Bullets keep season alive with road win in Cairns

After months on the road the weary Brisbane Bullets will finally return home with a 96-87 win against the Cairns Taipans under their belt and their season alive.

It was an eventful week for the Bullets, with their coach Andrej Lemanis announcing he will move on after this season, former teammate Will Magnay defecting to the Perth Wildcats and new import BJ Johnson coming out of quarantine to take his place in the roster.

That all came after eight straight games on the road, this match against Cairns making that nine. Put simply for Brisbane, this was a match they had to win. 

With games against South East Melbourne Phoenix, the Kings, Perth (twice) and Melbourne United to come, a win in Cairns was essential to keep their finals hopes alive. 

As fatigue set in, the Bullets almost threw it away as the Taipans cut an 18-point deficit to just five. But time was their enemy and the scoreline blew out again late as Cairns was forced to chance its arm.

Jason Cadee was the perfect general for Brisbane, turning in his best game since the NBL cup with points including triples. Nathan Sobey's push for a spot in the Boomers squad for Tokyo continued with 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists in a complete performance. 

Anthony Drmic (14 points) and Lamar Patterson (12 points including the match-sealing triple) were strong contributors, but Johnson had a nightmare debut going 0/8 from the field. 

Lemanis was proud of the way his players took on the challenge and said they were preparing for a "war" down the stretch.

"To make playoffs this year, it is in our hands. There are no excuses, and we have to come and play the appropriate style of basketball," he said.

"The pleasing thing was we went back to who we are, and we were making the efforts to do the hard things - defensively we were on point.

"This is going to be a war, as it always is, down the stretch. It is going to be physical, everybody is going to be desperate and it is going to be fun."

Cadee said the players were determined to rally around Lemanis and send him out a winner.

"We are losing a big piece of the puzzle," he said.

"A lot of us came here to play for Drej ... we are still going to have fun while he is coach. We will play to the last game, and hopefully that is after a win in the finals, to send Andrej out the way he deserves."

Crowd favourite Nathan Jawai was the engineer of the late surge from the Taipans and finished with 20 points, although he couldn't pull down a board. 

Majok Deng had an encouraging performance in his second game back from injury with 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists while Mojave King (13 points, seven rebounds) and Venky Jois (12 points, four rebounds) rounded out the scoring for the Snakes.

Cairns coach Mike Kelly admitted it was difficult for the players to rise to the occasion, and surrendering 57 points in the first half was always going to be hard to come back from. 

"It is up to the players to fight for each other and have some pride," he said.

"For me, it is trusting that they can come out and play hard every day ... it is a decision for this group to keep fighting."

While finals are lost to the Taipans, Jawai said he was determined to keep competing with the veteran aiming to continue playing on in the 2021/22 season.

"I just continued to play and not worry about (being in foul trouble). I wanted to be aggressive and strong," he said.

"I have been fortunate to play every game this season, the body is feeling well and there are no niggling injuries. 

"Coach managed me back at the start of the season, and now we are at the back end. We are not where we want to be, but I feel fine and still feel like I could go around another couple of years hopefully."

The Bullets needed to signal their intent early and that is precisely what Sobey did, notching up eight points in the opening two minutes to put the Taipans on notice.

Cairns can be known to live and die by the three ball, and King and Krslovic drained triples to quickly erase the deficit. Sobey was not impressed, splashing an immediate reply for 11 points in little more than four minutes.

A rare air ball from Sobey opened the door for Cairns and Jawai earned three points the hard way to level the scores. Jason Cadee was a spark plug off the bench and Tyrell Harrison helped keep the scoreboard ticking over as the Bullets took a 30-25 lead into the first break.

The Bullets big men were rattling up the blocks and it wasn't long before the weight of turnovers meant the Taipans fell into a 10-point hole. Compounding matters, Jawai collected his third foul which left his side light on tall timber.

Deng injected himself and showed real passion when he splashed a triple to cut the margin to just five, Lemanis calling a time out as a result. King then joined the party with a long bomb of his own and suddenly Cairns was back in the contest. 

Once again it was Sobey that ruined the Snakes' plans with another late triple, Cadee turning a headache into a migraine as the Bullets streaked ahead to take a 57-45 advantage into half-time. 

The points were becoming an avalanche and Cairns needed to tighten their discipline to claw their way back. They didn't, as errors became all-too common and by the time three-quarter time rolled around the Bullets had charged to a 78-66.

Mirko Djeric did give the loyal Cairns supporters something to cheer about with a buzz-beating triple from beyond halfway. 

This is where the road-weary Bullets mettle was going to be tested and right on cue, the shots stopped dropping. A King triple had the Bullets nervous as an 18-point lead evaporated to just seven. 

Out of the ensuing timeout the rot didn't stop and Jawai kept dominating in the block until the Bullets got a vital call with Patterson colliding heavily with Deng. Offensive rebounds were hurting the Taipans but they remained in the hunt in the dying minutes.

That was until a Patterson triple hit them like a dagger to the heart, pushing the lead out to 10 with just 2:30 minutes to play. If that was a dagger, Cadee's ensuing triple was a grenade. Good night Snakes.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 17

CAIRNS TAIPANS 87 (Jawai 20, Deng 18, King 13)

BRISBANE BULLETS 96 (Sobey 25, Cadee 21, Drmic 14) 

BOX SCORE