Taran Armstrong / Kyle Adnam

SG – Rob Edwards / Jonah Antonio

SF – Pedro Bradshaw / Kyrin Galloway / Alex Higgins-Titsha

PF – Sam Waardenburg / AK Gak

C – Tanner Groves / Dillon Stith

Bullets

PG – Mitch Norton / Emmett Naar / Tristan Devers

SG – Josh Adams / Isaac White / Kye Savage

SF – Keandre Cook

PF – Casey Prather / Josh Kunen

C – Josh Bannan / Tohi Smith-Milner

Ins and Outs 

Taipans

Ins – Alex Higgins-Titsha

Bullets

Ins – Emmett Naar, Kye Savage, Luke Rosendale

Outs – Tyrell Harrison (concussion), Rocco Zikarsky, Jarred Bairstow (ankle), James Batemon (hamstring), Sam McDaniel (shoulder)