Snake Eyes – Taipans v Phoenix

The CQUniversity Cairns Taipans might be without three of their most important players, but things are coming together for the committed playing group remaining as they look to bring that winning form home on ANZAC Day.

Missing three starters and three of their most important players in Cam Oliver, Kouat Noi and Majok Deng gives the Snakes a built in excuse, but there's nobody involved at the club interested in excuses and that has been clearly evident in the recent run of form.

The Taipans have now won two of their previous three matches, and can make it two in-a-row and three in the last four with a winning performance against the South East Melbourne Phoenix on Sunday evening at the Cairns Pop-Up Arena.

It's a rare ANZAC Day game in history as well for the Taipans and it should mark a tremendous occasion to host the game against the Phoenix.

It shapes as a fascinating contest too with the Snakes looking to make it consecutive wins while the Phoenix arrive in Cairns desperate to avoid a fourth consecutive loss to maintain their hold on fourth position on the NBL table.

Add in the fact that Phoenix veteran Adam Gibson will be celebrating his 450th NBL game on the occasion and there's plenty to look out for. Here are five things:

1. KEEP THE WINNING FORM GOING
There's something to say for a playing group that pulls together in adversity and the Cairns Taipans are doing that well right now, and will look to continue it on ANZAC Day

Cairns is coming into Sunday's clash at home on the back of a morale-boosting win in Tasmania on Friday over the New Zealand Breakers. 

Despite the departure during the week of Cam Oliver and with regular starters Kouat Noi and Majok Deng still sidelined through injury, the Snakes showed great heart to tough out the 70-68 win.

That came in the end with a game winning triple from Tad Dufelmeier and a match-saving block from new arrival Venky Jois. Nate Jawai was also a dominant presence in his 150th appearance for the Taipans with 21 points and eight rebounds. 

That has the Snakes entering Sunday's game at home on a 7-18 record having now won two of their past three matches, and looking for consecutive wins for just the second time this season.

A whole lot has happened since the Taipans and Phoenix last met at the NBL Cup in Melbourne.

The Taipans have played nine matches since and having put together a 3-6 record during that stretch, but from that last meeting with South East Melbourne back on Friday March 12, they will be without Cam Oliver and Kouat Noi.

The Phoenix have played 10 matches since that last up win over Cairns and have gone 5-5 in that time. But compared to that line-up they had last against the Taipans, they won't have Ryan Broekhoff and Kendall Stephens this Sunday but will have 450-game milestone man Adam Gibson who was missing at that time.

South East Melbourne enters Sunday's clash desperate for a win too. The Phoenix were looking to put pressure on for a top two spot only a couple of weeks ago, but they have now lost their past three matches to only be clinging to fourth position on the table at 13-12.

The Phoenix will still be missing Keifer Sykes, Ryan Broekhoff, Dane Pineau and Kendall Stephens on Sunday, but if winning for the importance of their season isn’t enough motivation, it will also be the 450th NBL game of dual championship winner Adam Gibson.

2. FRESH FACES STEPPING UP
Tad Dufelmeier has been patiently working hard to get the opportunity he's now grasping and new arrival Venky Jois also wants to continue to show he belongs in the NBL

Reigning NBL Coach of the Year Mike Kelly has had plenty to deal with this season at the Taipans and will now continue to be without Cam Oliver, Majok Deng and Kouat Noi, but he was especially happy with what Tad Dufelmeier and Venky Jois provided against New Zealand on Friday.

"I wouldn’t call them fringe players, I think that Tad has been working to get to this point firstly to be in an NBL game and then playing meaningful NBL minutes," Kelly said.

"So he has been really good for us through training for a long time so we've seen what he can do. He has just been waiting for the opportunity and he's taken it with both hands.

"The same with Venky who came in to do a job, and he brought great energy and really got us going." 

As for Dufelmeier, he is in his second year as a development player with the Taipans and has been working hard for the opportunities he's received over the past month as he continues to show he is an NBL calibre player.

To then hit the game-winning shot on Friday night and make some big defensive plays, he's living the dream right now.

"I'm feeling pretty good after that. Once again you live for those moments of coming down the stretch and making the big stops and hitting the big shots," Dufelmeier said. 

"You think about those things all the time and that's what I prepare for to help us come out with the win, and I'm just happy that we got it."

3. BIG MAN LOVES THE BIG ROLE
He is now a 150-game player with the Cairns Taipans and based on what he delivered on Friday night, Nate Jawai is going to thrive the bigger role he's asked to play the rest of #NBL21

Based on what he showed on Friday night in the win for the Cairns Taipans over the New Zealand Breakers in Tasmania, the Snakes might be able to ride Nate Jawai's unique presence down the stretch of this season. 

In a league that's getting increasingly smaller and relying less and less on inside presences, he can give Cairns something that no other team has and that most aren’t equipped to stop. 

If he's able to play somewhere around the 30 minutes that he did on Friday the rest of the season, he is going to be quite the headache for opposition teams given the way he is quite simply unstoppable the deeper he catches the ball. 

That means his opponents have a choice to double team him and force the ball out of his hands opening up chances for him to find the Taipans shooters, or they have to try their luck and hope he doesn’t put them away with bucket after bucket. 

How he pulls up after 21 points and eight rebounds in over 30 minutes on Friday in the win over the Breakers is going to be fascinating, but coach Kelly couldn’t be happier for him.

"Nate was great. It was his 150th game with the Taipans and I'm really proud of him," Kelly said.

"He really stepped up and that would be highest minutes for the year, and he was really good. He then wanted to come back to finish the job and made a nice play there near the end, or was involved in all that. I'm really happy for Nate after that."

4. DETERMINED OPPONENT ARRIVES IN CAIRNS
The South East Melbourne Phoenix arrive in Cairns on a three-game losing streak and will be throwing everything into avoiding that make it four on Sunday evening

South East Melbourne will just be desperate to respond to Thursday's 20-point home loss to Sydney where they conceded 101 points, 29 foul shots, 17 offensive rebounds and 28 second chance points while shooting just 39 per cent from the field and earning 12 trips to the line themselves. 

It's a big game for the Phoenix in the context of maintaining a hold on a top four spot or dropping right back to the chasing pack.

Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell wasn’t interested in mincing words about what he thought of his team's performance in the loss on Thursday night at home to the Sydney Kings.

He knows it all starts in the physicality and effort areas, and that's where he'll be looking to for the big improvement on Sunday in Cairns which will include having Mitch Creek back into the starting line-up.

"We were happy to get his impact off the bench but we are going to have to find that somewhere else because we need to get some leads early," Mitchell said.

"We need to get momentum early in the game instead of starting off on the back foot. We need that strength of character out on the floor to start the game and that will happen now in the next game.

"That was an awful performance. It's really disappointing. Every team is going to face some difficulties during the course of the year and right now we're having ours, and we're not backing up on game day. 

"We have to snap out of it quickly and the first thing you have to assess yourself on is your physicality, and we got absolutely manhandled out there. We gave up way too many o-boards and 26 second chance points is just a disaster. 

"We'll start from there and defensively we have to be accountable one-on-one, our pick-and-roll defence was pretty poor and these are the things we'll start with. We'll worry about the offensive woes after that."

5. SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE FOR GRIZZLED VETERAN
Adam Gibson has spent plenty of time playing as an opposition player in Cairns and he'll never forget Sunday's game as he brings up his 450-match milestone in the NBL

Sunday's game is a special one for Phoenix guard Adam Gibson as he becomes the 29th player in NBL history to reach 450 games. 

It's been a remarkable journey that started with a championship at the Brisbane Bullets before he was forced to find a new home and that run continued after his time with the South Dragons and Gold Coast Blaze. 

He then forged a strong career as captain at the Adelaide 36ers before returning to the Bullets and now having spent the past two seasons with South East Melbourne. 

Already the most experienced current player in the NBL, he reaches 450 games on Sunday in Cairns against the Taipans, and he doesn’t see the finishing line in sight yet.

"I'm happy to be the most experienced player if I'm not the oldest, a few other guys come to mind including Daniel Kickert who comes to mind who is a lot older," Gibson said during an appearance on the podcast, Hoops Heaven's Basketball Hustle.

"If I can play as long as him or as to as old at him, I might try to get closer to 500 or that record. We'll see what happens. I haven’t thought too much about the milestone, there's too much going on to focus on to be honest. I didn’t even realise that I'd played the most games of anyone in the league already now. 

"I don’t really think about things like that too much, it will be something that once I've retired and am done at the end of my career I'll look back on. But as I get close to 450, I don’t feel as though I'm slowing down which is a good feeling and hopefully I can keep kicking along for a few more years yet.

"I definitely feel like I can keep playing right now but a lot can change even in a week. But for sure I want to definitely keep playing and my game isn’t reliant on speed or athleticism really. I've always been a bit smarter and known how to work my way through a game. 

"So as long as my body holds up I can't see why I can't play on and only being 34, there's obviously been older guys. Dave Andersen played to 37 or 38, then you still have Kicks and there are guys like this older and still playing so there's no reason why I can't as long as the body holds up. I'll play until they boot me out the door."