Game Preview: Taipans v Wildcats

Returning home after a road double-header, the Taipans will be growing in confidence with players returning from injury who are quickly reacclimatising to the court. With Pedro Bradshaw walking into the Convention Centre for his first home game in nearly two months – a week after posting a double-double in Melbourne – Cairns will be missing Sam Waardenburg (hand), AK Gak (knee) and Dillon Stith (knee) when they face the fourth-placed Wildcats.

Where and When

Saturday, 14 December at the Cairns Convention Centre (7:00pm AEST)

How to Follow

Watch: Live on ESPN

Live Updates: Taipans X

Stats: Box Score

What’s Already Happened

Their Last Battle: Cairns Taipans (87) v Perth Wildcats (90) in Round 4

Last facing each other over two months ago, the Wildcats were able to hold on for a late win against Cairns who were starting to face their injury battles. In their first game without Taran Armstrong, and their second without Tanner Groves, the Taipans were able to keep the margin to single digits before launching a late charge only to fall short by three points.

Fast forward two months and Cairns have their starting unit back to full strength – all of whom are coming off strong weekends on the road – and are only missing athletic forward AK Gak.

Closing out their second road double-header of the season in Melbourne, the Taipans launched a late comeback against the Phoenix where every starter put up more than 10 points, with Pedro Bradshaw also pulling down 10 rebounds on his way to a double-double.

Galloway throws it down AGAIN! 🥵

📲 @cairnstaipans | 📺 @espn pic.twitter.com/j5z8M2zW80

— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) December 7, 2024

Despite only trailing Melbourne United across the league for cleaning up rebounds, Cairns will need to maintain their focus on the boards when Perth land in the tropics. With their visitors ranking second for their ability to retrieve their own misses, the Taipans will need to avoid a repeat of their game against Tasmania when they allowed Will Magnay to pull down nine offensive rebounds. 

As the center generated 13 second chance points by himself – more than the nine point margin that the game ended with – Cairns will need to crash the glass as hard as they did against the Kings in Round 10, a night they ended with a 55-41 rebound count.

With the league seeing a dramatic increase in scoring across recent weeks – where a team has passed the 100 points mark seven times per week since the FIBA break, before which the season average was 2.2 teams per week – Bryce Cotton has stepped up to match it. 

Averaging 49.3 points across that period, the guard has pushed Perth forward in their quest to return to the Grand Final for the first time since 2021. Failing to shoot less than 64% in a game across December to jump from averaging 19.5ppg to 26.4ppg in only three games, the Wildcats have only lost one of those fixtures – winning the rest by double digits.

Shutting down the American will be high priority for the Taipans, with Jonah Antonio given the assignment only weeks after shutting down another MVP candidate – Parker Jackson-Cartwright.

Despite only finishing his own night with nine points, the shooting guard restricted the Breaker to 11 points and five assists – his quietest scoring night since joining the league – with Antonio not fouling Jackson-Cartwright once, a job he will need to repeat with Cotton given that the guard has shot the most free throws across the league.

Player to Watch

After having a quiet few games, one of the league’s top scorers has fired back up to put up 24 points in John Cain Arena last week and nearly lead the Taipans to a win against the Phoenix. Now back on his home court, Rob Edwards will need to maintain his hot streak as the league’s leading scorer travels into Cairns.

TOUGH finish through the traffic 😤

Bucket and the foul for Rob!

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

— Cairns Taipans (@CairnsTaipans) December 7, 2024

When the Wildcat last visited Far North Queensland the two led a shooting exhibition, with the two shooting guards combining for 59 points on the night – and the scene is set for a repeat. Failing to score under 40 points since the start of December, Cotton has followed the league’s dramatic increase in scoring, with Edwards needing to keep up with the American’s output when he takes to the court.

What’s Been Said

Taipans Head Coach Adam Forde:

"I don't remember the last time that someone was averaging 50 points when returning from injury. We'll come out with a game plan to try and counter it – Bryce Cotton is a hell of a player and it's going to be a great challenge for the guys to step up to.

"Jonah will 100% get that job. Jonah has been our best on-ball defender, and it's important that we want to keep going with what he's been capable of doing defensively, so this is going to be a great matchup for him.

"Knowing that we don't want to start playing when we're behind, that once we get our nose in front – how can we continue with that momentum and keep it there? We'll have a game plan for Perth, but the reality is that we're still trying to navigate these fourth quarters and what dynamics work best on the court."

Taipans forward Pedro Bradshaw:

"My body and ankles have been feeling good for the last three and a half weeks and I've just been ramping up in that time, so it's really good to be back out there.

"Scoring is one of the primary things – especially on this team – that's asked of me, and also just being able to defend the best players on the other team and slow them down. But the scoring is definitely key, especially for being successful here and then going back home to the States and doing what I want to do there, so this is a really good building block for me.

"We have a really good team, and the staff are amazing – they do a really good job, game-in and game-out, preparing us for whoever we're playing. So then it's just on us at the end of the day to execute, and we will. Obviously 3-11 is tough, but it's got to switch at some point, and it will."

The Lineups

Taipans

PG – Taran Armstrong / Jackson Makoi / Kyle Adnam

SG – Rob Edwards / Jonah Antonio

SF – Pedro Bradshaw / Alex Higgins-Titsha

PF – Kyrin Galloway / Kody Stattmann

C – Tanner Groves

Wildcats

PG – Tai Webster / Elijah Pepper

SG – Bryce Cotton / Ben Henshall / Michael Harris

SF – Dylan Windler / Hyrum Harris

PF – David Okwera / Todd Withers / Jesse Wagstaff

C – Keanu Pinder / Izan Almansa

Ins and Outs 

Taipans

Ins – Alex Higgins-Titsha, Kody Stattmann

Outs – Sam Waardenburg (hand), AK Gak (knee), Dillon Stith (knee)

Wildcats

Ins – Keanu Pinder, Todd Withers

Outs – Kristian Doolittle (groin)