Cairns' NBL24 curtain call?

Does last night’s defeat spell curtains for the Cairns Taipans’ NBL24 season?

Following their Round 18 loss to Tasmania, the Taipans sit eighth in the standings having played more games than any other team in the competition, and although it’s still mathematically possible for Cairns to finish in the top six, they have the hardest run home – on paper – of any team in the competition.

The best record the Taipans can finish the regular season with is 13-15, and that would involve defeating Perth at RAC Arena and Melbourne at the Cairns Convention Centre to close out their season.

“It was a really important game for both those teams. Tassie trying to make sure they lock in home-court advantage for the [Seeding Qualifier] game, and this was a really crucial game in that process,” Liam Santamaria said on NBL Now.

“Cairns is hanging on for dear life really. It was a big, big loss for the Taipans, they really needed that with the poor percentage hitting that point of 15 losses is a huge problem.

“If they win out – if they beat Perth and Melbourne – they’re going to end up 13-15, and I expect if you’re going to be 13-15 with a poor percentage you’re probably going to miss, and that’s even with them beating both Perth and Melbourne the rest of the way.

“The most likely scenario is they lose one or both of those games. If you combine that with their poor percentage I think that’s that.”

Tahjere McCall and Patrick Miller both once again starred for Cairns in last night’s loss.

Miller dropped a game-high 31 points with seven rebounds, while McCall came off the bench to add 20 points of his own.

Outside of the import pair though, it was tough going offensively for Cairns. No other Taipan scored in double-digits for the game and the team hit just 5-22 threes between them.

Santamaria believes Cairns’ offence has become overly focused around the import pair as NBL24 has progressed.

“We really enjoyed that Taipans run last season, they really pushed Sydney in that (Playoff) series, and they just haven’t been able to find that same kind of consistency this season,” he said.

“I think over the course of the year as a result of all that they’ve relied, I think, too heavily on Tahjere McCall and Pat Miller. The process of that team has centralized around those two guys a little too much.

“They did everything they could last night to hang tight, but it wasn’t enough.”

Cairns’ season will continue in Round 19 against the Perth Wildcats, while Round 18 continues tonight when the 36ers and Kings clash at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo.