Snake Eyes – Taipans at 36ers

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans return to action this Tuesday night in Adelaide against a 36ers team playing for their playoff life, but the Snakes have enjoyed life against the Sixers of late and will look to continue that.

The Taipans will be playing their first game since taking on the South East Melbourne Phoenix at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena last Sunday, and while a playoff spot of their own isn’t quite in the making, they can certainly upset the hopes of others now over the last 10 games of #NBL21.

The run of the final 10 matches of the season for the Snakes begins on Tuesday night against the 36ers at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre in what is the only trip to the City of Churches for the Taipans in #NBL21.

But with the Snakes having won five of the last six clashes with the 36ers, including one as recently as three weeks ago back at the pop-up, they deserve to head to Adelaide with confidence and especially having had a good week of preparation and freshen up for the trip.

Here are five things to look out for:

1. WELCOME WEEK OF PREPARATION FOR TAIPANS
With so many changes to the playing group and style the Taipans have to play in recent times, this nine-day break between games couldn’t have come at a better time leading into the Adelaide clash

The Cairns Taipans were on quite the rollercoaster ride in terms of players coming and going, injuries occurring and getting better, and even with schedule changes, so it was an ideal time to regroup after last Sunday.

There's no hiding from the fact that Scott Machado and Cam Oliver are centre pieces of this Taipans team built for both #NBL21 and with an eye to next season, so with Machado missing some time with a knee complaint and now with Oliver having returned home to the United States for family reasons, it's thrown quite the spanner into the works.

Now Machado has returned to the line-up but the positive of him missing some time has been the emergence of Tad Dufelmeier while building a new playing style without the presence of Oliver continues to be a work in progress.

It was done on the go during the last stretch of matches while saw the Taipans beat the Adelaide 36ers at home and the New Zealand Breakers in Tasmania in between losing on the road to the Illawarra Hawks and Sydney Kings, and then last up back a Sunday ago to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

But now having a full week to freshen up, to train and to work on the style they want to play with for the rest of the season came at a perfect time for the Taipans from last Sunday leading into this Tuesday's clash in Adelaide with the 36ers.

"It's always about recovery and preparation so it has been good to have had a full week of Venky with the group. He'd only been able to have two full training sessions with us amidst playing those first three games so it's great to have with us for a full week," coach Mike Kelly said.

"It's all about getting our new alignment sorted with Cam gone so we were glad to have a full week to work on that along with getting the bodies right and all that stuff that we need to do so we can compete."

2. SNAKES STILL HUNTING THAT 40 MINUTES
Taipans coach Mike Kelly never questions that his team can always fight back and be competitive from any situation, but he is still searching for that elusive full 40 minutes of full effort

Taipans coach Mike Kelly has never questioned the commitment of his team this season, but their inability to string their best efforts and energy together for a full 40 minutes during games has been an on-going concern.

That was again the case last Sunday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix where they battled hard over the final three quarters but could never quite make up a big deficit early.

Kelly is glad that his team shows that fighting ability to comeback from slow starts, but is still craving seeing their best for a full 40 minutes.

"I always applaud effort and I thought our effort was poor early and we did miss some shots. Then the energy picked up and the aggression picked up, and I love it when the guys are there like that. I just want to be able to see that for a full 40 minutes," Kelly said.

"We need to find that energy early and keep it going for 40 minutes. We have been on the road but so have a lot of teams, and now we have had two games in the last couple of weeks where we've had a huge deficit early before bringing it back to a manageable score to be playing to win the game. 

"If we don’t let teams jump out early we'll have a chance to win games and that's where we want to be so that's something we have to look at. We just have to find out what group brings that energy early and bring that for the whole four quarters."

3. POINT GUARD BATTLE TO MARVEL AT
If you need an extra reason to tune in on Tuesday night for the game in Adelaide, then the point guard battle between Scott Machado and Josh Giddey should be more than enough

It's hard to argue that Scott Machado hasn’t been the NBL's best point guard since arriving at the Cairns Taipans and with Josh Giddey a likely NBA lottery pick, it's a fascinating match up to look out for on Tuesday night.

Machado had a brilliant first season in the NBL at the Taipans helping to lead them within one game of a Grand Final appearance while setting a 40-minute season record in assists and finishing runner-up in MVP voting and named to the All-NBL First Team.

He's backed it up with another strong season for the Taipans even if it hasn’t quite been as successful as a team. But he is still putting a more than handy 16.4 points, 7.1 assists and 3.6 rebounds a game.

Meanwhile, Giddey was signed to the 36ers this season as part of the NBL's Next Star program with the hope he might be a first round pick at the 2021 NBA Draft. 

Well he has surpassed those expectations with his performances and is now seen by many to be a lottery pick, and likely even in the top 10 in the draft that's now only months away.

Giddey has made history over the past two games for Adelaide by becoming the first Australian player to ever record back-to-back triple-doubles in NBL history, and he's done that as an 18-year-old.

It all sets the stage for a fascinating battle between the master Machado and apprentice Giddey at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Currently Giddey leads the NBL in assists at 7.7 a game to have overtaken Machado who is dishing out 7.1 a game still. 

Giddey is on fire in recent times averaging 10.5 assists over the last six games and having had at least eight assists in each of the last 12 matches. 

Meanwhile, Machado started the season going at 9.6 assists over the first nine matches but just 5.5 over the previous 15 games.

4. FULL OF ENERGY VENKY ENJOYING CAIRNS STINT
Finding a replacement player of quality on such short notice is never an easy thing, but Venky Jois has made an impact in his first two games for the Taipans and couldn’t be happier to have signed on

Losing Cam Oliver for the rest of the season was hardly in the plans for the Cairns Taipans, but family always has to come first and nobody would ever stand in any player at the club going where they are needed the most.

But finding a quality and available replacement this late into the season, and particularly in this COVID-19 affected world is anything but easy, but the Taipans look to have done the best possible in the situation with the addition of Venky Jois.

Already in his first two appearances with the Snakes he has impressed including a game-saving block against the New Zealand Breakers, and then putting up 12 points and eight rebounds in an expanded role last Sunday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

All that was done with only a couple of chances for Jois to actually hit the training floor with the Taipans having come out of two weeks of hotel quarantine and then arriving in Cairns.

But he is looking forward to these last 10 games of the season with his new club and even though Tuesday night is a road game, he's playing with the knowledge of the Orange Army being behind the team after his first home game in front of them last Sunday.

"It's always fun being on the floor so it's nice to be back home and being able to compete. I love playing here in Cairns and the fans bring a great atmosphere," Jois said.

"It allows you to just forget about where we are and it just seems like they give us very passionate support, and I was fired up and I think the guys were fired up. You can't ask for anything more than that from your fans."

5. SIXERS NEED TO WIN
How it ends up impacting the game only time will tell, but if the Adelaide 36ers want to stay in the playoff race for #NBL21 this is a game they can't afford to drop

Coming into Tuesday's game, Adelaide is coming off a season-preserving win on Saturday night at home over the Brisbane Bullets while the Taipans haven't played since a loss at home last Sunday night to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The 36ers are back at home and they have been in dominant form in their recent appearances at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre beating the Illawarra Hawks by 12 points, Perth Wildcats by 15 points and Bullets by 22 points.

Tuesday night is just the third last home game the Sixers will have for the rest of the season so they can't afford to let the slip if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. Right now the 36ers are looking on at the top four from the outside with an 11-16 record and with nine matches to go to be behind the Kings (14-13), Phoenix (14-13), Hawks (13-14) and Bullets (11-14).

But right now it's an impressive running 36ers outfit. With Daniel Johnson, Isaac Humphries and Keanu Pinder up front, Josh Giddey coming off back-to-back triple-doubles as point guard, and then with Sunday Dech, Brandon Paul, Jack McVeigh and Tony Crocker, they have plenty of weapons.

Sixers coach Conner Henry knows that if his team wants to stay in the playoff hunt they can't afford to drop too many, if any games in the run home, so no way are they taking Tuesday's clash with Cairns for granted.

"It's a one game series for us every game now. We know that from injuries and fatigue and the bubble, and not playing at a high level offensively and import changes, that's our season," Henry said. 

"But I've always believed in the group and we've put a good game plan together the last four or five games, and we've won some games and we've had a couple of setbacks. 

"We'll continue to fight and get prepared for Cairns on Tuesday. I know they are sitting for a week and they'll be rested and will come in, but if we do the little things and execute, and play for each other we are pretty good when we do that."